The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1918-03-21

The college. through its field men, is
demonstrating the value of drainage,
where needed by doing sample" jobs for
the instruction of farmers.
the past have yielded only fraction
of what they should, have been made
available for crops and increased in
value in the year 1917 alone.
Our method of reclamation, how
ever has been directly the opposite Of
that used by our western neighbors.
They have supplied water for the
farms-we have drained it from them.
Very recently the department me-
chanics of the college, for purposes
having to do with the present food
campaign, set out to ascertain the ex-
tent To which drainage is being pushed
within the state. 'rhe results of these
findings were Il revelation.
1t was learned, for instance, that H.
100000 feet of drain tile , inches in
diameter and smaller was manufac-
tured i'm Michigan I'm the year 1917.
while 3,235. go feet of drain tile larger
than inches in diameter was pro-
duced. In addition, 10,000,0O0 feet of
drain tile was shipped into the state,
making total of more than 25,000,O0O
feet of tile laid in the twelve months
ending on January /, or enough, If ser
end TO end, To reach Il distance of 2.SS7
miles. The amount of land drained
was at least 10000 acres. which as
reclamation project compares quite fa-
vOrably with what has been going on
at the foot of the Rockies.
An enterprising statistician has fig
ured out what this work means in
terms of wheat production. This new
ly drained land. according to his esti-
mate, is capable of adding at least
100000 bushels to Michigan's annual
yield. In determining this yield, il was
assumed that the large tile was used
mostly to drain ground that hitherto
:;aS not produced crops. Enough of
| this tile was put in to carry off the wa
ter from 10000 acres of new land.
| There is reason to believe also that at
least 1000 acres of the $4,000 acres
drained by the small tile, was new
land, or low spots which no crops were
being raised before drainage was at
tempted. This gives us 10000 acres
of new land drained and similar
amount of land upon which crop pro-
duction has been increased by drain
age. Inasmuch as areas requiring
drainage are AZ a rule some of our
most fertile lands, IL has been assumed
that the new land drained will produce
I at least - bushels of wheat to the
acre, or its equivalent. and that on the
old land, the yield will be increased
at least ten bushels to the acre.
Nor is the work done yet. Already
there are evidences that reclamation
will go on this year just as briskly,
if not more so, than was the case a
year ago, and the questions coming
up are not so much questions of the
value of drainage as of size Of tile to
use and of methods of going about the
job most efficiently
Ordinary drain tile ranges in size
from two inches up to II and even IN
inches, and the capacity of this tile to
carry water varies according to the
square of the diameter-a 3-inch tile.
for instance. will carry two and one
quarter times as much water at the the
same rate of flow as will a pinch tile.
The square of three is nine; the square
of two is four, and four is contained in
nine two and one-fourth times, as stat
ed above Using the same rule, it will