St. Landry democrat., 1889-03-30
Tile Drainage.

Tile Drainage.
"a r. Defer. in Sugar Bowl and Farm Journal
Can the blind lead the blind? Will they
NOT together fall into ditch2
would not write the following article,
If had not finally come to the conclusion,
that the benefits which are sure to follow
the adoption of the tile drainage in Louis
lana are SO large, that minor considera-
lions should have no weight, and the
sooner wrong impressions in regard to
some work that has been done are cor
rected. the sooner will the whole State
oct the benefit of this important improve
Inent.
In speaking to'the planters below the
city about thing, they will cite you to
MI. so-and- SOS place, where it is said to
have done but little good If you speak to
one above the city, it is the same thing,
there is another mans place where it is
said to be doing no good, and where there
is 50 much smoke, there must be some ire.
Because the work of the tile ditching
soils mans hands and clothing very badly,
many people jump to the conclusion that
it is work fit only for the most ignorant
and illiterate, and that anybody can do it.
Aside from the fact that no labor of any
kind is degrading, this idea In regard to
thing is more wrong than with any other
kind Of work, of which have any knowl-
edge.
Nearly all other work is in places,
where it can be seen, not only as soon as
it is done, but for years to come, in fact
as long as the article lasts, while in the
thing nobody really knows just how the
work was done, except the man who did
it. If man builds you house, you can
see at glance if it is the size specified or
only half the size.
If man lays four-inch tile, and
through ignorance, carelessness or greed,
sights the work, and gets the bottom of
his ditch uneven, and has low places in it
an inch or two deep, then you have only q
two inch ditch instead of four inch, and
if the Irregularities are little greater, in
year or two you may have no ditch at
all. While this latter case proves itself,
there is any amount of the former done,
and very often the workman himself does
not know Just how bad his work has been.
1t is indeed so much easier to get poor
bottom in ditch than good one, and re-
quires such close watching on the part of
the workman, that myself, after all the
experience that l have had, always prefer
to take the top spading, and let one of the
old hands work in the bottom. / have,
however, used spade more, the last six
weeks, than the previous eight years, al
though being occupied in ditching con-
tinually my time being taken up by level
ing, running the ditching machine, etc.
To be good man in the bottom of a tile
ditch, he must be somewhat of an en-
thusiast about his work, enough SO to take
some pride in it ; or he must be a conscien-
tious man. If he is both combined, SO
much the better.
Were the men who did the work on
those doubtful plantations of that kind 7
AS near as can learn, the managers of
those plantations superintendent the work
themselves, or thought they were, leaving
the work to be done by their regular field
hands.
In Illinois and Iowa, where thing has
been going on for years, and the farmers
about it, they never think of letting their
regular hands do the work, particularly
not on such fiat land as Louisiana, but they
hire some experienced man to do it.
On a job of the magnitude done on those
plantations, an experienced foreman would
have had considerable trouble to get the
work done right, with lot of green
hands. while the managers in question
T-obably had no trouble at all about 1t
Why, it was ttjust as easy as rolling off a
log" to lay q lot of tile anybody could do
that, but somehow they don't seem to OPP
crate right now.
One Of the managers whose place | am
continually referred to told me himself
that tile bitches in this country fill up
very easily with sediment, and for that
reason he should make his tile bitches as
short as possible and lay very large tile,
five or six inch diameter, but that he con-
sidered it . great thing, after all, and
would do more of it.
ALI the Louisiana soil in which have
worked is of nature which, according to
my Judgment, excludes the possibility of
tile filling up when properly laid, and as
for long bitches being more liable to ill, !
am now making four or Eve bitches at
Riverton, half mile long, with less than
an inch fall to the 100 feet. and use only
81 and inch tile, and am willing to
!, work year on such Cork as that and wait
for all my pay to the end of the year.
repeat what said above, that the
rumors referred to retard the introduction
of tile ditching in Louisiana, and If mis-
takes have been made, they should be
pointed out, so that others may be warned
in time, before they throw away lot of
money.
may say few words in future ar
ticle about mistakes of that kind which
have come under my observation in Iowa
and Illinois.