Chapter I.--INTRODUCTORY.

Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health

by George E. Waring

Edition 1, (October 4, 2006)

New York

Orange Judd & Company,

245 Broadway.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by

ORANGE JUDD & CO.

At the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for this

Southern District of New-York.

Lovejoy & Son,

Electrotypers and Stereotypers.

15 Vandewater street N.Y.

In presenting this book to the public the writer desires to say that,

having in view the great importance of thorough work in land draining, and

believing it advisable to avoid every thing which might be construed into

an approval of half-way measures, he has purposely taken the most radical

view of the whole subject, and has endeavored to emphasize the necessity

for the utmost thoroughness in all draining operations, from the first

staking of the lines to the final filling-in of the ditches.

That it is sometimes necessary, because of limited means, or limited time,

or for other good reasons, to drain partially or imperfectly, or with a

view only to temporary results, is freely acknowledged. In these cases the

occasion for less completeness in the work must determine the extent to

which the directions herein laid down are to be disregarded; but it is

believed that, even in such cases, the principles on which those

directions are founded should be always borne in mind.

NEWPORT, R.I., 1867.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1 - A DRY SOIL.

Fig. 2 - A WET SOIL.

Fig. 3 - A DRAINED SOIL.

Fig. 4 - MAP OF LAND, WITH SWAMPS, ROCKS, SPRINGS AND TREES. INTENDED TO

REPRESENT A FIELD OF TEN ACRES BEFORE DRAINING.

Fig. 5 - MAP WITH 50-FOOT SQUARES, AND CONTOUR LINES.

Fig. 6 - LEVELLING INSTRUMENT.

Fig. 7 - LEVELLING ROD.

Fig. 8 - MAP WITH CONTOUR LINES.

Fig. 9 - WELL'S CLINOMETER.

Fig. 10 - STONE PIT TO CONNECT SPRING WITH DRAIN.

Fig. 11 - STONE AND TILE BASIN FOR SPRING WITH DRAIN.

Fig. 12 - LINE OF SATURATION BETWEEN DRAINS.

Fig. 13 - HORSE-SHOE TILE.

Fig. 14 - SOLE TILE.

Fig. 15 - DOUBLE-SOLE TILE.

Fig. 16 - ROUND TILE AND COLLAR, AND THE SAME AS LAID.

Fig. 19 - THREE PROFILES OF DRAINS, WITH DIFFERENT INCLINATIONS.

Fig. 20 - MAP WITH DRAINS AND CONTOUR LINES.

Fig. 21 - PROFILE OF DRAIN C.

Fig. 22 - SET OF TOOLS.

Fig. 23 - OUTLET, SECURED WITH MASONRY AND GRATING.

Fig. 24 - SILT-BASIN, BUILT TO THE SURFACE.

Fig. 25 - FINISHING SPADE.

Fig. 26 - FINISHING SCOOP.

Fig. 27 - BRACING THE SIDES IN SOFT LAND.

Fig. 28 - MEASURING STAFF.

Fig. 29 - BONING ROD.

Fig. 30 - POSITION OF WORKMAN AND USE OF FINISHING SCOOP.

Fig. 31 - SIGHTING BY THE BONING-RODS.

Fig. 32 - PICK FOR DRESSING AND PREFORATING TILE.

Fig. 33 - LATERAL DRAIN ENTERING AT TOP.

Fig. 34 - SECTIONAL VIEW OF JOINT.

Fig. 35 - SQUARE BRICK SILT-BASIN.

Fig. 36 - SILT-BASIN OF VITRIFIED PIPE.

Fig. 37 - TILE SILT-BASIN.

Fig. 38 - MAUL FOR RAMMING.

Fig. 39 - BOARD SCRAPER FOR FILLING DITCHES.

Fig. 40 - CROSS-SECTION OF DITCH (FILLED), WITH FURROW AT EACH SIDE.

Fig. 41 - FOOT PICK.

Fig. 42 - PUG-MILL.

Fig. 43 - PLATE OF DIES.

Fig. 44 - CHEAP WOODEN MACHINE.

Fig. 45 - MANDRIL FOR CARRYING TILES FROM MACHINE.

Fig. 46 - CLAY-KILN.

Fig. 47 - DYKE AND DITCH.

Fig. 48 - OLD STYLE HOUSE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.

Fig. 49 - MODERN HOUSE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. - LAND TO BE DRAINED AND THE REASONS WHY.

CHAPTER II. - HOW DRAINS ACT, AND HOW THEY AFFECT THE SOIL

CHAPTER III. - HOW TO GO TO WORK TO LAY OUT A SYSTEM OF DRAINS.

CHAPTER IV. - HOW TO MAKE THE DRAINS.

CHAPTER V. - HOW TO TAKE CARE OF DRAINS AND DRAINED LAND.

CHAPTER VI. - WHAT DRAINING COSTS.

CHAPTER VII. - "WILL IT PAY?"

CHAPTER VIII. - HOW TO MAKE DRAINING TILES.

CHAPTER IX. - THE RECLAIMING OF SALT MARSHES.

CHAPTER X. - MALARIAL DISEASES.

CHAPTER XI. - HOUSE DRAINAGE AND TOWN SEWERAGE IN THEIR RELATIONS TO THE

PUBLIC HEALTH.

INDEX

CHAPTER I. - LAND TO BE DRAINED AND THE REASONS WHY.

Land which requires draining hangs out a sign of its condition, more or

less clear, according to its circumstances, but always unmistakable to the

practiced eye. Sometimes it is the broad banner of standing water, or

dark, wet streaks in plowed land, when all should be dry and of even

color; sometimes only a fluttering rag of distress in curling corn, or

wide-cracking clay, or feeble, spindling, shivering grain, which has

survived a precarious winter, on the ice-stilts that have stretched its

crown above a wet soil; sometimes the quarantine flag of rank growth and

dank miasmatic fogs.

To recognize these indications is the first office of the drainer; the

second, to remove the causes from which they arise.

If a rule could be adopted which would cover the varied circumstances of

different soils, it would be somewhat as follows: All lands, of whatever

texture or kind, in which _the spaces between the particles of soil_ are

filled with water, (whether from rain or from springs,) within less than

four feet of the surface of the ground, except during and _immediately_

after heavy rains, require draining.

Of course, the _particles_ of the soil cannot be made dry, nor should they

be; but, although they should be moist themselves, they should be

surrounded with air, not with water. To illustrate this: suppose that

water be poured into a barrel filled with chips of wood until it runs over

at the top. The spaces between the chips will be filled with water, and

the chips themselves will absorb enough to become thoroughly wet;--this

represents the worst condition of a wet soil. If an opening be made at the

bottom of the barrel, the water which fills the spaces between the chips

will be drawn off, and its place will be taken by air, while the chips

themselves will remain wet from the water which they hold by absorption. A

drain at the bottom of a wet field draws away the water from the free

spaces between its particles, and its place is taken by air, while the

particles hold, by attraction, the moisture necessary to a healthy

condition of the soil.

There are vast areas of land in this country which do not need draining.

The whole range of sands, gravels, light loams and moulds allow water to

pass freely through them, and are sufficiently drained by nature,

_provided_, they are as open at the bottom as throughout the mass. A sieve

filled with gravel will drain perfectly; a basin filled with the same

gravel will not drain at all. More than this, a sieve filled with the

stiffest clay, if not "puddled,"(1) will drain completely, and so will

heavy clay soils on porous and well drained subsoils. Money expended in

draining such lands as do not require the operation is, of course, wasted;

and when there is doubt as to the requirement, tests should be made before

the outlay for so costly work is encountered.

There is, on the other hand, much land which only by thorough-draining can

be rendered profitable for cultivation, or healthful for residence, and

very much more, described as "ordinarily dry land," which draining would

greatly improve in both productive value and salubrity.

*The Surface Indications* of the necessity for draining are various. Those

of actual swamps need no description; those of land in cultivation are

more or less evident at different seasons, and require more or less care

in their examination, according to the circumstances under which they are

manifested.

If a plowed field show, over a part or the whole of its surface, a

constant appearance of dampness, indicating that, as fast as water is

dried out from its upper parts, more is forced up from below, so that

after a rain it is much longer than other lands in assuming the light

color of dry earth, it unmistakably needs draining.

A pit, sunk to the depth of three or four feet in the earth, may collect

water at its bottom, shortly after a rain;--this is a sure sign of the need

of draining.

All tests of the condition of land as to water,--such as trial pits,

etc.,--should be made, when practicable, during the wet spring weather, or

at a time when the springs and brooks are running full. If there be much

water in the soil, even at such times, it needs draining.

If the water of heavy rains stands for some time on the surface, or if

water collects in the furrow while plowing, draining is necessary to bring

the land to its full fertility.

Other indications may be observed in dry weather;--wide cracks in the soil

are caused by the drying of clays, which, by previous soaking, have been

pasted together; the curling of corn often indicates that in its early

growth it has been prevented, by a wet subsoil, from sending down its

roots below the reach of the sun's heat, where it would find, even in the

dryest weather, sufficient moisture for a healthy growth; any _severe_

effect of drought, except on poor sands and gravels, may be presumed to

result from the same cause; and a certain wiryness of grass, together with

a mossy or mouldy appearance of the ground, also indicate excessive

moisture during some period of growth. The effects of drought are, of

course, sometimes manifested on soils which do not require draining,--such

as those poor gravels, which, from sheer poverty, do not enable plants to

form vigorous and penetrating roots; but any soil of ordinary richness,

which contains a fair amount of clay, will withstand even a severe

drought, without great injury to its crop, if it is thoroughly drained,

and is kept loose at its surface.

Poor crops are, when the cultivation of the soil is reasonably good,

caused either by inherent poverty of the land, or by too great moisture

during the season of early growth. Which of these causes has operated in a

particular case may be easily known. Manure will correct the difficulty in

the former case, but in the latter there is no real remedy short of such a

system of drainage as will thoroughly relieve the soil of its surplus

water.

*The Sources of the Water* in the soil are various. Either it falls

directly upon the land as rain; rises into it from underlying springs; or

reaches it through, or over, adjacent land.

The _rain water_ belongs to the field on which it falls, and it would be

an advantage if it could all be made to pass down through the first three

or four feet of the soil, and be removed from below. Every drop of it is

freighted with fertilizing matters washed out from the air, and in its

descent through the ground, these are given up for the use of plants; and

it performs other important work among the vegetable and mineral parts of

the soil.

The _spring water_ does not belong to the field,--not a drop of it,--and it

ought not to be allowed to show itself within the reach of the roots of

ordinary plants. It has fallen on other land, and, presumably, has there

done its appointed work, and ought not to be allowed to convert our soil

into a mere outlet passage for its removal.

The _ooze water_,--that which soaks out from adjoining land,--is subject to

all the objections which hold against spring water, and should be rigidly

excluded.

But the _surface water_ which comes over the surface of higher ground in

the vicinity, should be allowed every opportunity, which is consistent

with good husbandry, to work its slow course over our soil,--not to run in

such streams as will cut away the surface, nor in such quantities as to

make the ground inconveniently wet, but to spread itself in beneficent

irrigation, and to deposit the fertilizing matters which it contains, then

to descend through a well-drained subsoil, to a free outlet.

From whatever source the water comes, it cannot remain stagnant in any

soil without permanent injury to its fertility.

*The Objection to too much Water in the Soil* will be understood from the

following explanation of the process of germination, (sprouting,) and

growth. Other grave reasons why it is injurious will be treated in their

proper order.

The first growth of the embryo plant, (in the seed,) is merely a change of

form and position of the material which the seed itself contains. It

requires none of the elements of the soil, and would, under the same

conditions, take place as well in moist saw-dust as in the richest mold.

The conditions required are, the exclusion of light; a certain degree of

heat; and the presence of atmospheric air, and moisture. Any material

which, without entirely excluding the air, will shade the seed from the

light, yield the necessary amount of moisture, and allow the accumulation

of the requisite heat, will favor the chemical changes which, under these

circumstances, take place in the living seed. In proportion as the heat is

reduced by the chilling effect of evaporation, and as atmospheric air is

excluded, will the germination of the seed be retarded; and, in case of

complete saturation for a long time, absolute decay will ensue, and the

germ will die.

The accompanying illustrations, (Figures 1, 2 and 3,) from the "Minutes of

Information" on Drainage, submitted by the General Board of Health to the

British Parliament in 1852, represent the different conditions of the soil

as to moisture, and the effect of these conditions on the germination of

seeds. The figures are thus explained by Dr. Madden, from whose lecture

they are taken:

"Soil, examined mechanically, is found to consist entirely of

particles of all shapes and sizes, from stones and pebbles down to

the finest powder; and, on account of their extreme irregularity

of shape, they cannot lie so close to one another as to prevent

there being passages between them, owing to which circumstance

soil in the mass is always more or less _porous_. If, however, we

proceed to examine one of the smallest particles of which soil is

made up, we shall find that even this is not always solid, but is

much more frequently porous, like soil in the mass. A considerable

proportion of this finely-divided part of soil, _the impalpable

matter_, as it is generally called, is found, by the aid of the

microscope, to consist of _broken down vegetable tissue_, so that

when a small portion of the finest dust from a garden or field is

placed under the microscope, we have exhibited to us particles of

every variety of shape and structure, of which a certain part is

evidently of vegetable origin.

[Illustration: Fig. 1 - A DRY SOIL.]

Fig. 1 - A DRY SOIL.

"In these figures I have given a very rude representation of these

particles; and I must beg you particularly to remember that they

are not meant to represent by any means accurately what the

microscope exhibits, but are only designed to serve as a plan by

which to illustrate the mechanical properties of the soil. On

referring to Fig. 1, we perceive that there are two distinct

classes of pores,--first, the large ones, which exist _between_ the

particles of soil, and second, the very minute ones, which occur

in the particles themselves; and you will at the same time notice

that, whereas all the larger pores,--those between the particles of

soil,--communicate most freely with each other, so that they form

canals, the small pores, however freely they may communicate with

one another in the interior of the particle in which they occur,

have no direct connection with the pores of the surrounding

particles. Let us now, therefore, trace the effect of this

arrangement. In Fig. 1 we perceive that these canals and pores are

all empty, the soil being _perfectly dry_; and the canals

communicating freely at the surface with the surrounding

atmosphere, the whole will of course be filled with air. If in

this condition a seed be placed in the soil, at _a_, you at once

perceive that it is freely supplied with air, _but there is no

moisture_; therefore, when soil is _perfectly dry_, a seed cannot

grow.

[Illustration: Fig. 2 - A WET SOIL.]

Fig. 2 - A WET SOIL.

"Let us turn our attention now to Fig. 2. Here we perceive that

both the pores and canals are no longer represented white, but

black, this color being used to indicate water; in this instance,

therefore, water has taken the place of air, or, in other words,

the soil is _very wet_. If we observe our seed _a_ now, we find it

abundantly supplied with water, but _no air_. Here again,

therefore, germination cannot take place. It may be well to state

here that this can never occur _exactly_ in nature, because, water

having the power of dissolving air to a certain extent, the seed

_a_ in Fig. 2 is, in fact, supplied with a _certain_ amount of

this necessary substance; and, owing to this, germination does

take place, although by no means under such advantageous

circumstances as it would were the soil in a better condition.

[Illustration: Fig. 3 - A DRAINED SOIL.]

Fig. 3 - A DRAINED SOIL.

"We pass on now to Fig. 3. Here we find a different state of

matters. The canals are open and freely supplied with air, while

the pores are filled with water; and, consequently, you perceive

that, while the seed _a_ has quite enough of air from the canals,

it can never be without moisture, as every particle of soil which

touches it is well supplied with this necessary ingredient. This,

then, is the proper condition of soil for germination, and in fact

for every period of the plant's development; and this condition

occurs when the soil is _moist_, but not _wet_,--that is to say,

when it has the color and appearance of being well watered, but

when it is still capable of being crumbled to pieces by the hands,

without any of its particles adhering together in the familiar

form of mud."

As plants grow under the same conditions, as to soil, that are necessary

for the germination of seeds, the foregoing explanation of the relation of

water to the particles of the soil is perfectly applicable to the whole

period of vegetable growth. The soil, to the entire depth occupied by

roots, which, with most cultivated plants is, in drained land, from two to

four feet, or even more, should be maintained, as nearly as possible, in

the condition represented in Fig. 3,--that is, the particles of soil should

hold water by attraction, (absorption,) and the spaces between the

particles should be filled with air. Soils which require drainage are not

in this condition. When they are not saturated with water, they are

generally dried into lumps and clods, which are almost as impenetrable by

roots as so many stones. The moisture which these clods contain is not

available to plants, and their surfaces are liable to be dried by the too

free circulation of air among the wide fissures between them. It is also

worthy of incidental remark, that the cracking of heavy soils, shrinking

by drought, is attended by the tearing asunder of the smaller roots which

may have penetrated them.

*The Injurious Effects of Standing Water in the Subsoil* may be best

explained in connection with the description of a soil which needs

under-draining. It would be tedious, and superfluous, to attempt to detail

the various geological formations and conditions which make the soil

unprofitably wet, and render draining necessary. Nor,--as this work is

intended as a hand-book for practical use,--is it deemed advisable to

introduce the geological charts and sections, which are so often employed

to illustrate the various sources of under-ground water; interesting as

they are to students of the theories of agriculture, and important as the

study is, their consideration here would consume space, which it is

desired to devote only to the reasons for, and the practice of,

thorough-draining.

