Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1893-02-23
FARM DRAINAGE.
The Only Practical Method of Permanently
Improving Wet Lands.

The Only Practical Method of Permanently
Improving Wet Lands.
Where water after rains stands for
long time in the burrows and slight de-
pressions in the ground, and on lands
where the shoes of the farmer, except in
periods of drought, are habitually
clogged with sticky mud, and the hoofs
of animals as they sink into the yielding
soil make cavities that maintain their
shape for days, oftentimes holding wa
ter, the necessity for drainage of some
kind is too clearly indicated to admit of
any doubt. For changing such unfavor-
able conditions, wherever the lay of the
land will permit, open surface drainage
is often resorted to at first.
While such drains are useful in some
cases in the matter of permanent i'm
provement of the soil they amount to but
little and are liable to be the cause of
impoverishment in the soil itself by car
rying off fertilizing matter into the gull
lies and streams. Where the surplus
rain that falls upon the ground can be
led off from the surface in the same clear
state in which it descended from the
clouds, the soil receives no injury from
its escape, but it is only under occasional
peculiar conditions that this will occur.
This is SO well understood by most
cultivators that other methods have
come into use. One, formerly more COM
mon than at present, was to throw the
wet land into high and wide ridges in
the fall and leave it in that condition
until spring. When cultivation is about
to begin these ridges are further widened
and fattened out, affording series of
rather wide spaces, much better fitted
for cultivation, but with very undesira-
bic bitches between them, often holding
stagnant water throughout the entire
season. While such practice will not
draw fertility away from the soil, it con-
signs a considerable portion of it to nom
usage and is otherwise Objectionable in
many respects.
The only real and practicable method
of improving wet farm lands by which
their condition is permanently changed
for the better, says the agricultural edi-
tor of the New York World, is by the
use of underground drains, for which tile
is the most common and best material
Where these are placed at proper depths,
say from three to four feet, and at suit
able distances apart, varying greatly &C
cording to the compactness of the soil to
be drained, and with slight fall to-
ward their outlets, whatever elements
of fertility the surface water may con-
tain will be strained out within reach of
the roots of plants in it's descent toward
the drains. Furthermore, the upper line
of the ground water sinks below the
level Of the drains, and the benefit of this
form of drainage is realized by the soil
above them becoming favorably changed
in it's general character and earlier and
better fitted for crops
Protecting Silos Against Frost and Rats.
The general verdict, according to tes-
timony received at the Wisconsin agri-
cultural experiment station, is that
freezing, SO far as the silage is concerned,
is more an inconvenience than serious
loss. When the frozen silage is mixed
with the rest it quickly thaws, and is
apparently relished as we'll as if it had
not been frozen. It is advised, however,
that all types Of cemented silos be made
frost proof, to prevent the cement from
cleaving off, but with wood silos the
construction required to preserve the
silage and to protect the frame from
weather appears to be sufficient to pre-
vent any serious freezing during all
except protracted and extreme cold
weather.
The surest safeguard against rats, ac-
10 tl,o
pears to be covering the bottom of the
silo with layer Of small stones or grout
before the cement is applied. When the
cement is applied directly upon the
ground the action Of the acids soon sof-
tens it to such an extent as to permit the
rats to penetrate it without difficulty.
The rats usually enter by burrowing un-
der the foundation walls. Their de-
.tructive effects result from the admis-
sion of air to the silo.