The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1917-03-07
WET LlNO RECLAIMED
BY DRAINAGE SYSTEM
A, L. French Tell How a Few
Weeks Work Will Pro-
duce Wonders.

three-acre field on our present home
place that was covered with wet
weather springs. The land was some
of the best on the farm, but the
wet condition of the top soil and
subsoil caused the field to produce
practically nothing save swamp
grass. took time enough from the
thing of the larger fields during the
winter of 1906 to drain this small
piece, using $50 worth of tile. The
following summer that field produc-
ed seventy bushels of corn per acre,
and has been producing better crops
than the average of the farm each
year since, and will continue to do
so as long as the laad is farmed.
Three years ago We took one of
our large permanent pasture fields
into our rotation. At one end Of
this field adjoining a small creek
was a little bottom of perhaps two
acres. The land was heavy clay and
naturally wet. Fairly good seasons,
but during seasons IF average rain
fall there was too much water pres
ent even for grass. Our farm was
originally covered with loose rocks,
and this pasture field had around
one hundred loads remaining on it.
We dug bitches three feet deep and
twelve inches wide from the creek
to the hill, running the bitches thir-
ty-three feet apart The clay was
very hard in the bottoms of the
bitches, necessitating the use of the
pick, so instead of using tile in these
bitches we cut channels four inches
deep and the same width in the bot
tom of the bitches, laid large flat
rock over these channels and filled
over these with twelve inches of
small rocks. In this way We got rid
of our remaining one hundred loads
of rocks and have drains, at no out
lay of cash, that are giving good
service.
Many small says in our fields,
when we purchased the farm, were
drained by open bitches. These
We're a great expense to us by rea-
son of making so many short rows
in our fields and, too, the rivers of
water that would rush down these
open bitches in time of heavy rain
fall carried hundreds of tons of the
best portion of our soil out to the
creeks and on to the rivers. Sub
shutting underdrains for these open
bitches has lessened our work of
cultivation, for We can now cultivate
in rows, with little time lost in turn
ing, and what probably means more
to US, the porous land over the
drains acts as a filter, catching the
light soil particles as they come
floating off the cultivated fields.
holding them on the land while the
water sinks away through the soil
and runs away practically clear
from the ends of the drains. One
of these drains on our place has
done away with three-fourths of a
mile, a very network of open bitches.
in one field. Not a ditch in the ten
acre part of the field in question
and AL surplus water coming out
one six-inch outlet.
This improvement on the farm
shows little except in the uniformly
good crops that are produced in its
make, but there is no improvement
that will pay better interest each
year on it's cost, and none that will
last so many years without expendi-
ture for upkeep.
We have many miles of drains on
our farms, and each winter sees
some bad spot reclaimed with an UNI
derdrain or some open ditch chang
ed to a blind ditch A few weeks
work each winter for ten years will
work wonders in retaining an I'M
profitable farm, made so by mater
logged soil and open ditches.-[A.
l.. French in Southern Agricultur-