To one writing in advocacy of improvements, of any kind, there is always a

temptation to throw a tub to the popular whale, and to suggest some

make-shift, by which a certain advantage may be obtained at half-price. It

is proposed in this essay to resist that temptation, and to adhere to the

rule that "whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well," in the belief

that this rule applies in no other department of industry with more force

than in the draining of land, whether for agricultural or for sanitary

improvement. Therefore, it will not be recommended that draining be ever

confined to the wettest lands only; that, in the pursuance of a

penny-wisdom, drains be constructed with stones, or brush, or boards; that

the antiquated horse-shoe tiles be used, because they cost less money; or

that it will, in any case, be economical to make only such drains as are

necessary to remove the water of large springs. The doctrine herein

advanced is, that, so far as draining is applied at all, it should be done

in the most thorough and complete manner, and that it is better that, in

commencing this improvement, a single field be really well drained, than

that the whole farm be half drained.

Of course, there are some farms which suffer from too much water, which

are not worth draining at present; many more which, at the present price

of frontier lands, are only worth relieving of the water which stands on

the surface; and not a few on which the quantity of stone to be removed

suggests the propriety of making wide ditches, in which to hide them,

(using the ditches, incidentally, as drains). A hand-book of draining is

not needed by the owners of these farms; their operations are simple, and

they require no especial instruction for their performance. This work is

addressed especially to those who occupy lands of sufficient value, from

their proximity to market, to make it cheaper to cultivate well, than to

buy more land for the sake of getting a larger return from poor

cultivation. Wherever Indian corn is worth fifty cents a bushel, on the

farm, it will pay to thoroughly drain every acre of land which needs

draining. If, from want of capital, this cannot be done at once, it is

best to first drain a portion of the farm, doing the work thoroughly well,

and to apply the return from the improvement to its extension over other

portions afterward.

In pursuance of the foregoing declaration of principles, it is left to the

sagacity of the individual operator, to decide when the full effect

desired can be obtained, on particular lands, without applying the regular

system of depth and distance, which has been found sufficient for the

worst cases. The directions of this book will be confined to the treatment

of land which demands thorough work.

Such land is that which, at some time during the period of vegetation,

contains stagnant water, at least in its sub-soil, within the reach of the

roots of ordinary crops; in which there is not a free outlet _at the

bottom_ for all the water which it receives from the heavens, from

adjoining land, or from springs; and which is more or less in the

condition of standing in a great, water-tight box, with openings to let

water in, but with no means for its escape, except by evaporation at the

surface; or, having larger inlets than outlets, and being at times

"water-logged," at least in its lower parts. The subsoil, to a great

extent, consists of clay or other compact material, which is not

_impervious_, in the sense in which india-rubber is impervious, (else it

could not have become wet,) but which is sufficiently so to prevent the

free escape of water. The surface soil is of a lighter or more open

character, in consequence of the cultivation which it has received, or of

the decayed vegetable matter and the roots which it contains.

In such land the subsoil is wet,--almost constantly wet,--and the falling

rain, finding only the surface soil in a condition to receive it, soon

fills this, and often more than fills it, and stands on the surface. After

the rain, come wind and sun, to dry off the standing water,--to dry out the

free water in the surface soil, and to drink up the water of the subsoil,

which is slowly drawn from below. If no spring, or ooze, keep up the

supply, and if no more rain fall, the subsoil may be dried to a

considerable depth, cracking and gaping open, in wide fissures, as the

clay loses its water of absorption, and shrinks. After the surface soil

has become sufficiently dry, the land may be plowed, seeds will germinate,

and plants will grow. If there be not too much rain during the season, nor

too little, the crop may be a fair one,--if the land be rich, a very good

one. It is not impossible, nor even very uncommon, for such soils to

produce largely, but they are always precarious. To the labor and expense

of cultivation, which fairly earn a secure return, there is added the

anxiety of chance; success is greatly dependent on the weather, and the

weather may be bad: Heavy rains, after planting, may cause the seed to rot

in the ground, or to germinate imperfectly; heavy rains during early

growth may give an unnatural development, or a feeble character to the

plants; later in the season, the want of sufficient rain may cause the

crop to be parched by drought, for its roots, disliking the clammy subsoil

below, will have extended within only a few inches of the surface, and are

subject, almost, to the direct action of the sun's heat; in harvest time,

bad weather may delay the gathering until the crop is greatly injured, and

fall and spring work must often be put off because of wet.

The above is no fancy sketch. Every farmer who cultivates a retentive soil

will confess, that all of these inconveniences conspire, in the same

season, to lessen his returns, with very damaging frequency; and nothing

is more common than for him to qualify his calculations with the proviso,

"if I have a good season." He prepares his ground, plants his seed,

cultivates the crop, "does his best,"--thinks he does his best, that

is,--and trusts to Providence to send him good weather. Such farming is

attended with too much uncertainty,--with too much _luck_,--to be

satisfactory; yet, so long as the soil remains in its undrained condition,

the element of luck will continue to play a very important part in its

cultivation, and bad luck will often play sad havoc with the year's

accounts.

Land of this character is usually kept in grass, as long as it will bring

paying crops, and is, not unfrequently, only available for pasture; but,

both for hay and for pasture, it is still subject to the drawback of the

uncertainty of the seasons, and in the best seasons it produces far less

than it might if well drained.

The effect of this condition of the soil on the health of animals living

on it, and on the health of persons living near it, is extremely

unfavorable; the discussion of this branch of the question, however, is

postponed to a later chapter.

Thus far, there have been considered only the _effects_ of the undue

moisture in the soil. The manner in which these effects are produced will

be examined, in connection with the manner in which draining overcomes

them,--reducing to the lowest possible proportion, that uncertainty which

always attaches to human enterprises, and which is falsely supposed to

belong especially to the cultivation of the soil.

Why is it that the farmer believes, why should any one believe, in these

modern days, when the advancement of science has so simplified the

industrial processes of the world, and thrown its light into so many

corners, that the word "mystery" is hardly to be applied to any operation

of nature, save to that which depends on the always mysterious Principle

of Life,--when the effect of any combination of physical circumstances may

be foretold, with almost unerring certainty,--why should we believe that

the success of farming must, after all, depend mainly on chance? That an

intelligent man should submit the success of his own patient efforts to

the operation of "luck;" that he should deliberately _bet_ his capital,

his toil, and his experience on having a good season, or a bad one,--this

is not the least of the remaining mysteries. Some chance there must be in

all things,--more in farming than in mechanics, no doubt; but it should be

made to take the smallest possible place in our calculations, by a careful

avoidance of every condition which may place our crops at the mercy of

that most uncertain of all things--the weather; and especially should this

be the case, when the very means for lessening the element of chance in

our calculations are the best means for increasing our crops, even in the

most favorable weather.

CHAPTER II. - HOW DRAINS ACT, AND HOW THEY AFFECT THE SOIL

For reasons which will appear, in the course of this work, the only sort

of drain to which reference is here made is that which consists of a

conduit of burned clay, (tile,) placed at a considerable depth in the

subsoil, and enclosed in a compacted bed of the stiffest earth which can

conveniently be found. Stone-drains, brush-drains, sod-drains, mole-plow

tracks, and the various other devices for forming a conduit for the

conveying away of the soakage-water of the land, are not without the

support of such arguments as are based on the expediency of make-shifts,

and are, perhaps, in rare cases, advisable to be used; but, for the

purposes of permanent improvement, they are neither so good nor so

economical as tile-drains. The arguments of this book have reference to

the latter, (as the most perfect of all drains thus far invented,) though

they will apply, in a modified degree, to all underground conduits, so

long as they remain free from obstructions. Concerning stone-drains,

attention may properly be called to the fact that, (contrary to the

general opinion of farmers,) they are very much more expensive than

tile-drains. So great is the cost of cutting the ditches to the much

greater size required for stone than for tiles, of handling the stones, of

placing them properly in the ditches, and of covering them, after they are

laid, with a suitable barrier to the rattling down of loose earth among

them, that, as a mere question of first cost, it is far cheaper to buy

tiles than to use stones, although these may lie on the surface of the

field, and only require to be placed in the trenches. In addition to this,

the great liability of stone-drains to become obstructed in a few years,

and the certainty that tile-drains will, practically, last forever, are

conclusive arguments in favor of the use of the latter. If the land is

stony, it must be cleared; this is a proposition by itself, but if the

sole object is to make drains, the best material should be used, and this

material is not stone.

A well laid tile-drain has the following essential characteristics:--1. It

has a free outlet for the discharge of all water which may run through it.

2. It has openings, at its joints, sufficient for the admission of all the

water which may rise to the level of its floor. 3. Its floor is laid on a

well regulated line of descent, so that its current may maintain a flow of

uniform, or, at least, never decreasing rapidity, throughout its entire

length.

Land which requires draining, is that which, at some time during the year,

(either from an accumulation of the rains which fall upon it, from the

lateral flow, or soakage, from adjoining land, from springs which open

within it, or from a combination of two or all of these sources,) becomes

filled with water, that does not readily find a natural outlet, but

remains until removed by evaporation. Every considerable addition to its

water wells up, and soaks its very surface; and that which is added after

it is already brim full, must flow off over the surface, or lie in puddles

upon it. Evaporation is a slow process, and it becomes more and more slow

as the level of the water recedes from the surface, and is sheltered, by

the overlying earth, from the action of sun and wind. Therefore, at least

during the periods of spring and fall preparation of the land, during the

early growth of plants, and often even in midsummer, the

_water-table_,--the top of the water of saturation,--is within a few inches

of the surface, preventing the natural descent of roots, and, by reason of

the small space to receive fresh rains, causing an interruption of work

for some days after each storm.

If such land is properly furnished with tile-drains, (having a clear and

sufficient outfall, offering sufficient means of entrance to the water

which reaches them, and carrying it, by a uniform or increasing descent,

to the outlet,) its water will be removed to nearly, or quite, the level

of the floor of the drains, and its water-table will be at the distance of

some feet from the surface, leaving the spaces between the particles of

all of the soil above it filled with air instead of water. The water below

the drains stands at a level, like any other water that is dammed up. Rain

water falling on the soil will descend by its own weight to this level,

and the water will rise into the drains, as it would flow over a dam,

until the proper level is again attained. Spring water entering from

below, and water oozing from the adjoining land, will be removed in like

manner, and the usual condition of the soil, above the water-table, will

be that represented in Fig. 3, the condition which is best adapted to the

growth of useful plants.

In the heaviest storms, some water will flow over the surface of even the

dryest beach-sand; but, in a well drained soil the water of ordinary rains

will be at once absorbed, will slowly descend toward the water-table, and

will be removed by the drains, so rapidly, even in heavy clays, as to

leave the ground fit for cultivation, and in a condition for steady

growth, within a short time after the rain ceases. It has been estimated

that a drained soil has room between its particles for about one quarter

of its bulk of water;--that is, four inches of drained soil contains free

space enough to receive a rain-fall one inch in depth, and, by the same

token, four feet of drained soil can receive twelve inches of rain,---more

than is known to have ever fallen in twenty-four hours, since the deluge,

and more than one quarter of the _annual_ rain-fall in the United States.

As was stated in the previous chapter, the water which reaches the soil

may be considered under two heads:

1st--That which reaches its surface, whether directly by rain, or by the

surface flow of adjoining land.

2d--That which reaches it below the surface, by springs and by soakage from

the lower portions of adjoining land.

The first of these is beneficial, because it contains fresh air, carbonic

acid, ammonia, nitric acid, and heat, obtained from the atmosphere; and

the flowage water contains, in addition, some of the finer or more soluble

parts of the land over which it has passed. The second, is only so much

dead water, which has already given up, to other soil, all that ours could

absorb from it, and its effect is chilling and hurtful. This being the

case, the only interest we can have in it, is to keep it down from the

surface, and remove it as rapidly as possible.

The water of the first sort, on the other hand, should be arrested by

every device within our reach. If the land is steep, the furrows in

plowing should be run horizontally along the hill, to prevent the escape

of the water over the surface, and to allow it to descend readily into the

ground. Steep grass lands may have frequent, small, horizontal ditches for

the same purpose. If the soil is at all heavy, it should not, when wet, be

trampled by animals, lest it be puddled, and thus made less absorptive. If

in cultivation, the surface should be kept loose and open, ready to

receive all of the rain and irrigation water that reaches it.

In descending through the soil, this water, in summer, gives up heat which

it received from the air and from the heated surface of the ground, and

thus raises the temperature of the lower soil. The fertilizing matters

which it has obtained from the air,--carbonic acid, ammonia and nitric

acid,--are extracted from it, and held for the use of growing plants. Its

fresh air, and the air which follows the descent of the water-table,

carries oxygen to the organic and mineral parts of the soil, and hastens

the rust and decay by which these are prepared for the uses of vegetation.

The water itself supplies, by means of their power of absorption, the

moisture which is needed by the particles of the soil; and, having

performed its work, it goes down to the level of the water below, and,

swelling the tide above the brink of the dam, sets the drains running,

until it is all removed. In its descent through the ground, this water

clears the passages through which it flows, leaving a better channel for

the water of future rains, so that, in time, the heaviest clays, which

will drain but imperfectly during the first one or two years, will pass

water, to a depth of four or five feet, almost as readily as the lighter

loams.

Now, imagine the drains to be closed up, leaving no outlet for the water,

save at the surface. This amounts to a raising of the dam to that height,

and additions to the water will bring the water-table even with the top of

the soil. No provision being made for the removal of spring and soakage

water, this causes serious inconvenience, and even the rain-fall, finding

no room in the soil for its reception, can only lie upon, or flow over,

the surface,--not yielding to the soil the fertilizing matters which it

contains, but, on the contrary, washing away some of its finer and looser

parts. The particles of the soil, instead of being furnished, by

absorption, with a healthful amount of moisture, are made unduly wet; and

the spaces between them, being filled with water, no air can enter,

whereby the chemical processes by which the inert minerals, and the roots

and manure, in the soil are prepared for the use of vegetation, are

greatly retarded.

Instead of carrying the heat of the air, and of the surface of the ground,

to the subsoil, the rain only adds so much to the amount of water to be

evaporated, and increases, by so much, the chilling effect of evaporation.

Instead of opening the spaces of the soil for the more free passage of

water and air, as is done by descending water, that which ascends by

evaporation at the surface brings up soluble matters, which it leaves at

the point where it becomes a vapor, forming a crust that prevents the free

entrance of air at those times when the soil is dry enough to afford it

space for circulation.

Instead of crumbling to the fine condition of a loam, as it does, when

well drained, by the descent of water through it, heavy clay soil, being

rapidly dried by evaporation, shrinks into hard masses, separated by wide

cracks.

In short, in wet seasons, on such land, the crops will be greatly

lessened, or entirely destroyed, and in dry seasons, cultivation will

always be much more laborious, more hurried, and less complete, than if it

were well drained.

The foregoing general statements, concerning the action of water in

drained, and in undrained land, and of the effects of its removal, by

gravitation, and by evaporation, are based on facts which have been

developed by long practice, and on a rational application of well know

principles of science. These facts and principles are worthy of

examination, and they are set forth below, somewhat at length, especially

with reference to _Absorption_ and _Filtration_; _Evaporation_;

_Temperature_; _Drought_; _Porosity_ or _Mellowness;_ and _Chemical

Action_.

ABSORPTION AND FILTRATION.--The process of under-draining is a process of

absorption and filtration, as distinguished from surface-flow and

evaporation. The completeness with which the latter are prevented, and the

former promoted, is the measure of the completeness of the improvement. If

water lie on the surface of the ground until evaporated, or if it flow off

over the surface, it will do harm; if it soak away through the soil, it

will do good. The rapidity and ease with which it is absorbed, and,

therefore, the extent to which under-draining is successful, depend on the

physical condition of the soil, and on the manner in which its texture is

affected by the drying action of sun and wind, and by the downward passage

of water through it.

In drying, all soils, except pure sands, shrink, and occupy less space

than when they are saturated with water. They shrink more or less,

according to their composition, as will be seen by the following table of

results obtained in the experiments of Schuebler:

1,000 Parts of Will Contract 1,000 Parts of Will Contract

Parts. Parts.

Strong Limey 50. Pure Clay 183.

Soil

Heavy Loam 60. Peat 200.

Brick Maker's 85.

Clay

Professor Johnson estimates that peat and heavy clay shrink one-fifth of

their bulk.

If soil be dried suddenly, from a condition of extreme wetness, it will be

divided into large masses, or clods, separated by wide cracks. A

subsequent wetting of the clods, which is not sufficient to expand it to

its former condition, will not entirely obliterate the cracks, and the

next drying will be followed by new fissures within the clods themselves;

and a frequent repetition of this process will make the network of

fissures finer and finer, until the whole mass of the soil is divided to a

pulverulent condition. This is the process which follows the complete

draining of such lands as contain large proportions of clay or of peat. It

is retarded, in proportion to the amount of the free water in the soil

which is evaporated from the surface, and in proportion to the trampling

of the ground, when very wet. It is greatly facilitated by frost, and

especially by deep frost.

The fissures which are formed by this process are, in time, occupied by

the roots of plants, which remain and decay, when the crop has been

removed, and which prevent the soil from ever again closing on itself so

completely as before their penetration; and each season's crop adds new

roots to make the separation more complete and more universal; but it is

only after the water of saturation, which occupies the lower soil for so

large a part of the year, has been removed by draining, that roots can

penetrate to any considerable depth, and, in fact, the cracking of

undrained soils, in drying, never extends beyond the separation into large

masses, because each heavy rain, by saturating the soil and expanding it

to its full capacity, entirely obliterates the cracks and forms a solid

mass, in which the operation has to be commenced anew with the next

drying.

