The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1900-01-27

In clay soil? This is a question that
has been agitating farmers for some
years. At first it was believed that a
drain in clay soil should be shallow,
but more recent investigations seem
to indicate that drains should be laid
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.
y
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 a condition where it is well nigh
impossible. 1t is not difficult to build
a road that will do we'll in dry times,
DN W. JUN ohC Una Will oldllu LIE
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
mat has a tile drain on each side OF
1t should show its value at this time
II the crown has been put on properly.
TN tho nthnp on1 tlo p,4 .-zl 49,. =
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, n 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: I'VE dug an immense pit, say
thirty feet long aud ten feed wide and
SIX feet deep. 1t was in hard soil so
that the walls formed a 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
necessary to throw away. In the
spring when we DOL out the manure
we did it by backing a cart down tc
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 one OF
its 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 1t