Mower County transcript., 1908-03-11
LAND DRAINAGE.

Paper Read by John H. RahilIy Of
Dexter at the Stock Breeders
Association Last Week. j
With having good seed to SOW, be-
lieve that to grow good crops, the con.
dition of the soil, when that seed is
planted is to be condition Of success
more than any other one thing. 1 be:
lieve also that the earlier the ground
becomes warm and dry in the spring so
as to work in the proper shape, the bet
ter the. yield will be.
To meet one great drawback to q
very level country, where the natural
drainage will not dry the land in time
for successful cropping, a great desir-
able change can be brought abont by
investing small amount per acre in
the laying of tile. ~.
The open ditch has passed away. 1t
was very unsatisfactory, costing too
much, wasting too much land, and leav-
ing too many irregular gulches to
work to good advantage.
At the present high price of land in
southern Minnesota it will not pay to
seed these low lands to hay or perma-
nent pasture as stock will feed on the
same only as the last resort.
When these wet places are drained,
there is the very best land on your
farms. The purpose of thing is to
bring the low and cold land up to a
level with the higher in cultivation and
in growing crop. The tile acts the
same with land as hole in the bottom
of a house plant pot, by draining off
the water when it soaks through the
surface letting the air at the root of the
plant. Otherwise your crop is failure.
We plow our land across the slough,
thereby bringing the dead furrow direct
over the string of tile which is three
feet below the surface. BY such plow.
ing the high land gets the benefit of
such drainage. Last fall the water ran
out of our tile until nearly Christmas
leaving the ground to freeze perfectly
dry, The first rain and thaw this
spring, the 11th of Feb, the water soak
ed instantly into the ground and was
carried off.
When the tile is not running full the
air will enter the lower end and circu.
late through the ground, removing the
frost, SO as a general thing well tiled
land is in condition for. cropping ten
days before the other
In the spring we begin down ia the
center of the low land and work both
ways up hill.
Since our tile has been in we have
had only one rain, where enough water
fell to run over the ground. The low
ground is as mellow and Will take as
much water as the high land. Water
will soak right through the frozen
ground and with good outlet will run
in winter as well. Freezing will not
hurt the tile. Four inches to 100 feet
is good fall, one inch will do. Across
one quarter section we get fifteen feet
fall. This land seems nearly level to
the eye.
TO make some new connections we
opened one of our tile after it had been
working two years. 1t was perfectly
clear from settling with the water run
ming very fast through it, and l believe
it will last forever.
/ On account of extensive ti]ing the
same kind of land as ours, forty miles
from nay home, sells for 1925 per acre
and brings cash rent of from seven to
nine dollars and the renters are able to
pay their rent.
A friend of mine on an Illinois farm
of low land bought his land thirteen
years ago for $50 an acre. He expend-
ed SIS per acre for tile, and now re-
ceives q cash rental of five dollars per
acre and was offered $50 per acre for
his farm. One piece of land we tiled
cost US seven dollars per acre. In two
years we paid for the work off from the
land that was practically worthless be-
fore, also greatly increased the yield of
the high land.
! believe the yield of the average
Mower Co. farm can be increased one
third and that there are very few
farms in this comfy but what can be
improved by tiling.
] have great confidence in Mower
county land. We have here 5 soil Of
r