Mr. Gisborne, in his capital essay on "Agricultural Drainage," which

appeared in the _Quarterly Review_, No. CLXXI, says: "We really thought

that no one was so ignorant as not to be aware that clay lands always

shrink and crack with drought, and the stiffer the clay the greater the

shrinking, as brickmakers well know. In the great drought, 36 years ago,

we saw in a very retentive soil in the Vale of Belvoir, cracks which it

was not very pleasant to ride among. This very summer, on land which, with

reference to this very subject, the owner stated to be impervious, we put

a walking stick three feet into a sun-crack, without finding a bottom, and

the whole surface was what Mr. Parkes, not inappropriately, calls a

network of cracks. When heavy rain comes upon a soil in this state, of

course the cracks fill, the clay imbibes the water, expands, and the

cracks are abolished. But if there are four or five feet parallel drains

in the land, the water passes at once into them and is carried off. In

fact, when heavy rain falls upon clay lands in this cracked state, it

passes off too quickly, without adequate filtration. Into the fissures of

the undrained soil the roots only penetrate to be perished by the cold and

wet of the succeeding winter; but in the drained soil the roots follow the

threads of vegetable mold which have been washed into the cracks, and get

an abiding tenure. Earth worms follow either the roots or the mold.

Permanent schisms are established in the clay, and its whole character is

changed. An old farmer in a midland county began with 20-inch drains

across the hill, and, without ever reading a word, or, we believe,

conversing with any one on the subject, poked his way, step by step, to

four or five feet drains, in the line of steepest descent. Showing us his

drains this spring, he said: 'They do better year by year; the water gets

a habit of coming to them '--a very correct statement of fact, though not a

very philosophical explanation."

Alderman Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, says: "Filtration may be too sudden, as

is well enough shown by our hot sands and gravels; but I apprehend no one

will ever fear rendering strong clays too porous and manageable. The

object of draining is to impart to such soils the mellowness and dark

color of self drained, rich and friable soil. That perfect drainage and

cultivation will do this, is a well known fact. I know it in the case of

my own garden. How it does so I am not chemist enough to explain in

detail; but it is evident the effect is produced by the fibers of the

growing crop intersecting every particle of the soil, which they never

could do before draining; these, with their excretions, decompose on

removal of the crop, and are acted on by the alternating air and water,

which also decompose and change, in a degree, the inorganic substances of

the soil. Thereby drained land, which was, before, impervious to air and

water, and consequently unavailable to air and roots, to worms, or to

vegetable or animal life, becomes, by drainage, populated by both, and is

a great chemical laboratory, as our own atmosphere is subject to all the

changes produced by animated nature."

Experience proves that the descent of water through the soil renders it

more porous, so that it is easier for the water falling afterward to pass

down to the drains, but no very satisfactory reason for this has been

presented, beyond that which is connected with the cracking of the soil.

The fact is well stated in the following extract from a letter to the

_Country Gentleman_:

"A simple experiment will convince any farmer that the best means of

permanently deepening and mellowing the soil is by thorough drainage, to

afford a ready exit for all surplus moisture. Let him take in spring,

while wet, a quantity of his hardest soil,--such as it is almost impossible

to plow in summer,--such as presents a baked and brick-like character under

the influence of drought,--and place it in a box or barrel, open at the

bottom, and frequently during the season let him saturate it with water.

He will find it gradually becoming more and more porous and

friable,--holding water less and less perfectly as the experiment proceeds,

and in the end it will attain a state best suited to the growth of plants

from its deep and mellow character."

It is equally a fact that the ascent of water in the soil, together with

its evaporation at the surface, has the effect of making the soil

impervious to rains, and of covering the land with a crust of hard, dry

earth, which forms a barrier to the free entrance of air. So far as the

formation of crust is concerned, it is doubtless due to the fact that the

water in the soil holds in solution certain mineral matters, which it

deposits at the point of evaporation, the collection of these finely

divided matters serving to completely fill the spaces between the

particles of soil at the surface,--pasting them together, as it were. How

far below the surface this direct action extends, cannot be definitely

determined; but the process being carried on for successive years,

accumulating a quantity of these fine particles, each season, they are, by

cultivation, and by the action of heavy showers falling at a time when the

soil is more or less dry, distributed through a certain depth, and

ordinarily, in all probability, are most largely deposited at the top of

the subsoil. It is found in practice that the first foot in depth of

retentive soils is more retentive than that which lies below. If this

opinion as to the cause of this greater imperviousness is correct, it will

be readily seen how water, descending to the drains, by carrying these

soluble and finer parts downward and distributing them more equally

through the whole, should render the soil more porous.

Another cause of the retention of water by the surface soil, often a very

serious one, is the puddling which clayey lands undergo by working them,

or feeding cattle upon them, when they are wet. This is always injurious.

By draining, land is made fit for working much earlier in the spring, and

is sooner ready for pasturing after a rain, but, no matter how thoroughly

the draining has been done, if there is much clay in the soil, the effect

of the improvement will be destroyed by plowing or trampling, while very

wet; this impervious condition will be removed in time, of course, but

while it lasts, it places us as completely at the mercy of the weather as

we were before a ditch was dug.

In connection with the use of the word _impervious_, it should be

understood that it is not used in its strict sense, for no substance which

can be wetted by water is really impervious and the most retentive soil

will become wet. Gisborne states the case clearly when he says: "Is your

subsoil moister after the rains of mid-winter, than it is after the

drought of mid-summer? If it is, it will drain."

The proportion of the rain-fall which will filtrate through the soil to

the level of the drains, varies with the composition of the soil, and with

the effect that the draining has had upon them.

In a very loose, gravelly, or sandy soil, which has a perfect outlet for

water below, all but the heaviest falls of rain will sink at once, while

on a heavy clay, no matter how well it is drained, the process of

filtration will be much more slow, and if the land be steeply inclined,

some of the water of ordinarily heavy rains must flow off over the

surface, unless, by horizontal plowing, or catch drains on the surface,

its flow be retarded until it has time to enter the soil.

The power of drained soils to hold water, by absorption, is very great. A

cubic foot of very dry soil, of favorable character, has been estimated to

absorb within its particles,--holding no free water, or water of

drainage,--about one-half its bulk of water; if this is true, the amount

required to _moisten_ a dry soil, four feet deep, giving no excess to be

drained away, would amount to a rain fall of from 20 to 30 inches in

depth. If we consider, in addition to this, the amount of water drained

away, we shall see that the soil has sufficient capacity for the reception

of all the rain water that falls upon it.

In connection with the question of absorption and filtration, it is

interesting to investigate the movements of water in the ground. The

natural tendency of water, in the soil as well as out of it, is to descend

perpendicularly toward the center of the earth. If it meet a flat layer of

gravel lying upon clay, and having a free outlet, it will follow the

course of the gravel,--laterally,--and find the outlet; if it meet water

which is dammed up in the soil, and which has an outlet at a certain

elevation, as at the floor of a drain, it will raise the general level of

the water, and force it out through the drain; if it meet water which has

no outlet, it will raise its level until the soil is filled, or until it

accumulates sufficient pressure, (head,) to force its way through the

adjoining lands, or until it finds an outlet at the surface.

The first two cases named represent the condition which it is desirable to

obtain, by either natural or artificial drainage; the third case is the

only one which makes drainage necessary. It is a fixed rule that water,

descending in the soil, will find the _lowest_ outlet to which there

exists a channel through which it can flow, and that if, after heavy

rains, it rise too near the surface of the ground, the proper remedy is to

tap it at a lower level, and thus remove the water table to the proper

distance from the surface. This subject will be more fully treated in a

future chapter, in considering the question of the depth, and the

intervals, at which drains should be placed.

*Evaporation.*--By evaporation is meant the process by which a liquid

assumes the form of a gas or vapor, or "dries up." Water, exposed to the

air, is constantly undergoing this change. It is changed from the liquid

form, and becomes a vapor in the air. Water in the form of vapor occupies

nearly 2000 times the space that it filled as a liquid. As the vapor at

the time of its formation is of the same temperature with the water, and,

from its highly expanded condition, requires a great _amount_ of heat to

maintain it as vapor, it follows that a given quantity of water contains,

in the vapory form, many times as much heat as in the liquid form. This

heat is taken from surrounding substances,--from the ground and from the

air,--which are thereby made much cooler. For instance, if a shower moisten

the ground, on a hot summer day, the drying up of the water will cool both

the ground and the air. If we place a wet cloth on the head, and hasten

the evaporation of the water by fanning, we cool the head; if we wrap a

wet napkin around a pitcher of water, and place it in a current of air,

the water in the pitcher is made cooler, by giving up its heat to the

evaporating water of the napkin; when we sprinkle water on the floor of a

room, its evaporation cools the air of the room.

So great is the effect of evaporation, on the temperature of the soil,

that Dr. Madden found that the soil of a drained field, in which most of

the water was removed from below, was 6-1/2 deg. Far. warmer than a similar

soil undrained, from which the water had to be removed by evaporation.

This difference of 6-1/2 deg. is equal to a difference of elevation of 1,950

feet.

It has been found, by experiments made in England, that the average

evaporation of water from wet soils is equal to a depth of _two inches per

month_, from May to August, inclusive; in America it must be very much

greater than this in the summer months, but this is surely enough for the

purposes of illustration, as two inches of water, over an acre of land,

would weigh about _two hundred tons_. The amount of heat required to

evaporate this is immense, and a very large part of it is taken from the

soil, which, thereby, becomes cooler, and less favorable for a rapid

growth. It is usual to speak of heavy, wet lands as being "cold," and it

is now seen why they are so.

If none of the water which falls on a field is removed by drainage,

(natural or artificial,) and if none runs off from the surface, the whole

rain-fall of a year must be removed by evaporation, and the cooling of the

soil will be proportionately great. The more completely we withdraw this

water from the surface, and carry it off in underground drains, the more

do we reduce the amount to be removed by evaporation. In land which is

well drained, the amount evaporated, even in summer, will not be

sufficient to so lower the temperature of the soil as to retard the growth

of plants; the small amount dried out of the particles of the soil, (water

of absorption,) will only keep it from being raised to too great a heat by

the mid-summer sun.

An idea of the amount of heat lost to the soil, in the evaporation of

water, may be formed from the fact that to evaporate, by artificial heat,

the amount of water contained in a rain-fall of two inches on an acre,

(200 tons,) would require over 20 tons of coal. Of course a

considerable--probably by far the larger,--part of the heat taken up in the

process of evaporation is furnished by the air; but the amount abstracted

from the soil is great, and is in direct proportion to the amount of water

removed by this process; hence, the more we remove by draining, the more

heat we retain in the ground.

The season of growth is lengthened by draining, because, by avoiding the

cooling effects of evaporation, germination is more rapid, and the young

plant grows steadily from the start, instead of struggling against the

retarding influence of a cold soil.

*Temperature.*--The temperature of the soil has great effect on the

germination of seeds, the growth of plants, and the ripening of the crops.

Gisborne says: "The evaporation of 1 lb. of water lowers the temperature

of 100 lbs. of soil 10 deg.,--that is to say, that, if to 100 lbs. of soil,

holding all the water it can by attraction, but containing no water of

drainage, is added 1 lb. of water which it has no means of discharging,

except by evaporation, it will, by the time that it has so discharged it,

be 60 deg. colder than it would have been, if it had the power of discharging

this 1 lb. by filtration; or, more practically, that, if rain, entering in

the proportion of 1 lb. to 100 lbs. into a retentive soil, which is

saturated with water of attraction, is discharged by evaporation, it

lowers the temperature of that soil 10 deg.. If the soil has the means of

discharging that 1 lb. of water by filtration, no effect is produced

beyond what is due to the relative temperatures of the rain and of the

soil."

It has been established by experiment that four times as much heat is

required to evaporate a certain quantity of water, as to raise the same

quantity from the freezing to the boiling point.

It is, probably, in consequence of this cooling effect of evaporation,

that wet lands are warmest when shaded, because, under this condition,

evaporation is less active. Such lands, in cloudy weather, form an

unnatural growth, such as results in the "lodging" of grain crops, from

the deficient strength of the straw which this growth produces.

In hot weather, the temperature of the lower soil is, of course, much

lower than that of the air, and lower than that of the water of warm

rains. If the soil is saturated with water, the water will, of course, be

of an even temperature with the soil in which it lies, but if this be

drained off, warm air will enter from above, and give its heat to the

soil, while each rain, as it falls, will also carry its heat with it.

Furthermore, the surface of the ground is sometimes excessively heated by

the summer sun, and the heat thus contained is carried down to the lower

soil by the descending water of rains, which thus cool the surface and

warm the subsoil, both beneficial.

Mr. Josiah Parkes, one of the leading draining engineers of England, has

made some experiments to test the extent to which draining affects the

temperature of the soil. The results of his observations are thus stated

by Gisborne: "Mr. Parkes gives the temperature on a Lancashire flat moss,

but they only commence 7 inches below the surface, and do not extend to

mid-summer. At that period of the year the temperature, at 7 inches, never

exceeded 66 deg., and was generally from 10 deg. to 15 deg. below the temperature of

the air in the shade, at 4 feet above the earth. Mr. Parkes' experiments

were made simultaneously, on a drained, and on an undrained portion of the

moss; and the result was, that, on a mean of 35 observations, the drained

soil at 7 inches in depth was 10 deg. warmer than the undrained, at the same

depth. The undrained soil never exceeded 47 deg., whereas, after a thunder

storm, the drained reached 66 deg. at 7 inches, and 48 deg. at 31 inches. Such

were the effects, at an early period of the year, on a black bog. They

suggest some idea of what they were, when, in July or August, thunder rain

at 60 deg. or 70 deg. falls on a surface heated to 130 deg., and carries down with it,

into the greedy fissures of the earth, its augmented temperature. These

advantages, porous soils possess by nature, and retentive ones only

acquire them by drainage."

Drained land, being more open to atmospheric circulation, and having lost

the water which prevented the temperature of its lower portions from being

so readily affected by the temperature of the air as it is when dry, will

freeze to a greater depth in winter and thaw out earlier in the spring.

The deep freezing has the effect to greatly pulverize the lower soil, thus

better fitting it for the support of vegetation; and the earlier thawing

makes it earlier ready for spring work.

*Drought.*--At first thought, it is not unnatural to suppose that draining

will increase the ill effect of too dry seasons, by removing water which

might keep the soil moist. Experience has proven, however, that the result

is exactly the opposite of this. Lands which suffer most from drought are

most benefited by draining,--more in their greater ability to withstand

drought than in any other particular.

The reasons for this action of draining become obvious, when its effects

on the character of the soil are examined. There is always the same amount

of water in, and about, the surface of the earth. In winter there is more

in the soil than in summer, while in summer, that which has been dried out

of the soil exists in the atmosphere in the form of a _vapor_. It is held

in the vapory form by _heat_, which may be regarded as _braces_ to keep it

distended. When vapor comes in contact with substances sufficiently colder

than itself, it gives up its heat,--thus losing its braces,--contracts,

becomes liquid water, and is deposited as dew.

Many instances of this operation are familiar to all.

For instance, a cold pitcher in the summer robs the vapor in the air of

its heat, and causes it to be deposited on its own surface,--of course the

water comes from the atmosphere, not through the wall of the pitcher; if

we breathe on a knife blade, it condenses, in the same manner, the

moisture of the breath, and becomes covered with a film of-water;

stone-houses are damp in summer, because the inner surface of their walls,

being cooler than the atmosphere, causes its moisture to be deposited in

the manner described;(2) nearly every night, in summer, the cold earth

receives moisture from the atmosphere in the form of dew; a single large

head of cabbage, which at night is very cold, often condenses water to the

amount of a gill or more.

The same operation takes place in the soil. When the air is allowed to

circulate among its lower and cooler, (because more shaded,) particles,

they receive moisture by the same process of condensation. Therefore,

when, by the aid of under-drains, the lower soil becomes sufficiently

loose and open, to allow a circulation of air, the deposit of atmospheric

moisture will keep it supplied with water, at a point easily accessible to

the roots of plants.

If we wish to satisfy ourselves that this is practically correct, we have

only to prepare two boxes of finely pulverized soil,--one three or four

inches deep,--and the other fifteen or twenty inches deep, and place them

in the sun, at midday, in summer. The thinner soil will soon be completely

dried, while the deeper one, though it may have been previously dried in

an oven, will soon accumulate a large amount of water on those particles

which, being lower and better sheltered from the sun's heat than the

particles of the thin soil, are made cooler.

We have seen that even the most retentive soil,--the stiffest clay,--is made

porous by the repeated passage of water from the surface to the level of

the drains, and that the ability to admit air, which plowing gives it, is

maintained for a much longer time than if it were usually saturated with

water which has no other means of escape than by evaporation at the

surface. The power of dry soils to absorb moisture from the air may be

seen by an examination of the following table of results obtained by

Schuebler, who exposed 1,000 grains of dried soil of the various kinds

named to the action of the air:

Kind of Soil. Amount of Water Absorbed

in 24 Hours.

Common Soil 22 grains.

Loamy Clay 26 grains.

Garden Soil 45 grains.

Brickmakers' Clay 30 grains.

The effect of draining in overcoming drought, by admitting atmospheric

vapor will, of course, be very much increased if the land be thoroughly

loosened by cultivation, and especially if the surface be kept in an open

and mellow condition.

In addition to the moisture received from the air, as above described,

water is, in a porous soil, drawn up from the wetter subsoil below, by the

same attractive force which acts to wet the whole of a sponge of which

only the lower part touches the water;--as a hard, dry, compact sponge will

absorb water much less readily than one which is loose and open, so the

hard clods, into which undrained clay is dried, drink up water much less

freely than they will do after draining shall have made them more friable.

