Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1899-12-07
Agricultural Notes.


How deep shall the tile drain'be laid
in clay soil? This Is question that
has been agitating farmers for some
years. At first it was believed that
drain in clay soil should be shallow,
but more recent Investigations seem
deep in both sandy and clayey soils.
The effect of the draining in clay soils
is to render the soil above the drain
more friable. The ground is also
more subject to what is known as the
aeration process. This aeration is in
dry weather of great Importance. The
warm air being forced into the ground,
or rather drawn in, carries with it
much moistue, which is condensed by
the colder soil and thus helps to add to
the moisture in the soil.
This is a good time of year to find
out what kind of work has been done
on the roads. When the fall rains
come the badly made road soon gets
into condition where it is we'll nigh
impossible. 1t is not difficult to build
road that will do we'll in dry times,
but to build one that will stand the
effects of heavy rains is another mat
ter. The man that will make COMPARE
sons between different parts of the
same road built under different sys-
TENS will learn something. = The road
that has tile drain on each side OF
it should show its value at this time
If the crown has been put on properly
On the other hand the flat road that is
not drained at all except by open
bitches will become rutted and form
basins to hold the water. There is no
time like the present for inspections
and for the formulation of plans for
the next campaign at road building.
In Holland, and probably in some
other foreign countries devoted large
ly to agriculture, it is not unusual to
see manure stored :; in pits in the
ground. A Dutch farmer once told the
writer how the manure was stored He
said: eve dug an immense pit, say
thirty feet long and ten feed wide and
six feet deep. 1t was in hard soil so
that the walls formed hard, compact
surface to keep the manure from leach
ing out. The bottom was SO hard that
no manure could escape that way. Then
all through the fall and winter the
hard manure was thrown into this pit
| and the liquid manure was run into the
pit also, with what bedding it was
fn 10
spring when we took out the manure
we did it by backing cart down to
one end Of the pit, for there was a
| driveway constructed that would allow
| the wheels of the cart to reach the
| level Of the bottom of the pit. We
| found the manure packed almost as
hard as clay and it was cut and spaded
out in fine shape, having lost none Of
it's fertilizing properties through the
teaching of water" There are a num-
Der of things that we must imagine,
but which should have been elucidated
at the time of conversation. We i'm
! agine, for instance, that there was a
covering of some kind over this pit to
defect the rains, and also that it was
SO protected by shallow drains that
water from the surrounding land would
not run into it and cause it to over
flow, thus carrying the dissolved ma
nure onto the adjoining lands or per-
haps into brooks and streams. We also
suppose that the cart road that ran
down to the end of the pit must have
been cut off at the beginning of the pit
by boards to keep the manure from
flowing out into the road and filling it
up.