Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1919-06-13
TILE DRAINAGE
IN THE PALOUSE

The first tile drainage / knew oil
being done in the Palouse country
was twenty years ago. Mr.. Gilbert
who was president of the First Ma
tional Bank of Moscow, bought what
was known as the old Mcclure place
south of Moscow. There was consid-
cradle fiat, wet land on it, so he got
a supply of tile and employed man,
Jack Brown, to do the ditching.
was we'll acquainted with Brown and
one day asked him how he was get
ting along with the work. He said,
This is an easy country to drain if
you so at it right, and if not it is the
worst" He explained the theory
thus: There is no more rain falls
on the flats than on the hills, but
the surplus water gathering under
the hill, runs out on the flat, where
il stays until it leaks off or evapor-
ates, making the flats wet. To drain
the flats successfully you must place
the drain alonS the base of the hill
to cut off or intercept the water at
that point, and by so doing you drain
your flat. 1t was a new idea to me,
but | kept it in mind and when l
started to drain my own land about
IL years ago l put it to the test and
have proved it TO be correct. At
that time drain tile was not obtain
able at price | could afford to pay
so | made boxes of red fir and tam
arack lumber and as my neighbor
said, I took piece of wet, worth
less land and made splendid mea-
dow of it,
Several years later l got 1900 clay
tile and laid them. The last five
years | have had q man at work
every season until now, in the 800
acres where l live, and l have about
seven miles of drain and it will take
another season to finish the work.
find the depth at which to lay the
tile is a very important question.
live about three miles east of here
and that land may be considered a
fair type of the east half of the Pa
louise country. 1t is underlaid with
yellow clay, which is impervious to
moisture. so the water seeps along
the surface of it until it reaches the
flat. Then, to make the drains work
successfully, it is necessary to lay
them in the surface of the yellow
clay to intercept all the water. If
you find yellow clay at two feet you
may as we'll work up, but if it is
four feet you had better go down.
On two or three short pieces | have
dug nearly five feet, but as rule we
find the clay at three feet. | wouIo
emphasize fhe necessity of laying
the drain in the yellow clay. Tor l
have often found the first two or
three feet damp and the last six
inches very wet. | said before the
drains should be placed at the up-
per edge of the wet ground at the
base of the hill. This may sound
easier than practice proves, for every
flat is a problem in itself and it is
often necessary to put in a good
many branches to drain out all the
pockets or curves.
| would recommend the use OF
clay tile for, though | have used
mostly concret2 tile, that was a mis-
take. ! could get four-inch concrete
tile in Moscow for $50 a thousand
| have found there is some alkaH in
our white land and that has a ten
dency to eat or disintegrate concrete.
Some years ago Prof. Olson, chemist
at this station, was going through d
field of winter wheat with me. We
came to a piece of low, wet land
where the wheat was so drowned out
as to be hardly worth cutting He
said it had too much alkali; | said
too much water He took a sample
to analyza and reported the percent
age OF black alkali was not enough
to injure the land, if drained, but if
the amount of black alkali were
doubled the land would be worth
less. 1t has been proved from eX-
perience in draining irrigated land,
which frequently contains alkali, that
the alkali often causes the concrete
tile to decompose but that it will not
affect welI-burned clay tile This
past spring drain that [ laid five
years ago became choked. had
had the field in peas the previous
year and had thieshed close 10 The
outlet of the drain We mad TO life
about 100 feet OF tile and then found
five joints as full OF peas as they
could hold. fm satisfied the utc