The source of this underground moisture is the "water table,"--the level of

the soil below the influence of the drains,--and this should be so placed

that, while its water will easily rise to a point occupied by the feeding

roots of the crop, it should yield as little as possible for evaporation

at the surface.

Another source of moisture, in summer, is the deposit of dew on the

surface of the ground. The amount of this is very difficult to determine,

and accurate American experiments on the subject are wanting. Of course

the amount of dew is greater here than in England, where Dr. Dalton, a

skillful examiner of atmospheric phenomena, estimates the annual deposit

of dew to equal a depth of five inches, or about one-fifth of the

rain-fall. Water thus deposited on the soil is absorbed more or less

completely, in proportion to the porosity of the ground.

The extent to which plants will be affected by drought depends, other

things being equal, on the depth to which they send their roots. If these

lie near the surface, they will be parched by the heat of the sun. If they

strike deeply into the damper subsoil, the sun will have less effect on

the source from which they obtain their moisture. Nothing tends so much to

deep rooting, as the thorough draining of the soil. If the _free_ water be

withdrawn to a considerable distance from the surface, plants,--even

without the valuable aid of deep and subsoil plowing,--will send their

roots to great depths. Writers on this subject cite many instances in

which the roots of ordinary crops "not mere hairs, but strong fibres, as

large as pack-thread," sink to the depth of 4, 6, and in some instances 12

or 14 feet. Certain it is that, in a healthy, well aerated soil, any of

the plants ordinarily cultivated in the garden or field will send their

roots far below the parched surface soil; but if the subsoil is wet, cold,

and soggy, at the time when the young crop is laying out its plan of

future action, it will perforce accommodate its roots to the limited space

which the comparatively dry surface soil affords.

It is well known among those who attend the meetings of the Farmers' Club

of the American Institute, in New York, that the farm of Professor Mapes,

near Newark, N.J., which maintains its wonderful fertility, year after

year, without reference to wet or dry weather, has been rendered almost

absolutely indifferent to the severest drought, by a course of cultivation

which has been rendered possible only by under-draining. The lawns of the

Central Park, which are a marvel of freshness, when the lands about the

Park are burned brown, owe their vigor mainly to the complete drainage of

the soil. What is true of these thoroughly cultivated lands, it is

practicable to attain on all soils, which, from their compact condition,

are now almost denuded of vegetation in dry seasons.

*Porosity or Mellowness.*--An open and mellow condition of the soil is

always favorable for the growth of plants. They require heat, fresh air

and moisture, to enable them to take up the materials on which they live,

and by which they grow. We have seen that the heat of retentive soils is

almost directly proportionate to the completeness with which their free

water is removed by underground draining, and that, by reason of the

increased facility with which air and water circulate within them, their

heat is more evenly distributed among all those parts of the soil which

are occupied by roots. The word _moisture_, in this connection, is used in

contradistinction to _wetness_, and implies a condition of freshness and

dampness,--not at all of saturation. In a saturated, a soaking-wet soil,

every space between the particles is filled with water to the entire

exclusion of the atmosphere, and in such a soil only aquatic plants will

grow. In a _dry_ soil, on the other hand, when the earth is contracted

into clods and baked, almost as in an oven,--one of the most important

conditions for growth being wanting,--nothing can thrive, save those plants

which ask of the earth only an anchoring place, and seek their nourishment

from the air. Both air plants and water plants have their wisely assigned

places in the economy of nature, and nature provides them with ample space

for growth. Agriculture, however, is directed to the production of a class

of plants very different from either of these,--to those which can only

grow to their greatest perfection in a soil combining, not one or two

only, but all three of the conditions named above. While they require

heat, they cannot dispense with the moisture which too great heat removes;

while they require moisture, they cannot abide the entire exclusion of

air, nor the dissipation of heat which too much water causes. The interior

part of the pellets of a well pulverized soil should contain all the water

that they can hold by their own absorptive power, just as the finer walls

of a damp sponge hold it; while the spaces between these pellets, like the

pores of the sponge, should be filled with air.

In such a soil, roots can extend in any direction, and to considerable

depth, without being parched with thirst, or drowned in stagnant water,

and, other things being equal, plants will grow to their greatest possible

size, and all their tissues will be of the best possible texture. On rich

land, which is maintained in this condition of porosity and mellowness,

agriculture will produce its best results, and will encounter the fewest

possible chances of failure. Of course, there are not many such soils to

be found, and such absolute balance between warmth and moisture in the

soil cannot be maintained at all times, and under all circumstances, but

the more nearly it is maintained, the more nearly perfect will be the

results of cultivation.

*Chemical Action in the Soil.*--Plants receive certain of their

constituents from the soil, through their roots. The raw materials from

which these constituents are obtained are the minerals of the soil, the

manures which are artificially applied, water, and certain substances

which are taken from the air by the absorptive action of the soil, or are

brought to it by rains, or by water flowing over the surface from other

land.

The mineral matters, which constitute the ashes of plants, when burned,

are not mere accidental impurities which happen to be carried into their

roots in solution in the water which supplies the sap, although they vary

in character and proportion with each change in the mineral composition of

the soil. It is proven by chemical analysis, that the composition of the

ashes, not only of different species of plants, but of different parts of

the same plant, have distinctive characters,--some being rich in

phosphates, and others in silex; some in potash, and others in lime,--and

that these characters are in a measure the same, in the same plants or

parts of plants, without especial reference to the soil on which they

grow. The minerals which form the ashes of plants, constitute but a very

small part of the soil, and they are very sparsely distributed throughout

the mass; existing in the interior of its particles, as well as upon their

surfaces. As roots cannot penetrate to the interior of pebbles and compact

particles of earth, in search of the food which they require, but can only

take that which is exposed on their surfaces, and, as the oxydizing effect

of atmospheric air is useful in preparing the crude minerals for

assimilation, as well as in decomposing the particles in which they are

bound up,--a process which is allied to the _rusting_ of metals,--the more

freely atmospheric air is allowed, or induced, to circulate among the

inner portions of the soil, the more readily are its fertilizing parts

made available for the use of roots. By no other process, is air made to

enter so deeply, nor to circulate so readily in the soil, as by

under-draining, and the deep cultivation which under-draining facilitates.

Of the manures which are applied to the land, those of a mineral character

are affected by draining, in the same manner as the minerals which are

native to the soil; while organic, or animal and vegetable, manures,

(especially when applied, as is usual, in an incompletely fermented

condition,) absolutely require fresh supplies of atmospheric air, to

continue the decomposition which alone can prepare them for their proper

effect on vegetation.

If kept saturated with water, so that the air is excluded, animal manures

lie nearly inert, and vegetable matters decompose but

incompletely,--yielding acids which are injurious to vegetation, and which

would not be formed in the presence of a sufficient supply of air. An

instance is cited by H. Wauer where sheep dung was preserved, for five

years, by excessive moisture, which kept it from the air. If the soil be

saturated with water in the spring, and, in summer, (by the compacting of

its surface, which is caused by evaporation,) be closed against the

entrance of air, manures will be but slowly decomposed, and will act but

imperfectly on the crop,--if, on the other hand, a complete system of

drainage be adopted, manures, (and the roots which have been left in the

ground by the previous crop,) will be readily decomposed, and will

exercise their full influence on the soil, and on the plants growing in

it.

Again, manures are more or less effective, in proportion as they are more

or less thoroughly mixed with the soil. In an undrained, retentive soil,

it is not often possible to attain that perfect _tilth_, which is best

suited for a proper admixture, and which is easily given after thorough

draining.

The soil must be regarded as the laboratory in which nature, during the

season of growth, is carrying on those hidden, but indispensable chemical

separations, combinations, and re-combinations, by which the earth is made

to bear its fruits, and to sustain its myriad life. The chief demand of

this laboratory is for free ventilation. The raw material for the work is

at hand,--as well in the wet soil as in the dry; but the door is sealed,

the damper is closed, and only a stray whiff of air can, now and then,

gain entrance,--only enough to commence an analysis, or a combination,

which is choked off when half complete, leaving food for sorrel, but

making none for grass. We must throw open door and window, draw away the

water in which all is immersed, let in the air, with its all destroying,

and, therefore, all re-creating oxygen, and leave the forces of nature's

beneficent chemistry free play, deep down in the ground. Then may we hope

for the full benefit of the fertilizing matters which our good soil

contains, and for the full effect of the manures which we add.

With our land thoroughly improved, as has been described, we may carry on

the operations of farming with as much certainty of success, and with as

great immunity from the ill effects of unfavorable weather, as can be

expected in any business, whose results depend on such a variety of

circumstances. We shall have substituted certainty for chance, as far as

it is in our power to do so, and shall have made farming an art, rather

than a venture.

CHAPTER III. - HOW TO GO TO WORK TO LAY OUT A SYSTEM OF DRAINS.

How to lay out the drains; where to place the outlet; where to locate the

main collecting lines; how to arrange the laterals which are to take the

water from the soil and deliver it at the mains; how deep to go; at what

intervals; what fall to give; and what sizes of tile to use,--these are all

questions of great importance to one who is about to drain land.

On the proper adjustment of these points, depend the _economy_ and

_effectiveness_ of the work. Time and attention given to them, before

commencing actual operations, will prevent waste and avoid failure. Any

person of ordinary intelligence may qualify himself to lay out

under-drains and to superintend their construction,--but the knowledge

which is required does not come by nature. Those who have not the time for

the necessary study and practice to make a plan for draining their land,

will find it economical to employ an engineer for the purpose. In this era

of railroad building, there is hardly a county in America which has not a

practical surveyor, who may easily qualify himself, by a study of the

principles and directions herein set forth, to lay out an economical plan

for draining any ordinary agricultural land, to stake the lines, and to

determine the grade of the drains, and the sizes of tile with which they

should be furnished.

On this subject Mr. Gisborne says: "If we should give a stimulus to

amateur draining, we shall do a great deal of harm. We wish we could

publish a list of the moneys which have been squandered in the last 40

years in amateur draining, either ineffectually or with very imperfect

efficiency. Our own name would be inscribed in the list for a very

respectable sum. Every thoughtless squire supposes that, with the aid of

his ignorant bailiff, he can effect a perfect drainage of his estate; but

there is a worse man behind the squire and the bailiff,--the draining

conjuror. * * * * * * These fellows never go direct about their work. If

they attack a spring, they try to circumvent it by some circuitous route.

They never can learn that nature shows you the weakest point, and that you

should assist her,--that _hit him straight in the eye_ is as good a maxim

in draining as in pugilism. * * * * * * If you wish to drain, we recommend

you to take advice. We have disposed of the quack, but there is a faculty,

not numerous but extending, and whose extension appears to us to be

indispensable to the satisfactory progress of improvements by draining,--a

faculty of draining engineers. If we wanted a profession for a lad who

showed any congenial talent, we would bring him up to be a draining

engineer." He then proceeds to speak of his own experience in the matter,

and shows that, after more than thirty years of intelligent practice, he

employed Mr. Josiah Parkes to lay out and superintend his work, and thus

effected a saving, (after paying all professional charges,) of fully

twelve per cent. on the cost of the draining, which was, at the same time,

better executed than any that he had previously done.

It is probable that, in nearly all amateur draining, the unnecessary

frequency of the lateral drains; the extravagant size of the pipes used;

and the number of useless angles which result from an unskillful

arrangement, would amount to an expense equal to ten times the cost of the

proper superintendence, to say nothing of the imperfect manner in which

the work is executed. A common impression seems to prevail, that if a

2-inch pipe is good, a 3-inch pipe must be better, and that, generally, if

draining is worth doing at all, it is worth overdoing; while the great

importance of having perfectly fitting connections is not readily

perceived. The general result is, that most of the tile-draining in this

country has been too expensive for economy, and too careless for lasting

efficiency.

It is proposed to give, in this chapter, as complete a description of the

preliminary engineering of draining as can be concentrated within a few

pages, and a hope is entertained, that it will, at least, convey an idea

of the importance of giving a full measure of thought and ingenuity to the

maturing of the _plan_, before the execution of the work is commenced.

"Farming upon paper" has never been held in high repute, but draining upon

paper is less a subject for objection. With a good map of the farm,

showing the comparative levels of outlet, hill, dale, and plain, and the

sizes and boundaries of the different in closures, a profitable winter may

be passed,--with pencil and rubber,--in deciding on a plan which will do the

required work with the least possible length of drain, and which will

require the least possible extra deep cutting; and in so arranging the

main drains as to require the smallest possible amount of the larger and

more costly pipes; or, if only a part of the farm is to be drained during

the coming season, in so arranging the work that it will dovetail nicely

with future operations. A mistake in actual work is costly, and, (being

buried under the ground,) is not easily detected, while errors in drawing

upon paper are always obvious, and are remedied without cost.

For the purpose of illustrating the various processes connected with the

laying out of a system of drainage, the mode of operating on a field of

ten acres will be detailed, in connection with a series of diagrams

showing the progress of the work.

*A Map of the Land* is first made, from a careful survey. This should be

plotted to a scale of 50 or 100 feet to the inch,(3) and should exhibit

the location of obstacles which may interfere with the regularity of the

drains,--such as large trees, rocks, etc., and the existing swamps, water

courses, springs, and open drains. (Fig. 4.)

The next step is to locate the contour lines of the land, or the lines of

equal elevation,--also called the _horizontal lines_,--which serve to show

the shape of the surface. To do this, stake off the field into squares of

50 feet, by first running a base line through the center of the greatest

length of the field, marking it with stakes at intervals of 50 feet, then

stake other lines, also at intervals of 50 feet, perpendicular to the base

line, and then note the position of the stakes on the maps; next, by the

aid of an engineer's level and staff, ascertain the height, (above an

imaginary plain below the lowest part of the field,) of the surface of the

ground at each stake, and note this elevation at its proper point on the

map. This gives a plot like Fig. 5. The best instrument with which to take

these levels, is the ordinary telescope-level used by railroad engineers,

shown in Fig. 6, which has a telescope with cross hairs intersecting each

other in the center of the line of sight, and a "bubble" placed exactly

parallel to this line. The instrument, fixed on a tripod, and so adjusted

that it will turn to any point of the compass without disturbing the

position of the bubble, will, (as will its "line of sight,") revolve in a

perfectly horizontal plane. It is so placed as to command a view of a

considerable stretch of the field, and its height above the imaginary

plane is measured, an attendant places next to one of the stakes a

levelling rod, (Fig. 7,) which is divided into feet and fractions of a

foot, and is furnished with a movable target, so painted that its center

point may be plainly seen. The attendant raises and lowers the target,

until it comes exactly in the line of sight; its height on the rod denotes

the height of the instrument above the level of the ground at that stake,

and, as the height of the instrument above the imaginary plane has been

reached, by subtracting one elevation from the other, the operator

determines the height of the ground at that stake above the imaginary

plane,--which is called the "_datum line_."

[Illustration: Fig. 4 - MAP OF LAND, WITH SWAMPS, ROCKS, SPRINGS AND

TREES. INTENDED TO REPRESENT A FIELD OF TEN ACRES BEFORE DRAINING.]

Fig. 4 - MAP OF LAND, WITH SWAMPS, ROCKS, SPRINGS AND TREES. INTENDED TO

REPRESENT A FIELD OF TEN ACRES BEFORE DRAINING.

[Illustration: Fig. 5 - MAP WITH 50-FOOT SQUARES, AND CONTOUR LINES.]

Fig. 5 - MAP WITH 50-FOOT SQUARES, AND CONTOUR LINES.

[Illustration: Fig. 5 - MAP WITH 50-FOOT SQUARES, AND CONTOUR LINES.]

Fig. 6 - LEVELLING INSTRUMENT.(4)

[Illustration: Fig. 7 - LEVELLING ROD.]

Fig. 7 - LEVELLING ROD.

The next operation is to trace, on the plan, lines following the same

level, wherever the land is of the proper height for its surface to meet

them. For the purpose of illustrating this operation, lines at intervals

of elevation of one foot are traced on the plan in Fig. 8. And these lines

show, with sufficient accuracy for practical purposes, the elevation and

rate of inclination of all parts of the field,--where it is level or nearly

so, where its rise is rapid, and where slight. As the land rises one foot

from the position of one line to the position of the line next above it,

where the distance from one line to the next is great, the land is more

nearly level, and when it is short the inclination is steeper. For

instance, in the southwest corner of the plan, the land is nearly level to

the 2-foot line; it rises slowly to the center of the field, and to the

eastern side about one-fourth of the distance from the southern boundary,

while an elevation coming down between these two valleys, and others

skirting the west side of the former one and the southern side of the

latter, are indicated by the greater nearness of the lines. The points at

which the contour lines cross the section lines are found in the following

manner: On the second line from the west side of the field we find the

elevations of the 4th, 5th and 6th stakes from the southern boundary to be

1.9, 3.3, and 5.1. The contour lines, representing points of elevation of

2, 3, 4, and 5 feet above the _datum line_, will cross the 50-foot lines

at their intersections, only where these intersections are marked in even

feet. When they are marked with fractions of a foot, the lines must be

made to cross at points between two intersections,--nearer to one or the

other, according to their elevations,--thus between 1.9 and 3.3, the 2-foot

and 3-foot contour lines must cross. The total difference of elevation,

between the two points is 3.3--1.9=1.4; 10/14 of the space must be given to

the even foot between the lines, and the 2-foot line should be 1/14 of the

space above the point 1.9;--the 3-foot line will then come 3/14 below the

point 3.3. In the same manner, the line from 3.3 to 5.1 is divided into 18

parts, of which 10 go to the space between the 4. and 5. lines, 7 are

between 3.3 and the 4-foot line, and 1 between the 5-foot line and 5.1.

