The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1921-06-02
TILE DRAINING ALL
HIGHWAYS WOULD MAKE
SAFER TRAVELLING


road construction. The early set
tier followed the trail, which, for
the use of the OK team, was widen
ed into the wagon road with its
corduroy bridge. To make this
more passable bitches were dug
on the sides and the earth thrown
into the middle forming the turn
pike. Within the past few years
the macadam road with it's i'm
proved grade and hard surface,
has made travel much more pleas
ant. The last word of course. is
now the many miles of concrete
equalling the finest city pave
ments.
With these improved thorough
fares and changes in method of
transportation, from the oxteam
to the motor car has come new
danger, that of the open road
ditch Scarcely can you pick up
a daily without seeing an account
of some accident directly trace
able to the deep road bitches.
Broken machines and fractured
bones are bad enough, but drown
ing in water of roadside bitches
is simply shocking.
| Not long ago the motto, Safe
|ty First" was placarded every
way we turned, and with that in
mind came a possible way out of
esent danger in travelling our
highways. Open dit hes in fields
are largely supplanted by COW
cred tile drains. Why not tile
our road side bitches
Inquiry of drainage special
lists at M. A. C. and State High
way Department at Lansing,
brought the good news that one
county in Michigan has over
lone hundred miles of road tile
drained on both sides, with re-
port that sentiment in favor Of
and demand for covered drains
or sub drainage is rapidly grow
ling. This is in Gratiot county,
and the County Surveyor, Tom
H. Harrod, has kindly written
out their way of work, from
(which we quote:
"We have in this county a sys-
tenn of county drains which is
second to none in the state. AS
a result, on almost everv high
way we have a convenient place
to drain our tile drain to. 1t is
wasted money to put in tile if
there is not sufficient outlet for
it
"In many of our townships the
Township Board will furnish to
any farmer owning land along
a highway all the four inch tile
to fill the road drain. Of course
the township insists that the
tile be laid to a true grade. If. in
the opinion of the Township
Board, there is need of a larger
tile than four inch, the farmer
must pay the difference in cost
between what is needed and the
four inch size. The farmer gen.
orally hauls the tile and puts it
on the ground. This arrange
ment usually is very satisfac-
tory. One of our townships will
do all the work on a four inch
tile drain. haul tile, trench and
cover. If the tile has to be lar
ger to meet conditions, the farm
er must pay the extra cost of the
larger tile.
We generally cons der that a
four inch tile can be used for a
distance of one-quarter of a mile.
If the road drain must continue
/ greater distance than a quar-
ter of mile before the outlet is
reached, then a larger tile must
be used below (beyond) the four
inch tile. The proper size is gen.
erally made matter of judy
ment from observation of other
drains under like conditions.
"The cost of such drain
runs about $1.00 per rod COM
lplete. The charges made for
trenching for the tile are from
l25 to 35 cents a rod. The cost of
laying the tile goes about 5 cts.
a rod. The matter of filling the
trench usually runs about cts.
a rod. Naturally resident far
mer owning land abutting the
highway is interested enough in
closing the road ditch to do more
work than a tenant or non-resi-
dent owner. A group of farms
owned by nonresident farmers
usually have poor drains and
poor roads. 1t requires the per-
sonal interest in having a good,