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Drainage
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The laterals should enter the branches and mains near the top, so that the water will be drawn out rapidly. The tile should be laid with close joints at the top, so that the water may enter more freely from the sides than the top. No covering other th...
Counting The Cost
Thorough underdrainage is costly, but it is less so than the farming of fields whose productiveness is seriously limited by an excess of water. The work means an added investment. Estimates of cost can be made with fair accuracy, and estimates of resu...
Cutting The Trenches
There are ditching-machines that do efficient work. The best are costly. Most of the work on farms will continue to be done with ditching-spades. The ground should be moved when wet, so that labor can be saved. A line should be used to secure a str...
Depth Of Trenches
Underdrains may be placed too deep in close soils for best results. In an early day it was advised that the drains be put down 4 feet deep. We now know that a tight clay soil may give best results from a drain only 28 inches deep, or even a little les...
Establishing A Grade
If the grades are light, they should be established by use of a telescope level. Most of the cheap levels are a delusion. A stake driven flush with the surface of the ground at the outlet becomes the starting point, and by its side should be driven a ...
Kind Of Tile
When clay tile is used, it should be well burned. Some manufacturers offer soft tile for sale, as the loss from warping and cracking is less in case of insufficient burning. The claim may be made that the efficiency of soft tile is greater than that o...
Locating Main And Branches
There are various systems of drainage. Wherever a branch or lateral joins the main, the means of drainage is duplicated within the area that the main can drain, and the system should call for the least possible waste of this sort. It usually is best ...
Material For The Drains
Doubtless there are places and times when stone, or boards, or brush should be used in construction of underdrains, but they are relatively few in number. Such underdrains lack permanency, as a rule, though some stone drains are effective for a long ...
Permanency Desired
The expense of underdrainage demands care in every detail of the work. The grade of the trenches should be carefully tested. Every piece of tile should be examined. The outlet should be guarded against displacement or entrance by animals. A good plan ...
Size Of Tile
The size of the main depends upon the area that eventually may be drained, the amount of overflow from higher land, the nature of the soil, and the grade of the drain. It is a common mistake to make the main too small because the drainage immediately ...
The Grade
The outlet may fix the grade. If it does not, the main, branches, and laterals should have a fall of 3 inches, or more, to the 100 feet. This grade insures against deposits of silt and gives good capacity to the drains. If the outlet demands less fall...
The Laterals
Small lines of tile are used to bring the water to the main when the wet land extends beyond the influence of the main. The distance between these laterals depends upon their depth and the nature of the land. A tight clay soil will not let water pass ...
The Modern Fallow
The modern method of making a grass seeding in August partakes of the nature of the old-fashioned summer-fallow. The desire is to eradicate weeds, secure availability in plant-food, and fit the soil to profit by even a light rainfall. Thin soils lend ...
The Outlet
The value of any drainage system is dependent upon the outlet. Its location is the first thing to be determined. If the land is nearly flat, a telescope level should be used to determine elevations of all low points in the land to be drained. The outl...
Underdrainage
There are great swamps, and small ones, whose water should be carried off by open ditches. Our present interest is in the wet fields of the farm,--the cold, wet soil of an entire field, the swale lying between areas of well-drained land, the side of a...
Where Returns Are Largest
The total area of land needing drainage is immense. Swamps form only a small part of this area. Yields of much old farm land are limited by the excess of water during portions of the year. As land becomes older, the area needing drainage increases. ...