[Illustration: Fig. 8 - MAP WITH CONTOUR LINES.]

Fig. 8 - MAP WITH CONTOUR LINES.

With these maps, made from observations taken in the field, we are

prepared to lay down, on paper, our system of drainage, and to mature a

plan which shall do the necessary work with the least expenditure of labor

and material. The more thoroughly this plan is considered, the more

economical and effective will be the work. Having already obtained the

needed information, and having it all before us, we can determine exactly

the location and size of each drain, and arrange, before hand, for a rapid

and satisfactory execution of the work. The only thing that may interfere

with the perfect application of the plan, is the presence of masses of

underground rock, within the depth to which the drains are to be laid.(5)

Where these are supposed to exist, soundings should be made, by driving a

3/4-inch pointed iron rod to the rock, or to a depth of _five_ feet where

the rock falls away. By this means, measuring the distance from the

soundings to the ranges of the stakes, we can denote on the map the shape

and depth of sunken rocks. The shaded spot on the east side of the map,

(Fig. 8,) indicates a rock three feet from the surface, which will be

assumed to have been explored by sounding.

In most cases, it will be sufficient to have contour lines taken only at

intervals of two feet, and, owing to the smallness of the scale on which

these maps are engraved, and to avoid complication in the finished plan,

where so much else must be shown, each alternate line is omitted. Of

course, where drains are at once staked out on the land, by a practiced

engineer, no contour lines are taken, as by the aid of the level and rod

for the flatter portions, and by the eye alone for the steeper slopes, he

will be able at once to strike the proper locations and directions; but

for one of less experience, who desires to thoroughly mature his plan

before commencing, they are indispensable; and their introduction here

will enable the novice to understand, more clearly than would otherwise be

possible, the principles on which the plan should be made.

[Illustration: Fig. 9 - WELL'S CLINOMETER.]

Fig. 9 - WELL'S CLINOMETER.

For preliminary examinations, and for all purposes in which great accuracy

is not required, the little instrument shown in Fig. 9,--"Wells'

Clinometer,"--is exceedingly simple and convenient. Its essential parts are

a flat side, or base, on which it stands, and a hollow disk just half

filled with some heavy liquid. The glass face of the disk is surrounded by

a graduated scale that marks the angle at which the surface of the liquid

stands, with reference to the flat base. The line 0.----0. being parallel to

the base, when the liquid stands on that line, the flat side is

horizontal; the line 90.----90. being perpendicular to the base, when the

liquid stands on that line, the flat side is perpendicular or _plumb_. In

like manner, the intervening angles are marked, and, by the aid of the

following tables, the instrument indicates the rate of fall per hundred

feet of horizontal measurement, and per hundred feet measured upon the

sloping line.(6)

Table No. 1 shows the rise of the slope for 100 feet of the horizontal

measurement. Example: If the horizontal distance is 100 feet, and the

slope is at an angle of 15 deg., the rise will be 17-633/1000 feet.

Table No. 2 shows the rise of the slope for 100 feet of its own length. If

the sloping line, (at an angle of 15 deg.,) is 100 feet long, it rises 25.882

feet.

TABLE No. 1.

DEG. FEET.

5 8.749

10 17.663

15 26.795

20 36.397

25 46.631

30 57.735

35 70.021

40 83.910

45 100.--

50 119.175

55 142.815

60 173.205

65 214.451

70 274.748

75 373.205

80 567.128

85 1143.01

TABLE No. 2

DEG. FEET.

5 8.716

10 17.365

15 25.882

20 34.202

25 42.262

30 50.--

35 57.358

40 64.279

45 70.711

50 76.604

55 81.915

60 86.602

65 90.631

70 93.969

75 96.593

80 98.481

85 99.619

With the maps before him, showing the surface features of the field, and

the position of the under-ground rock, the drainer will have to consider

the following points:

1. Where, and at what depth, shall the outlet be placed?

2. What shall be the location, the length and the depth of the main drain?

3. What subsidiary mains,--or collecting drains,--shall connect the minor

valleys with the main?

4. What may best be done to collect the water of large springs and carry

it away?

5. What provision is necessary to collect the water that flows over the

surface of out-cropping rock, or along springy lines on side hills or

under banks?

6. What should be the depth, the distance apart, the direction, and the

rate of _fall_, of the lateral drains?

7. What kind and sizes of tile should be used to form the conduits?

8. What provision should be made to prevent the obstruction of the drains,

by an accumulation of silt or sand, which may enter the tiles immediately

after they are laid, and before the earth becomes compacted about them;

and from the entrance of vermin?

1. The outlet should be at the lowest point of the boundary, unless, (for

some especial reason which does not exist in the case under consideration,

nor in any usual case,) it is necessary to seek some other than the

natural outfall; and it should be deep enough to take the water of the

main drain, and laid on a sufficient inclination for a free flow of the

water. It should, where sufficient fall can be obtained without too great

cost, deliver this water over a step of at least a few inches in height,

so that the action of the drain may be seen, and so that it may not be

liable to be clogged by the accumulation of silt, (or mud,) in the open

ditch into which it flows.

2. The main drain should, usually, be run as nearly in the lowest part of

the principal valley as is consistent with tolerable straightness. It is

better to cut across the point of a hill, to the extent of increasing the

depth for a few rods, than to go a long distance out of the direct course

to keep in the valley, both because of the cost of the large tile used in

the main, and of the loss of fall occasioned by the lengthening of the

line. The main should be continued from the outlet to the point at which

it is most convenient to collect the more remote sub-mains, which bring

together the water of several sets of laterals. As is the case in the

tract under consideration, the depth of the main is often restricted, in

nearly level land, toward the upper end of the flat which lies next to the

outlet, by the necessity for a fall and the difficulty which often exists

in securing a sufficiently low outlet. In such case, the only rule is to

make it as deep as possible. When the fall is sufficient, it should be

placed at such depth as will allow the laterals and sub-mains which

discharge into it to enter at its top, and discharge above the level of

the water which flows through it.

[Illustration: Fig. 10 - STONE PIT TO CONNECT SPRING WITH DRAIN.]

Fig. 10 - STONE PIT TO CONNECT SPRING WITH DRAIN.

3. Subsidiary mains, or _sub-mains_, connecting with the main drains,

should be run up the minor valleys of the land, skirting the bases of the

hills. Where the valley is a flat one, with rising ground at each side,

there should be a sub-main, to receive the laterals from _each_ hill side.

As a general rule, it may be stated, that the collecting drain at the foot

of a slope should be placed on the line which is first reached by the

water flowing directly down over its surface, before it commences its

lateral movement down the valley; and it should, if possible, be so

arranged that it shall have a uniform descent for its whole distance. The

proper arrangement of these collecting drains requires more skill and

experience than any other branch of the work, for on their disposition

depends, in a great measure, the economy and success of the undertaking.

4. Where springs exist, there should be some provision made for collecting

their water in pits filled with loose stone, gravel, brush or other

rubbish, or furnished with several lengths of tile set on end, one above

the other, or with a barrel or other vessel; and a line of tile of proper

size should be run directly to a main, or sub-main drain. The manner of

doing this by means of a pit filled with stone is shown in Fig. 10. The

collection of spring water in a vertical tile basin is shown in Fig. 11.

[Illustration: Fig. 11 - STONE AND TILE BASIN FOR SPRING WITH DRAIN.]

Fig. 11 - STONE AND TILE BASIN FOR SPRING WITH DRAIN.

5. Where a ledge of shelving rock, of considerable size, occurs on land to

be drained, it is best to make some provision for collecting, at its base,

the water flowing over its surface, and taking it at once into the drains,

so that it may not make the land near it unduly wet. To effect this, a

ditch should be dug along the base of the rock, and _quite down to it_,

considerably deeper than the level of the proposed drainage; and this

should be filled with small stones to that level, with a line of tile laid

on top of the stones, a uniform bottom for the tile to rest upon being

formed of cheap strips of board. The tile and stone should then be covered

with inverted sods, with wood shavings, or with other suitable material,

which will prevent the entrance of earth, (from the covering of the

drain,) to choke them. The water, following down the surface of the rock,

will rise through the stone work and, entering the tile, will flow off.

This method may be used for springy hill sides.

6. The points previously considered relate only to the collection of

unusual quantities of water, (from springs and from rock surfaces,) and to

the removal from the land of what is thus collected, and of that which

flows from the minor or lateral drains.

The _lateral drains_ themselves constitute the real drainage of the field,

for, although main lines take water from the land on each side, their

action in this regard is not usually considered, in determining either

their depth or their location, and they play an exceedingly small part in

the more simple form of drainage,--that in which a large tract of land, of

perfectly uniform slope, is drained by parallel lines of equal length, all

discharging into a single main, running across the foot of the field. The

land would be equally well drained, if the parallel lines were continued

to an open ditch beyond its boundary,--the main tile drain is only adopted

for greater convenience and security. It will simplify the question if, in

treating the _theory_ of lateral drains, it be assumed that our field is

of this uniform inclination, and admits of the use of long lines of

parallel drains. In fact, it is best in practice to approximate as nearly

as possible to this arrangement, because deviations from it, though always

necessary in broken land, are always more expensive, and present more

complicated engineering problems. If all the land to be drained had a

uniform fall, in a single direction, there would be but little need of

engineering skill, beyond that which is required to establish the depth,

fall, and distance apart, at which the drains should be laid. It is

chiefly when the land pitches in different directions, and with varying

inclination, that only a person skilled in the arrangement of drains, or

one who will give much consideration to the subject, can effect the

greatest economy by avoiding unnecessary complication, and secure the

greatest efficiency by adjusting the drains to the requirements of the

land.

Assuming the land to have an unbroken inclination, so as to require only

parallel drains, it becomes important to know how these parallel drains,

(corresponding to the _lateral drains_ of an irregular system,) should be

made.

The history of land draining is a history of the gradual progress of an

improvement, from the accomplishment of a single purpose, to the

accomplishment of several purposes, and most of the instruction which

modern agricultural writers have given concerning it, has shown too great

dependence upon the teachings of their predecessors, who considered well

the single object which they sought to attain, but who had no conception

that draining was to be so generally valuable as it has become. The

effort, (probably an unconscious one,) to make the theories of modern

thorough-draining conform to those advanced by the early practitioners,

seems to have diverted attention from some more recently developed

principles, which are of much importance. For example, about a hundred

years ago, Joseph Elkington, of Warwickshire, discovered that, where land

is made too wet by under-ground springs, a skillful tapping of

these,--drawing off their water through suitable conduits,--would greatly

relieve the land, and for many years the Elkington System of drainage,

being a great improvement on every thing theretofore practiced, naturally

occupied the attention of the agricultural world, and the Board of

Agriculture appointed a Mr. Johnstone to study the process, and write a

treatise on the subject.

Catch-water drains, made so as to intercept a flow of surface water, have

been in use from immemorial time, and are described by the earliest

writers. Before the advent of the Draining Tile, covered drains were

furnished with stones, boards, brush, weeds, and various other rubbish,

and their good effect, very properly, claimed the attention of all

improvers of wet land. When the tile first made its appearance in general

practice, it was of what is called the "horse-shoe" form, and,--imperfect

though it was,--it was better than anything that had preceded it, and was

received with high approval, wherever it became known. The general use of

all these materials for making drains was confined to a system of

_partial_ drainage, until the publication of a pamphlet, in 1833, by Mr.

Smith, of Deanston, who advocated the drainage of the whole field, without

reference to springs. From this plan, but with important modifications in

matters of detail, the modern system of tile draining has grown. Many able

men have aided its progress, and have helped to disseminate a knowledge of

its processes and its effects, yet there are few books on draining, even

the most modern ones, which do not devote much attention to Elkington's

discovery; to the various sorts of stone and brush drains; and to the

manufacture and use of horse-shoe tile;--not treating them as matters of

antiquarian interest, but repeating the instructions for their

application, and allowing the reasoning on which their early use was

based, to influence, often to a damaging extent, their general

consideration of the modern practice of tile draining.

These processes are all of occasional use, even at this day, but they are

based on no fixed rules, and are so much a matter of traditional

knowledge, with all farmers, that instruction concerning them is not

needed. The kind of draining which is now under consideration, has for its

object the complete removal of all of the surplus water that reaches the

soil, from whatever source, and the assimilation of all wet soils to a

somewhat uniform condition, as to the ease with which water passes through

them.

There are instances, as has been shown, where a large spring, overflowing

a considerable area, or supplying the water of an annoying brook, ought to

be directly connected with the under-ground drainage, and its flow neatly

carried away; and, in other cases, the surface flow over large masses of

rock should be given easy entrance into the tile; but, in all ordinary

lands, whether swamps, springy hill sides, heavy clays, or light soils

lying on retentive subsoil, all ground, in fact, which needs

under-draining at all, should be laid dry above the level to which it is

deemed best to place the drains;--not only secured against the wetting of

springs and soakage water, but rapidly relieved of the water of heavy

rains. The water table, in short, should be lowered to the proper depth,

and, by permanent outlets at that depth, be prevented from ever rising,

for any considerable time, to a higher level. This being accomplished, it

is of no consequence to know whence the water comes, and Elkington's

system need have no place in our calculations. As round pipes, with

collars, are far superior to the "horse-shoe" tiles, and are equally easy

to obtain, it is not necessary to consider the manner in which these

latter should be used,--only to say that they ought not to be used at all.

The water which falls upon the surface is at once absorbed, settles

through the ground, until it reaches a point where the soil is completely

saturated, and raises the general water level. When this level reaches the

floor of the drains, the water enters at the joints and is carried off.

That which passes down through the land lying between the drains, bears

down upon that which has already accumulated in the soil, and forces it to

seek an outlet by rising into the drains.(7) For example, if a barrel,

standing on end, be filled with earth which is saturated with water, and

its bung be removed, the water of saturation, (that is, all which is not

held by attraction _in_ the particles of earth,) will be removed from so

much of the mass as lies above the bottom of the bung-hole. If a bucket of

water be now poured upon the top, it will not all run diagonally toward

the opening; it will trickle down to the level of the water remaining in

the barrel, and this level will rise and water will run off at the bottom

of the orifice. In this manner, the water, even below the drainage level,

is changed with each addition at the surface. In a barrel filled with

coarse pebbles, the water of saturation would maintain a nearly level

surface; if the material were more compact and retentive, a true level

would be attained only after a considerable time. Toward the end of the

flow, the water would stand highest at the points furthest distant from

the outlet. So, in the land, after a drenching rain, the water is first

removed to the full depth, near the line of the drain, and that midway

between two drains settles much more slowly, meeting more resistance from

below, and, for a long time, will remain some inches higher than the floor

of the drain. The usual condition of the soil, (except in very dry

weather,) would be somewhat as represented in the accompanying cut, (Fig.

12.)

[Illustration: Fig. 12 - LINE OF SATURATION BETWEEN DRAINS.]

Fig. 12 - LINE OF SATURATION BETWEEN DRAINS.

_YY are the draings. The curved line b is the line of saturation, which

has descended from a, and is approaching c._

To provide for this deviation of the line of saturation, in practice,

drains are placed deeper than would be necessary if the water sunk at once

to the level of the drain floor, the depth of the drains being increased

with the increasing distance between them.

Theoretically, every drop of water which falls on a field should sink

straight down to the level of the drains, and force a drop of water below

that level to rise into the drain and flow off. How exactly this is true

in nature cannot be known, and is not material. Drains made in pursuance

of this theory will be effective for any actual condition.

The _depth_ to which the water table should be withdrawn depends, not at

all on the character of the soil, but on the requirements of the crops

which are to be grown upon it, and these requirements are the same in all

soils,--consequently the depth should be the same in all.

What, then, shall that depth be? The usual practice of the most

experienced drainers seems to have fixed four feet as about the proper

depth, and the arguments against anything less than this, as well as some

reasons for supposing that to be sufficient, are so clearly stated by Mr.

Gisborne that it has been deemed best to quote his own words on the

subject:

"Take a flower-pot a foot deep, filled with dry soil. Place it in a saucer

containing three inches of water. The first effect will be, that the water

will rise through the hole in the bottom of the pot till the water which

fills the interstices between the soil is on a level with the water in the

saucer. This effect is by gravity. The upper surface of this water is our

water-table. From it water will ascend by attraction through the whole

body of soil till moisture is apparent at the surface. Put in your soil at

60 deg., a reasonable summer heat for nine inches in depth, your water at 47 deg.,

the seven inches' temperature of Mr. Parke's undrained bog; the attracted

water will ascend at 47 deg., and will diligently occupy itself in attempting

to reduce the 60 deg. soil to its own temperature. Moreover, no sooner will

the soil hold water of attraction, than evaporation will begin to carry it

off, and will produce the cold consequent thereon. This evaporated water

will be replaced by water of attraction at 47 deg., and this double cooling

process will go on till all the water in the water-table is exhausted.

