The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1920-04-29
SOIL DRAINAGE
Reclamation Of the Swamp Lands Farming Possible IN
Unsettled Parts Of Our State
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This last point we wish to make in
favor of drainage IS that it renders the To-
cality much healthier for man and beast.
The damp air of the swamps is replaced by
the air purified by the growing crops. The
breeding place Of mosquitoes and other in
sects is destroyed and the whole climate is
warmed up and made healthier.
Now that we have tried to show you
why soil drainage is necessary, we shall try
to show you briefly how to drain.
Broadly speaking there are two methods
of drainage, surface drainage and UNDER
drainage. Surface drainage is accomplished
by open bitches dug through the land to be
drained and emptying into large ditch or
nearby stream, if one is available This
method is generally the one first employed
and is quicker and cheaper in first cost than
any other method. In many of our peat
and muskeg swamps, large dredge bitches
have been constructed by the State or county,
for distance of from ten to fifty miles,
through the country that needs draining
Then the farmer, or in many cases the town.
ships, along this ditch run in subsidiary
bitches with laterals running from these. In
this way the peat and muskeg is given a
chance to decay and settle before installing a
permanent system of undertakings.
The objections to the open ditch method
of drainage are many. In the first place it
cuts the farm and fields up so that there is
lots of turning and working small corners.
1t is temporary affair, as ditch begins to
fill up after the first year and must be
cleaned often thus renewing the cost every
few years, and last, it gives noxious weeds
and destructive insects haven along its
sides from which they keep spreading to the
adjoining fields increasing the expense of
raising crop.
The best and most satisfactory method
of drainage land is the second method, or un-
der-drainage. By this method an under
ground passageway is provided at regular
intervals by which the water can find its way
to lower level either into large ditch,
convenient stream or ravine. There are
many make shift ways of providing this pas
sageway but the best and most permanent
method is by thing. Drain tile are hollow,
unglazed clay cylinders, varying from four
inches to thirty six inches in diameter, which
are laid end to end in the bottom of ditch
with just enough fall to carry the water in
the desired direction. The joints are not
fitted closely, but allow water to enter,
while they are tight enough to keep the dirt
out. A fall of one inch to hundred feet
is enough to carry off the water and they are
generally laid from thirty to forty inches be-
low the surface. In very wet land five or
six inch tile bitches, fifty feet apart, will
drain the land perfectly. The advantage of
this method is that it IS permanent and that
you can work every foot of the land right
over your tile which is always on the job.
After couple of years the soil seems to get
honeycombed with minute passageways so
that the water IS removed right after rain
and the land can be worked within few
hours.
In sections where tile are not available
or the farmer can not afford so heavy an in
vestment, poles, stones or plank may be used
to take their place. We have seen some very
successful draining done on small scale by
laying three tamarack poles in the bottom of
ditch then throwing in little hay or straw,
to prevent the dirt working between them,
then filling the ditch with dirt. Drainage
was invented in Scotland, where they built
underground drains from fiat stones, and
many are in perfect working order which
were built more than hundred years ago.
We would like to leave this thought
with you. If small fraction of the money
spent by the government in the reclamation
of like area of arid and scmi-arid lands of
the West were spent on the swamp lands of
northern Minnesota, some of the finest farm
lands in the United States could be made
available for settlers in one of the finest eli
mates and best States on the continent.
George Cohan, the composer Of, "Over
There" received $4,000 as soon as the song
,,,.e c,,;eaod le,;d~p 1arre rf,ua1<iee afferwsrd