St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1921-01-29
THE ST. TAANY JANUARY % 1921

either becomes altogether impracti-
cable and must be abandoned for the
safe but costly bare fallow, or is car
rled out With great labor and haz-
ard; and the crop, when grown, can
neither be removed from the ground,
nor consumed upon it by sheep with
out damage by 'poaching." The
roots of plants require both air and
warmth. A deep stratum through
which water can percolate, but in
which it can never stagnate, is
therefore necessary. A waterlogged
soil is impenetrable by air, and ow-
ing to the continuous process Of
evaporation and radiation, it's tenn
perature is much below that III
drained soil. The surface Of the
water in the supersaturated soil is
known as the 'water-table' and is
exemplified in water standing in
we'll. Water will rise in clay by
capillarity to it's height of SO inches,
in sand to p inches Above the
'Water-tab,e the water is held by
capillarity, and the PERCENTAGE of
water held decreases as we approach
the surface where there may be per-
feet dryness. Ora ming reduces the
surface tension of the capillary
water by removal of the excess, but
the 'Water-table' may be many feet
below. Drains ordinarily remove
only excess of capillary water, an ex-
cess Of percolating water in wet
weather" 49,
In this article by a British au-
thority Encyclopedia BRITANNICA
are stated the principles and many
of the reasons for drainage. it
shows for one thing that even in 50
highly intensified an AGRICULTURAL
country as Great Britain a pasture
is regarded as being very valuable,
and an Englishman improves his pas
ture by drainage, especially because
of the detriment to livestock from
pasturing on wet lands which foster
disease. The most important point
is the comparison Of surface drain
ing methods with drainage by I'M
derground tiles, showing that sur
face bitches interfere with cultiva-
tion, they waste land, and do not
provide satisfactory drainage, and
that in twenty years the labor ex-
pended on surface bitches would pay
for putting in tile drains. Now,
stop to think that the saving of labor
alone will pay for tile drains, or
where forty year bond issue is
made to pay for drainage the annual
labor-saving through drainage will
twice pay the amount of the annual
drainage installment due )(accord-
ing to this British writer), and be-
sides there will be the greatly in
creased returns from the land in the
amount of annual produce raised.
It it not apparent that it is drain
age which will put St. Tammany
parish permanently on its feet?
Drainage pays for itself, and in ad-
dition makes useless or waste lands
valuable for farming, and thereby
brings customers to the merchant
and banker, creates new markets,
brings factories for the manufacture
Of farm products such as canneries,
abattoirs, creameries, reduces tax
alton by increasing the wealth of the
community or amount of taxable
property, gives new revenue f0E the
support of schools and the building
of new roads-and drainage doesn t
have to be paid for in advance, but
the installment payments may he
made to come due long after the
profits from drainage have many
times paid the cost Of drainage. Is
there any question that now is the
time to drain-now when the cost OF
labor and material is going down?