Supply water to the saucer as fast as it disappears, and then the process

will be perpetual. The system of saucer-watering is reprobated by every

intelligent gardener; it is found by experience to chill vegetation;

besides which, scarcely any cultivated plant can dip its roots into

stagnant water with impunity. Exactly the process which we have described

in the flower-pot is constantly in operation on an undrained retentive

soil; the water-table may not be within nine inches of the surface, but in

very many instances it is within a foot or eighteen inches, at which level

the cold surplus oozes into some ditch or other superficial outlet. At

eighteen inches, attraction will, on the average of soils, act with

considerable power. Here, then, you have two obnoxious principles at work,

both producing cold, and the one administering to the other. The obvious

remedy is, to destroy their _united_ action; to break through their line

of communication. Remove your water of attraction to such a depth that

evaporation cannot act upon it, or but feebly. What is that depth? In

ascertaining this point we are not altogether without data. No doubt depth

diminishes the power of evaporation rapidly. Still, as water taken from a

30-inch drain is almost invariably two or three degrees colder than water

taken from four feet, and as this latter is generally one or two degrees

colder than water from a contiguous well several feet below, we can hardly

avoid drawing the conclusion that the cold of evaporation has considerable

influence at 30 inches, a much-diminished influence at four feet, and

little or none below that depth. If the water-table is removed to the

depth of four feet, when we have allowed 18 inches of attraction, we shall

still have 30 inches of defence against evaporation; and we are inclined

to believe that any prejudicial combined action of attraction and

evaporation is thereby well guarded against. The facts stated seem to

prove that less will not suffice.

"So much on the score of temperature; but this is not all. Do the roots of

esculents wish to penetrate into the earth--at least, to the depth of some

feet? We believe that they do. We are sure of the brassica tribe, of

grass, and clover. All our experience and observation deny the doctrine

that roots only ramble when they are stinted of food; that six inches well

manured is quite enough, better than more. Ask the Jerseyman; he will show

you a parsnip as thick as your thigh, and as long as your leg, and will

tell you of the advantages of 14 feet of dry soil. You will hear of

parsnips whose roots descend to unsearchable depths. We will not appeal to

the Kentucky carrot, which was drawn out by its roots at the antipodes;

but Mr. Mechi's, if we remember right, was a dozen feet or more. Three

years ago, in a midland county, a field of good land, in good cultivation,

and richly manured, produced a heavy crop of cabbages. In November of that

year we saw that field broken into in several places, and at the depth of

four feet the soil (a tenacious marl, fully stiff enough for brick-earth)

was occupied by the roots of cabbage, not sparingly--not mere capillae--but

fibres of the size of small pack-thread. A farmer manures a field of four

or five inches of free soil reposing on a retentive clay, and sows it with

wheat. It comes up, and between the kernel and the manure, it looks well

for a time, but anon it sickens. An Irish child looks well for five or six

years, but after that time potato-feeding, and filth, and hardship, begin

to tell. You ask what is amiss with the wheat, and you are told that when

its roots reach the clay, they are poisoned. This field is then

thorough-drained, deep, at least four feet. It receives again from the

cultivator the previous treatment; the wheat comes up well, maintains

throughout a healthy aspect, and gives a good return. What has become of

the poison? We have been told that the rain water filtered through the

soil has taken it into solution or suspension, and has carried it off

through the drains; and men who assume to be of authority put forward this

as one of the advantages of draining. If we believed it, we could not

advocate draining. We really should not have the face to tell our readers

that water, passing through soils containing elements prejudicial to

vegetation, would carry them off, but would leave those which are

beneficial behind. We cannot make our water so discriminating; the general

merit of water of deep drainage is, that it contains very little. Its

perfection would be that it should contain nothing. We understand that

experiments are in progress which have ascertained that water, charged

with matters which are known to stimulate vegetation, when filtered

through four feet of retentive soil, comes out pure. But to return to our

wheat. In the first case, it shrinks before the cold of evaporation and

the cold of water of attraction, and it sickens because its feet are never

dry; it suffers the usual maladies of cold and wet. In the second case,

the excess of cold by evaporation is withdrawn; the cold water of

attraction is removed out of its way; the warm air from the surface,

rushing in to supply the place of the water which the drains remove, and

the warm summer rains, bearing down with them the temperature which they

have acquired from the upper soil, carry a genial heat to its lowest

roots. Health, vigorous growth, and early maturity are the natural

consequences. * * * * * * * * *

"The practice so derided and maligned referring to deep draining has

advanced with wonderful strides. We remember the days of 15 inches; then a

step to 20; a stride to 30; and the last (and probably final) jump to 50,

a few inches under or over. We have dabbled in them all, generally

belonging to the deep section of the day. We have used the words 'probably

final,' because the first advances were experimental, and, though they

were justified by the results obtained, no one attempted to explain the

principle on which benefit was derived from them. The principles on which

the now prevailing depth is founded, and which we believe to be true, go

far to show that we have attained all the advantages which can be derived

from the removal of water in ordinary agriculture. We do not mean that,

even in the most retentive soil, water would not get into drains which

were laid somewhat deeper; but to this there must be a not very distant

limit, because pure clay, lying below the depth at which wet and drought

applied at surface would expand and contract it, would certainly part with

its water very slowly. We find that, in coal mines and in deep quarries, a

stratum of clay of only a few inches thick interposed between two strata

of pervious stone will form an effectual bar to the passage of water;

whereas, if it lay within a few feet of the surface, it would, in a season

of heat and drought become as pervious as a cullender. But when we have

got rid of the cold arising from the evaporation of free water, have given

a range of several feet to the roots of grass and cereals, and have

enabled retentive land to filter through itself all the rain which falls

upon its surface, we are not, in our present state of knowledge, aware of

any advantage which would arise from further lowering the surface of water

in agricultural land. Smith, of Deanston, first called prominent attention

to the fertilizing effects of rain filtered through land, and to evils

produced by allowing it to flow off the surface. Any one will see how much

more effectually this benefit will be attained, and this evil avoided, by

a 4-foot than a 2-foot drainage. The latter can only prepare two feet of

soil for the reception and retention of rain, which two feet, being

saturated, will reject more, and the surplus must run off the surface,

carrying whatever it can find with it. A 4-foot drainage will be

constantly tending to have four feet of soil ready for the reception of

rain, and it will take much more rain to saturate four feet than two.

Moreover, as a gimlet-hole bored four feet from the surface of a barrel

filled with water will discharge much more in a given time than a similar

hole bored at the depth of two feet, so will a 4-foot drain discharge in a

given time much more water than a drain of two feet. One is acted on by a

4-foot, and the other by a 2-foot pressure."

If any single fact connected with tile-drainage is established, beyond all

possible doubt, it is that in the stiffest clay soils ever cultivated,

drains four feet deep will act effectually; the water will find its way to

them, more and more freely and completely, as the drying of successive

years, and the penetration and decay of the roots of successive crops,

modify the character of the land, and they will eventually be practically

so porous that,--so far as the ease of drainage is concerned,--no

distinction need, in practice, be made between them and the less retentive

loams. For a few years, the line of saturation between the drains, as

shown in Fig. 11, may stand at all seasons considerably above the level of

the bottom of the tile, but it will recede year by year, until it will be

practically level, except immediately after rains.

Mr. Josiah Parkes recommends drains to be laid

"_At a minimum depth of four feet_, designed with the two-fold

object of not only freeing the active soil from stagnant and

injurious water, but of converting the water falling on the

surface into an agent for fertilizing; no drainage being deemed

efficient that did not both remove the water falling on the

surface, and 'keep down the subterranean water at a depth

exceeding the power of capillary attraction to elevate it near the

surface.'"

Alderman Mechi says:

"Ask nineteen farmers out of twenty, who hold strong clay land,

and they will tell you it is of no use placing deep four-foot

drains in such soils--the water cannot get in; a horse's foot-hole

(without an opening under it) will hold water like a basin; and so

on. Well, five minutes after, you tell the same farmers you

propose digging a cellar, well bricked, six or eight feet deep;

what is their remark? 'Oh! it's of no use your making an

underground cellar in our soil, you _can't keep the water_ OUT!'

Was there ever such an illustration of prejudice as this? What is

a drain pipe but a small cellar full of air? Then, again, common

sense tells us, you can't keep a light fluid under a heavy one.

You might as well try to keep a cork under water, as to try and

keep air under water. 'Oh! but then our soil isn't porous.' If

not, how can it hold water so readily? I am led to these

observations by the strong controversy I am having with some Essex

folks, who protest that I am mad, or foolish, for placing 1-inch

pipes, at four-foot depth, in strong clays. It is in vain I refer

to the numerous proofs of my soundness, brought forward by Mr.

Parkes, engineer to the Royal Agricultural Society, and confirmed

by Mr. Pusey. They still dispute it. It is in vain I tell them _I

cannot keep the rainwater out of_ socketed pipes, twelve feet

deep, that convey a spring to my farm yard. Let us try and

convince this large class of doubters; for it is of _national_

importance. Four feet of good porous clay would afford a far

better meal to some strong bean, or other tap roots, than the

usual six inches; and a saving of $4 to $5 per acre, in drainage,

is no trifle.

"The shallow, or non-drainers, assume that tenacious subsoils are

impervious or non-absorbent. This is entirely an erroneous

assumption. If soils were impervious, how could they get wet?

"I assert, and pledge my agricultural reputation for the fact,

that there are no earths or clays in this kingdom, be they ever so

tenacious, that will not readily receive, filter, and transmit

rain water to drains placed five or more feet deep.

"A neighbor of mine drained twenty inches deep in strong clay; the

ground cracked widely; the contraction destroyed the tiles, and

the rains washed the surface soils into the cracks and choked the

drains. He has since abandoned shallow draining.

"When I first began draining, I allowed myself to be overruled by

my obstinate man, Pearson, who insisted that, for top water, two

feet was a sufficient depth in a veiny soil. I allowed him to try

the experiment on two small fields; the result was, that nothing

prospered; and I am redraining those fields at _one-half_ the

cost, five and six feet deep, at intervals of 70 and 80 feet.

"I found iron-sand rocks, strong clay, silt, iron, etc., and an

enormous quantity of water, all _below_ the 2-foot drains. This

accounted at once for the sudden check the crops always met with

in May, when they wanted to send their roots down, but could not,

without going into stagnant water."

"There can be no doubt that it is the _depth_ of the drain which

regulates the escape of the surface water in a given time; regard

being had, as respects extreme distances, to the nature of the

soil, and a due capacity of the pipe. _The deeper the drain, even

in the strongest soils, the quicker the water escapes._ This is an

astounding but certain fact.

"That deep and distant drains, where a sufficient fall can be

obtained, are by far the most profitable, by affording to the

roots of the plants a greater range for food."

Of course, where the soil is underlaid by rock, less than four feet from

the surface; and where an outlet at that depth cannot be obtained, we

must, per force, drain less deeply, but where there exists no such

obstacle, drains should be laid at a _general_ depth of

four-feet,--general, not uniform, because the drain should have a uniform

inclination, which the surface of the land rarely has.

*The Distance between the Drains.*--Concerning this, there is less

unanimity of opinion among engineers, than prevails with regard to the

question of depth.

In tolerably porous soils, it is generally conceded that 40 or even 50

feet is sufficiently near for 4-foot drains, but, for the more retentive

clays, all distances from 18 feet to 50 feet are recommended, though those

who belong to the more narrow school are, as a rule, extending the limit,

as they see, in practice, the complete manner in which drains at wider

intervals perform their work. A careful consideration of the experience of

the past twenty years, and of the arguments of writers on drainage, leads

to the belief that there are few soils, which need draining at all, on

which it will be safe to place 4-foot drains at much wider intervals than

40 feet. In the lighter loams there are many instances of the successful

application of Professor Mapes' rule, that "3-foot drains should be placed

20 feet apart, and for each additional foot in depth the distance may be

doubled; for instance, 4-foot drains should be 40 feet apart, and 5-foot

drains 80 feet apart." But, with reference to the greater distance, (80

feet,) it is not to be recommended in stiff clays, for any depth of drain.

Where it is necessary, by reason of insufficient fall, or of underground

rock, to go only three feet deep, the drains should be as near together as

20 feet.

At first thought, it may seem akin to quackery to recommend a uniform

depth and distance, without reference to the character of the land to be

drained; and it is unquestionably true that an exact adaptation of the

work to the varying requirements of different soils would be beneficial,

though no system can be adopted which will make clay drain as freely as

sand. The fact is, that the adjustment of the distances between drains is

very far from partaking of the nature of an exact science, and there is

really very little known, by any one, of the principles on which it should

be based, or of the manner in which the bearing of those principles, in

any particular case, is affected by several circumstances which vary with

each change of soil, inclination and exposure.

In the essays on drainage which have been thus far published, there is a

vagueness in the arguments on this branch of the subject, which betrays a

want of definite conviction in the minds of the writers; and which tends

quite as much to muddle as to enlighten the ideas of the reader. In so far

as the directions are given, whether fortified by argument or not, they

are clearly empirical, and are usually very much qualified by

considerations which weigh with unequal force in different cases.

In laying out work, any skillful drainer will be guided, in deciding the

distance between the lines, by a judgment which has grown out of his

former experience; and which will enable him to adapt the work,

measurably, to the requirements of the particular soil under

consideration; but he would probably find it impossible to so state the

reasons for his decision, that they would be of any general value to

others.

Probably it will be a long time before rules on this subject, based on

well sustained _theory_, can be laid down with distinctness, and, in the

mean time, we must be guided by the results of practice, and must confine

ourselves to a distance which repeated trial, in various soils, has proven

to be safe for all agricultural land. In the drainage of the Central Park,

after a mature consideration of all that had been published on the

subject, and of a considerable previous observation and experience, it was

decided to adopt a general depth of four feet, and to adhere as closely as

possible to a uniform distance of forty feet. No instance was known of a

failure to produce good results by draining at that distance, and several

cases were recalled where drains at fifty and sixty feet had proved so

inefficient that intermediate lines became necessary. After from seven to

ten years' trial, the Central Park drainage, by its results, has shown

that,--although some of the land is of a very retentive character,--this

distance is not too great; and it is adopted here for recommendation to

all who have no especial reason for supposing that greater distances will

be fully effective in their more porous soils.

As has been before stated, drains at that distance, (or at any distance,)

will not remove all of the water of saturation from heavy clays so rapidly

as from more porous soil; but, although, in some cases, the drainage may

be insufficient during the first year, and not absolutely perfect during

the second and third years, the increased porosity which drainage causes,

(as the summer droughts make fissures in the earth, as decayed roots and

other organic deposits make these fissures permanent, and as chemical

action in the aerated soil changes its character,) will finally bring clay

soils to as perfect a condition as they are capable of attaining, and will

invariably render them excellent for cultivation.

*The Direction of the Laterals* should be _right up and down the slope of

the land_, in the line of steepest descent. For a long time after the

general adoption of thorough-draining, there was much discussion of this

subject, and much variation in practice. The influence of the old rules

for making surface or "catch-water" drains lasted for a long time, and

there was a general tendency to make tile drains follow the same

directions. An important requirement of these was that they should not

take so steep an inclination as to have their bottoms cut out and their

banks undermined by the rapid flow of water, and that they should arrest

and carry away the water flowing down over the surface of hill sides. The

arguments for the line of steepest descent were, however, so clear, and

drains laid on that line were so universally successful in practice, that

it was long ago adopted by all,--save those novices who preferred to gain

their education in draining in the expensive school of their own

experience.

The more important reasons why this direction is the best are the

following: First, it is the quickest way to get the water off. Its natural

tendency is to run straight down the hill, and nothing is gained by

diverting it from this course. Second, if the drain runs obliquely down

the hill, the water will be likely to run out at the joints of the tile

and wet the ground below it; even if it do not, mainly, run past the drain

from above into the land below, instead of being forced into the tile.

Third, a drain lying obliquely across a hillside will not be able to draw

the water from below up the hill toward it, and the water of nearly the

whole interval will have to seek its outlet through the drain below it.

Fourth, drains running directly down the hill will tap any porous water

bearing strata, which may crop out, at regular intervals, and will thus

prevent the spewing out of the water at the surface, as it might do if

only oblique drains ran for a long distance just above or just below them.

Very steep, and very springy hill sides, sometimes require very frequent

drains to catch the water which has a tendency to flow to the surface;

this, however, rarely occurs.

In laying out a plan for draining land of a broken surface, which inclines

in different directions, it is impossible to make the drains follow the

line of steepest descent, and at the same time to have them all parallel,

and at uniform distances. In all such cases a compromise must be made

between the two requirements. The more nearly the parallel arrangement can

be preserved, the less costly will the work be, while the more nearly we

follow the steepest slope of the ground, the more efficient will each

drain be. No rule for this adjustment can be given, but a careful study of

the plan of the ground, and of its contour lines, will aid in its

determination. On all irregular ground it requires great skill to secure

the greatest efficiency consistent with economy.

The _fall_ required in well made tile drains is very much less than would

be supposed, by an inexperienced person, to be necessary. Wherever

practicable, without too great cost, it is desirable to have a fall of one

foot in one hundred feet, but more than this in ordinary work is not

especially to be sought, although there is, of course, no objection to

very much greater inclination.

One half of that amount of fall, or six inches in one hundred feet, is

quite sufficient, if the execution of the work is carefully attended to.

The least rate of fall which it is prudent to give to a drain, in using

ordinary tiles, is 2.5 in 1,000, or three inches in one hundred feet, and

even this requires very careful work.(8) A fall of six inches in one

hundred feet is recommended whenever it can be easily obtained--not as

being more effective, but as requiring less precision, and consequently

less expense.

