The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-08-18
TILE DRAINAGE.


agazine articles to tell how to un-
Prdrain farm lands. shall not en-,
rge upon the necessity of drainage
every farmer knows that the mag.
Jude OF his crops. othel. things be-
equal. bears some sort of proper
TO the degree of thoroughness
n which the surplus water ma:
IN removed from the soil.
% those iandholders who love
soil we'll enough to give their
Aonal attention to its cultivation
make their homes upon 1t, well
pgh to wish the son to continue
I've on it.--continuing or main
lSining the improvements begun oil
carried out by the father--well
enough TO encourage the son should
no make such choice. these papers
are addressed.
The man who would prefer to con-
fine himself to forty acres of land,
making forty OF fifty bale crop. to
spreading out over eighty or hun
dred acres to make the same amoun.
Of crop. belongs to the class Of men
that I wish TO reach.
BY the drainage OF q soil to Civ
en- depth - meant the removal of all
water that will now out from the soil
by srsvitation into underground con-
duits placed at that depth below the
surface.
For the sake Of convenience I will
divide soils into two classes:
Ftrst--Free soils. or soils that
readily admit the water of rains,
which passing down through them
from . higher to q lower level. finds
an outlet at the surface or In the beds
Of water courses. To this class be-
long ths sandy soils, the loans and
the molds. f,
Secord.--Retentive soils or clay
soils. made up largely of clay, and
through which Especially In their
undrained state) water flows slowly
or not at all.
FREQ soils do not need artificial
drainage except as they may be un-
derlaid near the surface by imper-
vious material. Sand in a sieve
drains perfectly. Sand In basin
does net drain at all Clay soil in a
sieve drains perfectly.
1The description of retention soils
above given. would seem to dis
0hrage any attempt towards their
improvement by drainage and may
appear at variance with the state
|pent just made that clay would drain
{ectly. Let US examine into the
of the clays and understand
cay soils have by the aid Of
'hat;e become the equal In pro-
Activs capacity OF any other soils.
= Clay absorbs from 40 to 10 per
cent. 81 It's weight of water. 1t is
probable that IL will hold within Its
mass against gravitatIon. as much
as halt Its weight of water and will
part with this only to evaporation.
sample OF clay dried by exposure
to air and sun weighed 12 ounces
The same after four days absorption
OF wafer placed In reach Of suction
weightd II f-2 ounces. Weight after
again exposing the same to air and
sun 4. ounces. 1t was then imme-
diately broken up into powder. and
still weighed 12 ounces. but after ex-
posure TO the air gained over an
Iounce. We see from this experiment
that clay can hold In suspension
nearly one-half Its weight of water
and that II can absorb from the at
mosphere more than one-twelfth of
its weight.
Soils are formed by the weathering
OF the rocks. The action OF water
and air on the rocks. aided by
changes of temperature and frost.
cause their gradual disintegration.
The action Of the weather is aided
by the vegetation that begins to grow
In the broken down material after
wards adding It's own decaying mat
ter to "a.
When examined under the micro
scope soils are found to be made up
Of particles of irregular shape and Of
varying degrees OF fineness. Leaving
out the coarser sands. and gravel. we
gather as a result Of these examina-
tions that the diameter OF soil parti-
cles vary from 1-100 Of an inch in
fine sand to 10000 of an inch. and
less. In clay.
III you dip a sieve filled with peb-
bles into water and withdraw II the