The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-04-21
THE FARM AND HOME.
THE PROPER LOCATION OF
TILE DRAINS.
eometimes Single Drain Is sufacIent
- Pear Orchard-Culture Of
Onions Farm Notes and
Home Hints.
Location OF Tile Drains.


lore the Lafayette county farmers
institute.
Z In dealing with drainage work in
different localities we often meet
cases which must be treated in a
special way, in order to do the work
which is desired and expected.
These special cases cannot M made
the criterion for any others, except
those which are exactly similar.
Since special conditions are apt to
occur on every farm or tract on which
drainage is attempted, the difficulty
OF making plans for successful drain
age without giving the land per-
sonal examination, is apparent to any
one who will think of it. NV expe-
rience in this respect has been such
that l very reluctantly give advice
upon the mere statement of a case,
yet it may be OF some practical use
to describe some of these cases, and
the plan of treating them which
has proved successful.
Artificial drainage is only method
OF helping on natural drainage. In
the general plan of procedure it is
assumed that the subsoil underlying
the entire tract or field is nearly uni
form in its drainage properties, or in
the facilities with, which soil water
will percolate or strain through it
towards existing natural depressions.
An exception to this state of things
is often found on hillsides and slopes
where the land appears to be dry at
both the foot and crest of the slope,
but it is very wet at some point be-
tween, Notwithstanding the fact that
the surface slopes sufficiently to pro-
duce good results.
This is owing to a sub-surface
ridge of impervious clay which ex-
tends along the slope, or to change
in the texture of the sub-soil, which
prevents the soil water from percol-
ating down the slope at uniform
distance from the surface, but is
forced up to the surface and produces
'spongy" land, as it is sometimes
called, or seap. In draining such
land, we may take advantage Of this
clay ridge under the surface and To-
cate drain along the slope. The
clay ridge prevents the water from
passing farther down the slope and is
drawn off by the drain as water is
drawn out of a reservoir. 1t will be
seen that this drain is merely con-
ductor of water which has been
brought into natural basin by the
percolation of natural drainage
water. it is like pond, except that
instead of collecting water from
all directions it collects from one side
only.
Sometimes a single drain will drain
the entire slope. In other cases it is
necessary to lay laterals from this
drain up the slope as far as the land
seems saturated.
The first would be the case where
the soil is porous, and drained readily;
the second, when the soil is close and
tenacious. There are some sloughs
or natural waterways which have a
sub-soil of stiff clay or gumbo which
prevents soil water from passing from
the side slopes to the center ditch
which carries all surface water that
may come to it, The result is, that
while the slough itself is firm land
and comparatively we'll drained, the
foot of each slope is completely sat-
urated and worthless for cultivation.
The plan that have found to be eff
ficient in such cases is to run mains
on each side of the center and when
necessary use laterals. Unless the
center ditch is too small to carry the
water from the upstream area, this
plan will when we'll carried out, give
both slough and side slopes good
drainage.
Again, there are some localities
where the wettest land is on the top
OF hill, while the surface which
slopes from it in all directions is
dry. Looking at the surface merely
this is hard to explain, but by sex-
aiming the sub-sOil. one of two con-
ditions will be found to exist. First,
the crest Of the hill will be found to
have a sub-ridge Of inpervious clay,
thus forming basin or pond on top
OF the hill, or second, there may be q
series of pockets existing each bor-
dered by a similar clay band. In
either case whatever water falls upon
this area is held there until the soil
is saturated and no means provided
for it's removal except by evapora-
ton. have found such places.
which were excessively wet, even in
mid summer.
They are very aggravating to the
farmer, to say nothing of the loss en-
tailed in operating the farm. To
drain such land successfully, each
pocket must be tapped by passing a
tile drain through it. To do this,
good plan is to extend a drain from
the most available watercourse up
the slope and across the lowest part
OF the hill fat, and from this as a
main run laterals SO as to penetrate
every subsoil pocket.
The location of lateral drains so
that they are parallel to one another
is not necessary feature of thorough
drainage, nor is it necessary that
they should be at uniform distance
apart In draining surface basin
the laterals may be run up the slope
like the arms of fam In this way
the higher and dryer parts of the
field will have drains at greater
distance apart than the lower and
more level portions. This is accord
ing to the principle we started out