*Kinds and Sizes of Tiles.*--Agricultural drain-tiles are made of clay

similar to that which is used for brick. When burned, they are from twelve

inches to fourteen inches long, with an interior diameter of from one to

eight inches, and with a thickness of wall, (depending on the strength of

the clay, and the size of the bore,) of from one-quarter of an inch to

more than an inch. They are porous, to the extent of absorbing a certain

amount of water, but their porosity has nothing to do with their use for

drainage,--for this purpose they might as well be of glass. The water

enters them, not through their walls, but at their joints, which cannot be

made so tight that they will not admit the very small amount of water that

will need to enter at each space. Gisborne says:

"If an acre of land be intersected with parallel drains twelve yards

apart, and if on that acre should fall the very unusual quantity of one

inch of rain in twelve hours, in order that every drop of this rain may be

discharged by the drains in forty-eight hours from the commencement of the

rain--(and in a less period that quantity neither will, not is it desirable

that it should, filter through an agricultural soil)--the interval between

two pipes will be called upon to pass two-thirds of a tablespoonful of

water per minute, and no more. Inch pipes, lying at a small inclination,

and running only half-full, will discharge more than double this quantity

of water in forty-eight hours."

Tiles may be made of any desired form of section,--the usual forms are the

"horse-shoe," the "sole," the "double-sole," and the "round." The latter

may be used with collars, and they constitute the "pipes and collars,"

frequently referred to in English books on drainage.

[Illustration: Fig. 13 - HORSE-SHOE TILE.]

Fig. 13 - HORSE-SHOE TILE.

_Horse-shoe tiles_, Fig. 13, are condemned by all modern engineers. Mr.

Gisborne disposes of them by an argument of some length, the quotation of

which in these pages is probably advisable, because they form so much

better conduits than stones, and to that extent have been so successfully

employed, that they are still largely used in this country by "amateurs."

"We shall shock some and surprise many of our readers, when we

state confidently that, in average soils, and, still more, in

those which are inclined to be tender, horse shoe tiles form the

weakest and most failing conduit which has ever been used for a

deep drain. It is so, however; and a little thought, even if we

had no experience, will tell us that it must be so. A doggrel

song, quite destitute of humor, informs us that tiles of this sort

were used in 1760 at Grandesburg Hall, in Suffolk, by Mr. Charles

Lawrence, the owner of the estate. The earliest of which we had

experience were of large area and of weak form. Constant failures

resulted from their use, and the cause was investigated; many of

the tiles were found to be choked up with clay, and many to be

broken longitudinally through the crown. For the first evil, two

remedies were adopted; a sole of slate, of wood, or of its own

material, was sometimes placed under the tile, but the more usual

practice was to form them with club-feet. To meet the case of

longitudinal fracture, the tiles were reduced in size, and very

much thickened in proportion to their area. The first of these

remedies was founded on an entirely mistaken, and the second on no

conception at all of the cause of the evil to which they were

respectively applied. The idea was, that this tile, standing on

narrow feet, and pressed by the weight of the refilled soil, sank

into the floor of the drain; whereas, in fact, the floor of the

drain rose into the tile. Any one at all conversant with

collieries is aware that when a _strait_ work (which is a small

subterranean tunnel six feet high and four feet wide or

thereabouts) is driven in coal, the rising of the floor is a more

usual and far more inconvenient occurrence than the falling of the

roof: the weight of the two sides squeezes up the floor. We have

seen it formed into a very decided arch without fracture. Exactly

a similar operation takes place in the drain. No one had till

recently dreamed of forming a tile drain, the bottom of which a

man was not to approach personally within twenty inches or two

feet. To no one had it then occurred that width at the bottom of

the drain was a great evil. For the convenience of the operator

the drain was formed with nearly perpendicular sides, of a width

in which he could stand and work conveniently, shovel the bottom

level with his ordinary spade, and lay the tiles by his hand; the

result was a drain with nearly perpendicular sides, and a wide

bottom. No sort of clay, particularly when softened by water

standing on it or running over it, could fail to rise under such

circumstances; and the deeper the drain the greater the pressure

and the more certain the rising. A horse-shoe tile, which may be a

tolerable secure conduit in a drain of two feet, in one of four

feet becomes an almost certain failure. As to the longitudinal

fracture--not only is the tile subject to be broken by one of those

slips which are so troublesome in deep draining, and to which the

lightly-filled material, even when the drain is completed, offers

an imperfect resistance, but the constant pressure together of the

sides, even when it does not produce a fracture of the soil,

catches hold of the feet of the tile, and breaks it through the

crown. Consider the case of a drain formed in clay when dry, the

conduit a horse-shoe tile. When the clay expands with moisture, it

necessarily presses on the tile and breaks it through the crown,

its weakest part.(9) When the Regent's Park was first drained,

large conduits were in fashion, and they were made circular by

placing one horse-shoe tile upon another. It would be difficult to

invent a weaker conduit. On re-drainage, innumerable instances

were found in which the upper tile was broken through the crown,

and had dropped into the lower. Next came the D form, tile and

sole in one, and much reduced in size--a great advance; and when

some skillful operator had laid this tile bottom upwards we were

evidently on the eve of pipes. For the D tile a round pipe moulded

with a flat-bottomed solid sole is now generally substituted, and

is an improvement; but is not equal to pipes and collars, nor

generally cheaper than they are."

[Illustration: Fig. 14 - SOLE TILE.]

Fig. 14 - SOLE TILE.

One chief objection to the _Sole-tiles_ is, that, in the drying which they

undergo, preparatory to the burning, the upper side is contracted, by the

more rapid drying, and they often require to be trimmed off with a hatchet

before they will form even tolerable joints; another is, that they cannot

be laid with collars, which form a joint so perfect and so secure, that

their use, in the smaller drains, should be considered indispensable.

[Illustration: Fig. 15 - DOUBLE-SOLE TILE.]

Fig. 15 - DOUBLE-SOLE TILE.

The _double-sole tiles_, which can be laid either side up give a much

better joint, but they are so heavy as to make the cost of transporation

considerably greater. They are also open to the grave objection that they

cannot be fitted with collars.

Experience, in both public and private works in this country, and the

cumulative testimony of English and French engineers, have demonstrated

that the only tile which it is economical to use, is the _best_ that can

be found, and that the best,--much the best--thus far invented, is the

"pipe, or round tile, and collar,"--and these are unhesitatingly

recommended for use in all cases. Round tiles of small sizes should not be

laid without collars, as the ability to use these constitutes their chief

advantage; holding them perfectly in place, preventing the rattling in of

loose dirt in laying, and giving twice the space for the entrance of water

at the joints. A chief advantage of the larger sizes is, that they may be

laid on any side and thus made to fit closely. The usual sizes of these

tiles are 1-1/4 inches, 2-1/4 inches, and 3-1/2 inches in interior

diameter. Sections of the 2-1/4 inch make collars for the 1-1/4 inch, and

sections of the 3-1/2 inch make collars for the 2-1/4 inch. The 3-1/2 inch

size does not need collars, as it is easily secured in place, and is only

used where the flow of water would be sufficient to wash out the slight

quantity of foreign matters that might enter at the joints.

[Illustration: Fig. 16 - ROUND TILE AND COLLAR, AND THE SAME AS LAID.]

Fig. 16 - ROUND TILE AND COLLAR, AND THE SAME AS LAID.

*The size of tile* to be used is a question of consequence. In England,

1-inch pipes are frequently used, but 1-1/4 inch(10) are recommended for

the smallest drains. Beyond this limit, the proper size to select is, _the

smallest that can convey the water which will ordinarily reach it after a

heavy rain_. The smaller the pipe, the more concentrated the flow, and,

consequently, the more thoroughly obstructions will be removed, and the

occasional flushing of the pipe, when it is taxed, for a few hours, to its

utmost capacity, will insure a thorough cleansing. No inconvenience can

result from the fact that, on rare occasions, the drain is unable, for a

short time, to discharge all the water that reaches it, and if collars are

used, or if the clay be well packed about the pipes, there need be no fear

of the tile being displaced by the pressure. An idea of the drying

capacity of a 1-1/4-inch tile may be gained from observing its _wetting_

capacity, by connecting a pipe of this size with a sufficient body of

water, at its surface, and discharging, over a level dry field, all the

water which it will carry. A 1-1/4-inch pipe will remove all the water

which would fall on an acre of land in a very heavy rain, in 24

hours,--much less time than the water would occupy in getting to the tile,

in any soil which required draining; and tiles of this size are ample for

the draining of two acres. In like manner, 2-1/2-inch tile will suffice

for eight, and 3-1/2-inch tile for twenty acres. The foregoing estimates

are, of course, made on the supposition that only the water which falls on

the land, (storm water,) is to be removed. For main drains, when greater

capacity is required, two tiles may be laid, (side by side,) or in such

cases the larger sizes of sole tiles may be used, being somewhat cheaper.

Where the drains are laid 40 feet apart, about 1,000 tiles per acre will

be required, and, in estimating the quantity of tiles of the different

sizes to be purchased, reference should be had to the following figures;

the first 2,000 feet of drains require a collecting drain of 2-1/4-inch

tile, which will take the water from 7,000 feet; and for the outlet of

from 7,000 to 20,000 feet 3-1/2-inch tile may be used. Collars, being more

subject to breakage, should be ordered in somewhat larger quantities.

Of course, such guessing at what is required, which is especially

uncertain if the surface of the ground is so irregular as to require much

deviation from regular parallel lines, is obviated by the careful

preparation of a plan of the work, which enables us to measure,

beforehand, the length of drain requiring the different sizes of conduit,

and, as tiles are usually made one or two inches more than a foot long, a

thousand of them will lay a thousand feet,--leaving a sufficient allowance

for breakage, and for such slight deviations of the lines as may be

necessary to pass around those stones which are too large to remove. In

very stony ground, the length of lines is often materially increased, but

in such ground, there is usually rock enough or such accumulations of

boulders in some parts, to reduce the length of drain which it is possible

to lay, at least as much as the deviations will increase it.

It is always best to make a contract for tile considerably in advance. The

prices which are given in the advertisements of the makers, are those at

which a single thousand,--or even a few hundred,--can be purchased, and very

considerable reductions of price may be secured on large orders.

Especially is this the case if the land is so situated that the tile may

be purchased at either one of two tile works,--for the prices of all are

extravagantly high, and manufacturers will submit to large discounts

rather than lose an important order.

It is especially recommended, in making the contract, to stipulate that

every tile shall be hard-burned, and that those which will not give a

_clear ring_ when struck with a metallic instrument, shall be rejected,

and the cost of their transportation borne by the maker. The tiles used in

the Central Park drainage were all tested with the aid of a bit of steel

which had, at one end, a cutting edge. With this instrument each tile was

"sounded," and its hardness was tested by scraping the square edge of the

bore. If it did not "ring" when struck, or if the edge was easily cut, it

was rejected. From the first cargo there were many thrown out, but as soon

as the maker saw that they were really inspected, he sent tile of good

quality only. Care should also be taken that no _over-burned_ tile,--such

as have been melted and warped, or very much contracted in size by too

great heat,--be smuggled into the count.

A little practice will enable an ordinary workman to throw out those which

are imperfect, and, as a single tile which is so underdone that it will

not last, or which, from over-burning, has too small an orifice, may

destroy a long drain, or a whole system of drains, the inspection should

be thorough.

The collars should be examined with equal care. Concerning the use of

these, Gisborne says:

"To one advantage which is derived from the use of collars we have not yet

adverted--the increased facility with which free water existing in the soil

can find entrance into the conduit. The collar for a 1-1/2-inch pipe has a

circumference of three inches. The whole space between the collar and the

pipe on each side of the collar is open, and affords no resistance to the

entrance of water; while at the same time the superincumbent arch of the

collar protects the junction of two pipes from the intrusion of particles

of soil. We confess to some original misgivings that a pipe resting only

on an inch at each end, and lying hollow, might prove weak and liable to

fracture by weight pressing on it from above; but the fear was illusory.

Small particles of soil trickle down the sides of every drain, and the

first flow of water will deposit them in the vacant space between the two

collars. The bottom, if at all soft, will also swell up into any vacancy.

Practically, if you reopen a drain well laid with pipes and collars, you

will find them reposing in a beautiful nidus, which, when they are

carefully removed, looks exactly as if it had been moulded for them."

The cost of collars should not be considered an objection to their use;

because, without collars it would not be safe, (as it is difficult to make

the orifices of two pieces come exactly opposite to each other,) to use

less than 2-inch tiles, while, with collars, 1-1/4-inch are sufficient for

the same use, and, including the cost of collars, are hardly more

expensive.

It is usual, in all works on agricultural drainage, to insert tables and

formulae for the guidance of those who are to determine the size of tile

required to discharge the water of a certain area. The practice is not

adopted here, for the reason that all such tables are without practical

value. The smoothness and uniformity of the bore; the rate of fall; the

depth of the drain, and consequent "head," or pressure, of the water; the

different effects of different soils in retarding the flow of the water to

the drain; the different degrees to which angles in the line of tile

affect the flow; the degree of acceleration of the flow which is caused by

greater or less additions to the stream at the junction of branch drains;

and other considerations, arising at every step of the calculation, render

it impossible to apply delicate mathematical rules to work which is, at

best, rude and unmathematical in the extreme. In sewerage, and the water

supply of towns, such tables are useful,--though, even in the most perfect

of these operations, engineers always make large allowances for

circumstances whose influence cannot be exactly measured,--but in land

drainage, the ordinary rules of hydraulics have to be considered in so

many different bearings, that the computations of the books are not at all

reliable. For instance, Messrs. Shedd & Edson, of Boston, have prepared a

series of tables, based on Smeaton's experiments, for the different sizes

of tile, laid at different inclinations, in which they state that

1-1/2-inch tile, laid with a fall of one foot in a length of one hundred

feet, will discharge 12,054.81 gallons of water in 24 hours. This is equal

to a rain-fall of over 350 inches per year on an acre of land. As the

average annual rain-fall in the United States is about 40 inches, at least

one-half of which is removed by evaporation, it would follow, from this

table, that a 1-1/2-inch pipe, with the above named fall, would serve for

the drainage of about 17 acres. But the calculation is again disturbed by

the fact that the rain-fall is not evenly distributed over all the days of

the year,--as much as six inches having been known to fall in a single 24

hours, (amounting to about 150,000 gallons per acre,) and the removal of

this water in a single day would require a tile nearly five inches in

diameter, laid at the given fall, or a 3-inch tile laid at a fall of more

than 7-1/2 feet in 100 feet. But, again, so much water could not reach a

drain four feet from the surface, in so short a time, and the time

required would depend very much on the character of the soil. Obviously,

then, these tables are worthless for our purpose. Experience has fully

shown that the sizes which are recommended below are ample for practical

purposes, and probably the areas to be drained by the given sizes might be

greatly increased, especially with reference to such soils as do not allow

water to percolate very freely through them.

In connection with this subject, attention is called to the following

extract from the Author's Report on the Drainage, which accompanies the

"Third Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park:"

"In order to test the efficiency of the system of drainage employed on the

Park, I have caused daily observations to be taken of the amount of water

discharged from the principal drain of 'the Green,' and have compared it

with the amount of rain-fall. A portion of the record of those

observations is herewith presented.

"In the column headed 'Rain-Fall,' the amount of water falling on one acre

during the entire storm, is given in gallons. This is computed from the

record of a rain-gauge kept on the Park.

"Under the head of 'Discharge,' the number of gallons of water drained

from one acre during 24 hours is given. This is computed from observations

taken, once a day or oftener, and supposes the discharge during the entire

day to be the same as at the time of taking the observations. It is,

consequently, but approximately correct:

Date. Hour. Rain-fall. Discharge. Remarks.

July 13. 10 a.m. 49,916 184 galls. Ground dry.

galls. No rain

since 3d

inst.; 2

inches rain

fell between

5.15 and

5.45 p.m.

and 1-5th of

an inch

between 5.45

and 7.15.

July 14. 6-1/2 " 4,968 "

July 15. 6-1/2 " 1,325 "

July 16. 8 " 1,104 "

July 16. 6 p.m. 33,398 " 7,764 " Ground

saturated at

a depth of 2

feet when

this rain

commenced.

July 17. 4,319 "

July 18. 9 a.m. 2,208 "

July 19. 7 " 1,325 "

July 20. 6-1/2 " 993 "

July 21. 11 " 662 "

July 22. 6-1/2 " 560 "

July 23. 10 " 1,698 " 515 " This slight

rain only

affected the

ratio of

decrease.

July 24. 7 " 442 "

Nothing

worthy of

note until

Aug. 3.

Aug. 3. 6-1/2 " 8,490 " 191 " Rain from 3

p.m. to 3.30

p.m.

Aug. 4. 6-1/2 " 13,018 " 184 " " 4.45

p.m. to 12

m.n.

Aug. 5. 6-1/2 " 45,288 " 368 " " 12 m.

to 6 p.m.

Aug. 5. 6 p.m. 8,280 "

Aug. 6. 9 a.m. 3,954 "

Aug. 7. 9 " 2,208 "

Aug. 8. 6-1/2 " 828 "

Aug. 9. 6-1/2 " 662 "

Aug. 12. 6-1/2 " 368 " Rain 12 m.

Aug. 12 to 7

a.m. Aug.

13.

Aug. 13. 7 " 19,244 " 1,104 "

Aug. 14. 9 " 736 "

Aug. 24. 9 " 1,132 " 191 " " 3 a.m.

to 4.15 a.m.

Aug. 25. 9 " 5,547 " 9,936 " " 3.30

p.m. 24th,

to 7 a.m.

25th.

Aug. 25. 7 p.m. 566 " 7,740 " " 7 a.m.

to 12 m.

Aug. 26. 6-1/2 a.m. 3,974 "

Aug. 26. 6 p.m. 2,208 "

Aug. 27. 6-1/2 a.m. 566 " 1,529 " " 4 p.m.

to 6 p.m.

Aug. 28. 7 " 993 "

Sep. 11. 7 " 566 " 165 " " 12 m.n.

(10th) to 7

a.m. (11th.)

Sep. 12. 9 " 5,094 " 147 " " 12 m.

