The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-12-22
o,1cAlNe IN WINTER.
Work Which VIII Certainly Pay the Farm

Work Which viii Certainly Pay the Farm
er Whose Land Needs Draining.
Few farmers can get around with the
other work-the regular farm work.
such as husking, blowing, e, ting ont
manure, etc.-in time to do what ditch
ing they had planned to do before
treezing-up time. There is much bad
weather in late autumn, the days are
short. AID constantly getting shorter;
and there are innumerab'o little pIiter-
ing jobs to be done about the stables,
yards, gardens, orchards and cellars.
No matter how e mag n of time the
farmer has figured for himself, he sci.
dom finds much spare time for works Of
improvement about the farm before
freez ng-up time, unless he hires an in
creased amount of outside help.
Now q great deal of d tching can be
done in early winter. after the ground
has frozen and snow covers the ground
to such an extent that farmers have gen.
orally pied away the tools for the win
ter. ! have dug considerable ditch af-
ter heavy free1iDg-up and with good
coat of snow on the ground.
A little preparation before freezing
occurs is necessary; however ii the
work would be eXped oisly carried on.
In the first place the location OF the pro-
pose bitches should be determined up
on, and the ines stakcd out. Then
take pillow and throw out two or three
burrows, blowing as deep as the beam
VIII allow by repeatedly running the
pillow deeper down along the same fur
row. If tile Is to be la d, or almost any
underground drain, one good VIDE fur
row will give suiiic ent width. lffor an
open ditch W de at the top, il will be
necessary to throw burrows both ways,
and thus make an opening trench OF
three feet width o" such matter. This
saves an immense amount Of hand LAT or
in any case. no matter when the ditch
ing to be dond. and in preparing Tor
winter ditching it IS absolutely neccs-
sary in order to save the expense and
tedious labor Of cutting through the
frozen crust of top earth.
To keep the earth from freezing in the
bottom of this trench, fill it up with
strawy manure, and spread some along
on the surface each de of the trench.
Hauling the manure or straw for this
purpose, is not labor lost by any means
as d, from its use n the d tch. 1t can
be appl ed to the adjoining land along
the line Of the ditch as cheaply as it
could be p tched from the manure cart
or from piles, so that part of the opera
on should hardly be charged up to the
ditch. 1t will lie noticed that the bot
tom of trench of this kind dos not
freeze very readily without any prOtec-
ton. A foot depth Of straw manure IN
it will eflectually prevent any freezing
underneath, where the after digging is
to he carried on.
Two men and team will lay out half
winters work in this way IN very
short time. As the hand d gging pro-
crosses The filing is removed a few feet
at a time, throwing it well back, that it
may not he covered by the earth that is
to follow. BY uncovering Out few
feet of the trench at a ma the work
may be carried on i'm the coolest weather
without any loss of time in cutting
through frost
Where underdrains are being laid it
is good plan to keep the whole thing
well finished up TO where the q gging IS
going on. That is. lay the dram,
whether it be board or lc. well up TO
the d ggers, and fill in as fast as laid
and leveled.
Men can be had ALMOST for their
board in many sect ons of The country
dur ng the winter months. 1t VII GER
ia My pay the farmer whose land needs
draining to push the work at such a
time. The days may b. short. and
there may he lots Of chores to be done.
but few rods of ditch done each day
" Il coun on next years crop, and for
all succeeding cropa--W d. Boyn'9,s
in Ohio Farmer.