(11th) to 7

a.m. (12th.)

Sep. 13. 9 " 566 " 132 " " 4 p.m.

to 6 p.m.

Sep. 16. 9 " 15,848 " 110 " " 12 m. to

12 m.n.

Sep. 17. 7 " 27,552 " 1,104 " Rain

continued

until 12 m.

Sep. 17. 5 p.m. 6,624 "

Sep. 18. 8 a.m. 566 " 4,968 "

Sep. 19. 6-1/2 " 2,208 "

Sep. 19. 4 p.m. 1,805 "

Sep. 20. 9 a.m. 566 " 1,324 " Rain f'm 12

m. (19th) to

7 a.m.

(20th.)

Sep. 21. 9 " 5,094 " 945 " " 3.20

p.m. (20th)

to 6 a.m.

(21st.)

Sep. 22. 9 " 10,185 " 1,656 " " 12 m.

(21st) to 7

a.m. (22d.)

Sep. 23. 9 " 40,756 " 7,948 " Rain

continued

until 7 a.m.

(23d.)

Sep. 24. 9 " 4,968 "

Sep. 25. 9 " 566 " 2,984 "

Sep. 26. 9 " 2,484 "

Oct. 1. 9 " 828 " There was

not enough

rain during

this period

to

materially

affect the

flow of

water.

Nov. 18. 9 " 83 "

Nov. 19. 9 " 1,132 " 184 " Rain 4.50

p.m. (18th)

to 8 a.m.

(19th.)

Nov. 20. 9 " 119 "

Nov. 22. 9 " 29,336 " 6,624 " Rain all of

the previous

night.

Nov. 22. 2 p.m. 6,624 "

Nov. 23. 9 a.m. 4,968 "

Nov. 24. 9 " 1,711 "

Nov. 24. 2 p.m. 1,417 "

Dec. 17. 9 a.m. 552 "

Dec. 18. 9 " 4,968 " Rain during

the previous

night.

Dec. 30. 10 " 581 "

"The tract drained by this system, though very swampy, before being

drained, is now dry enough to walk upon, almost immediately after a storm,

except when underlaid by a stratum of frozen ground."

The area drained by the main at which these gaugings were made, is about

ten acres, and, in deference to the prevailing mania for large conduits,

it had been laid with 6-inch sole-tile. The greatest recorded discharge in

24 hours was (August 25th,) less than 100,000 gallons from the ten

acres,--an amount of water which did not half fill the tile, but which,

according to the tables referred to, would have entirely filled it.

In view of all the information that can be gathered on the subject, the

following directions are given as perfectly reliable for drains four feet

or more in depth, laid on a well regulated fall of even three inches in a

hundred feet:

For 2 acres 1-1/4 inch pipes (with collars.)

For 8 acres 2-1/4 inch pipes (with collars.)

For 20 acres 3-1/2 inch pipes

For 40 acres 2 3-1/2 inch pipes or one 5-inch sole-tile.

For 50 acres 6 inch pipes sole-tile.

For 100 acres 8 inch pipes or two 6-inch sole-tiles.

It is not pretended that these drains will immediately remove all the

water of the heaviest storms, but they will always remove it fast enough

for all practical purposes, and, if the pipes are securely laid, the

drains will only be benefited by the occasional cleansing they will

receive when running "more than full." In illustration of this statement,

the following is quoted from a paper communicated by Mr. Parkes to the

Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1843:

"Mr. Thomas Hammond, of Penshurst, (Kent,) now uses no other size for the

parallel drains than the inch tile in the table, (No. 5,) having commenced

with No. 4,(11) and it may be here stated, that the opinion of all the

farmers who have used them in the Weald, is that a bore of an inch area is

abundantly large. A piece of 9 acres, now sown with wheat, was observed by

the writer, 36 hours after the termination of a rain which fell heavily

and incessantly during 12 hours on the 7th of November. This field was

drained in March, 1842, to the depth of 30 to 36 inches, at a distance of

24 feet asunder, the length of each drain being 235 yards.

"Each, drain emptied itself through a fence bank into a running stream in

a road below it; the discharge therefore was distinctly observable. Two or

three of the pipes had now ceased running; and, with the exception of one

which tapped a small spring and gave a stream about the size of a tobacco

pipe, the run from the others did not exceed the size of a wheat straw.

The greatest flow had been observed by Mr. Hammond at no time to exceed

half the bore of the pipes. The fall in this field is very great, and the

drains are laid in the direction of the fall, which has always been the

practice in this district. The issuing water was transparently clear; and

Mr. Hammond states that he has never observed cloudiness, except for a

short time after very heavy flushes of rain, when the drains are quickly

cleared of all sediment, in consequence of the velocity and force of the

water passing through so small a channel. Infiltration through the soil

and into the pipes, must, in this case, be considered to have been

perfect; and their observed action is the more determinate and valuable as

regards time and effect, as the land was saturated with moisture previous

to this particular fall of rain, and the pipes had ceased to run when it

commenced. This piece had, previous to its drainage, necessarily been

cultivated in narrow stretches, with an open water furrow between them;

but it was now laid quite plain, by which one-eighth of the continuation

of acreage has been saved. Not, however, being confident as to the soil

having already become so porous as to dispense entirely with surface

drains, Mr. Hammond had drawn two long water furrows diagonally across the

field. On examining these, it appeared that very little water had flowed

along any part of them during these 12 hours of rain,--no water had escaped

at their outfall; the entire body of rain had permeated the mass of the

bed, and passed off through the inch pipes; no water perceptible on the

surface, which used to carry it throughout. The subsoil is a brick clay,

but it appears to crack very rapidly by shrinkage consequent to drainage."

*Obstructions.*--The danger that drains will become obstructed, if not

properly laid out and properly made, is very great, and the cost of

removing the obstructions, (often requiring whole lines to be taken up,

washed, and relaid with the extra care that is required in working in old

and soft lines,) is often greater than the original cost of the

improvement. Consequently, the possibility of tile drains becoming stopped

up should be fully considered at the outset, and every precaution should

be taken to prevent so disastrous a result.

The principal causes of obstruction are _silt, vermin_, and _roots_.

_Silt_ is earth which is washed into the tile with the water of the soil,

and which, though it may be carried along in suspension in the water, when

the fall is good, will be deposited in the eddies and slack-water, which

occur whenever there is a break in the fall, or a defect in the laying of

the tile.

_Whenever it is possible to avoid it, no drain should have a decreasing

rate of fall as it approaches its outlet._

If the first hundred feet from the upper end of the drain has a fall of

three inches, the next hundred feet should not have less than three

inches, lest the diminished velocity cause silt, which required the speed

which that fall gives for its removal, to be deposited and to choke the

tile. This defect of grade is shown in Fig. 17. If the second hundred feet

has an inclination of _more_ than three inches, (Fig. 18,) the removal of

silt will be even better secured than if the fall continued at the

original rate. Some silt will enter newly made drains, in spite of our

utmost care, but the amount should be very slight, and if it is evenly

deposited throughout the whole length of the drain, (as it sometimes is

when the rate of fall is very low,) it will do no especial harm; but it

becomes dangerous when it is accumulated within a short distance, by a

decreasing fall, or by a single badly laid tile, or imperfect joint,

which, by arresting the flow, may cause as much mischief as a defective

grade.

Owing to the general conformation of the ground, it is sometimes

absolutely necessary to adopt such a grade as is shown in Fig. 19,--even to

the extent of bringing the drain down a rapid slope, and continuing it

with the least possible fall through level ground. When such changes must

be made, they should be effected by angles, and not by curves. In

_increasing_ the fall, curves in the grade are always advisable, in

_decreasing_ it they are always objectionable, except when the decreased

fall is still considerable,--say, at least 2 feet in 100 feet. The reason

for making an absolute angle at the point of depression is, that it

enables us to catch the silt at that point in a silt basin, from which it

may be removed as occasion requires.

[Illustration: Fig. 19 - THREE PROFILES OF DRAINS, WITH DIFFERENT

INCLINATIONS.]

Fig. 19 - THREE PROFILES OF DRAINS, WITH DIFFERENT INCLINATIONS.

_A Silt Basin_ is a chamber, below the grade of the drain, into which the

water flows, becomes comparatively quiet, and deposits its silt, instead

of carrying it into the tile beyond. It may be large or small, in

proportion to the amount of drain above, which it has to accommodate. For

a few hundred feet of the smallest tile, it may be only a 6-inch tile

placed on end and sunk so as to receive and discharge the water at its

top. For a large main, it may be a brick reservoir with a capacity of 2 or

3 cubic feet. The position of a silt basin is shown in Fig. 19.

The quantity of silt which enters the drain depends very much on the soil.

Compact clays yield very little, and wet, running sands, (quicksands,) a

great deal. In a soil of the latter sort, or one having a layer of running

sand at the level of the drain, the ditch should be excavated a little

below the grade of the drain, and then filled to that level with a

retentive clay, and rammed hard. In all cases when the tile is well laid,

(especially if collars are used,) and a stiff earth is well packed around

the tile, silt will not enter the drain to an injurious extent, after a

few months' operation shall have removed the loose particles about the

joints, and especially after a few very heavy rains, which, if the tiles

are small, will sometimes wash them perfectly clean, although they may

have been half filled with dirt.

_Vermin_,--field mice, moles, etc.,--sometimes make their nests in the tile

and thus choke them, or, dying in them, stop them up with their carcases.

Their entrance should be prevented by placing a coarse wire cloth or

grating in front of the outlets, which afford the only openings for their

entrance.

_Roots._--The roots of many water-loving trees,--especially willows,--will

often force their entrance into the joints of the tile and fill the whole

bore with masses of fibre which entirely prevent the flow of water.

Collars make it more difficult for them to enter, but even these are not a

sure preventive. Gisborne says:

"My own experience as to roots, in connection with deep pipe draining, is

as follows: I have never known roots to obstruct a pipe through which

there was not a perennial stream. The flow of water in summer and early

autumn appears to furnish the attraction. I have never discovered that the

roots of any esculent vegetable have obstructed a pipe. The trees which,

by my own personal observation, I have found to be most dangerous, have

been red willow, black Italian poplar, alder, ash, and broad-leaved elm. I

have many alders in close contiguity with important drains, and, though I

have never convicted one, I cannot doubt that they are dangerous. Oak, and

black and white thorns, I have not detected, nor do I suspect them. The

guilty trees have in every instance been young and free growing; I have

never convicted an adult. These remarks apply solely to my own

observation, and may of course be much extended by that of other

agriculturists. I know an instance in which a perennial spring of very

pure and (I believe) soft water is conveyed in socket pipes to a paper

mill. Every junction of two pipes is carefully fortified with cement. The

only object of cover being protection from superficial injury and from

frost, the pipes are laid not far below the sod. Year by year these pipes

are stopped by roots. Trees are very capricious in this matter. I was told

by the late Sir R. Peel that he sacrificed two young elm trees in the park

at Drayton Manor to a drain which had been repeatedly stopped by roots.

The stoppage was nevertheless repeated, and was then traced to an elm tree

far more distant than those which had been sacrificed. Early in the autumn

of 1850 I completed the drainage of the upper part of a boggy valley,

lying, with ramifications, at the foot of marly banks. The main drains

converge to a common outlet, to which are brought one 3-inch pipe and

three of 4 inches each. They lie side by side, and water flows perennially

through each of them. Near to this outlet did grow a red willow. In

February, 1852, I found the water breaking out to the surface of the

ground about 10 yards above the outlet, and was at no loss for the cause,

as the roots of the red willow showed themselves at the orifice of the

3-inch and of two of the 4-inch pipes. On examination I found that a root

had entered a joint between two 3-inch pipes, and had traveled 5 yards to

the mouth of the drain, and 9 yards up the stream, forming a continuous

length of 14 yards. The root which first entered had attained about the

size of a lady's little finger; and its ramifications consisted of very

fine and almost silky fibres, and would have cut up into half a dozen

comfortable boas. The drain was completely stopped. The pipes were not in

any degree displaced. Roots from the same willow had passed over the

3-inch pipes, and had entered and entirely stopped the first 4-inch drain,

and had partially stopped the second. At a distance of about 50 yards a

black Italian poplar, which stood on a bank over a 4-inch drain, had

completely stopped it with a bunch of roots. The whole of this had been

the work of less than 18 months, including the depth of two winters. A

3-inch branch of the same system runs through a little group of black

poplars. This drain conveys a full stream in plashes of wet, and some

water generally through the winter months, but has not a perennial flow. I

have perceived no indication that roots have interfered with this drain. I

draw no general conclusions from these few facts, but they may assist

those who have more extensive experience in drawing some, which may be of

use to drainers."

Having considered some of the principles on which our work should be

based, let us now return to the map of the field, and apply those

principles in planning the work to be done to make it dry.

*The Outlet* should evidently be placed at the present point of exit of

the brook which runs from the springs, collects the water of the open

ditches, and spreads over the flat in the southwest corner of the tract,

converting it into a swamp. Suppose that, by going some distance into the

next field, we can secure an outlet of 3 feet and 9 inches (3.75) below

the level of the swamp, and that we decide to allow 3 inches drop between

the bottom of the tile at that point, and the reduced level of the brook

to secure the drain against the accumulation of sand, which might result

from back water in time of heavy rain. This fixes the depth of drain at

the outlet at 3-1/2 (3.50) feet.

At that side of the swamp which lies nearest to the main depression of the

up-land, (See Fig. 21,) is the proper place at which to collect the water

from so much of the field as is now drained by the main brook, and at that

point it will be well to place a _silt basin_ or well, built up to the

surface, which may, at any time, be uncovered for an observation of the

working of the drains. The land between this point and the outlet is

absolutely level, requiring the necessary fall in the drain which connects

the two, to be gained by raising the upper end of it. As the distance is

nearly 200 feet, and as it is advisable to give a fall at least

five-tenths of a foot per hundred feet to so important an outlet as this,

the drain at the silt basin may be fixed at only 2-1/2 feet. The basin

being at the foot of a considerable rise in the ground, it will be easy,

within a short distance above, to carry the drains which come to it to a

depth of 4 feet,--were this not the case, the fall between the basin and

the outlet would have to be very much reduced.

*Main Drains.*--The valley through which the brook now runs is about 80

feet wide, with a decided rise in the land at each side. If one main drain

were laid in the center of it, all of the laterals coming to the main

would first run down a steep hillside, and then across a stretch of more

level land, requiring the grade of each lateral to be broken at the foot

of the hill, and provided with a silt basin to collect matters which might

be deposited when the fall becomes less rapid. Consequently, it is best to

provide two mains, or collecting drains, (_A_ and _C_,) one lying at the

foot of each hill, when they will receive the laterals at their greatest

fall; but, as these are too far apart to completely drain the valley

between them, and are located on land higher than the center of the

valley, a drain, (_B_,) should be run up, midway between them.

The collecting drain, _A_, will receive the laterals from the hill to the

west of it, as far up as the 10-foot contour line, and, above that

point,--running up a branch of the valley,--it will receive laterals from

both sides. The drain, _B_, may be continued above the dividing point of

the valley, and will act as one of the series of laterals. The drain, _C_,

will receive the laterals and sub-mains from the rising ground to the east

of it, and from both sides of the minor valley which extends in that

direction.

Most of the valley which runs up from the easterly side of the swamp must

be drained independently by the drain _E_, which might be carried to the

silt basin, did not its continuation directly to the outlet offer a

shorter course for the removal of its water. This drain will receive

laterals from the hill bordering the southeasterly side of the swamp, and,

higher up, from both sides of the valley in which it runs.

In laying out these main drains, more attention should be given to placing

them where they will best receive the water of the laterals, and on lines

which offer a good and tolerably uniform descent, than to their use for

the immediate drainage of the land through which they pass. Afterward, in

laying out the laterals, the use of these lines as local drains should, of

course, be duly considered.

*The Lateral Drains* should next receive attention, and in their location

and arrangement the following rules should be observed:

1st. They should run down the steepest descent of the land.

2d. They should be placed at intervals proportionate to their depth;--if 4

feet deep, at 40 feet intervals; if 3 feet deep, at 20 feet intervals.

[Illustration: Fig. 20 - MAP WITH DRAINS AND CONTOUR LINES.]

Fig. 20 - MAP WITH DRAINS AND CONTOUR LINES.

3d. They should, as nearly as possible, run parallel to each other.

On land of perfectly uniform character, (all sloping in the same

direction,) all of these requirements may be complied with, but on

irregular land it becomes constantly necessary to make a compromise

between them. Drains running down the line of steepest descent cannot be

parallel,--and, consequently, the intervals between them cannot be always

the same; those which are farther apart at one end than at the other

cannot be always of a depth exactly proportionate to their intervals.

In the adjustment of the lines, so as to conform as nearly to these

requirements as the shape of the ground will allow, there is room for the

exercise of much skill, and on such adjustment depend, in a great degree,

the success and economy of the work. Remembering that on the map, the line

of steepest descent is exactly perpendicular to the contour lines of the

land, it will be profitable to study carefully the system of drains first

laid out, erasing and making alterations wherever it is found possible to

simplify the arrangement.

Strictly speaking, all _angles_ are, to a certain extent, wasteful,

because, if two parallel drains will suffice to drain the land between

them, no better drainage will be effected by a third drain running across

that land. Furthermore, the angles are practically supplied with drains at

less intervals than are required,--for instance, at _C 7 a_ on the map the

triangles included within the dotted line _x_, _y_, will be doubly

drained. So, also, if any point of a 4-foot drain will drain the land

within 20 feet of it, the land included within the dotted line forming a

semi-circle about the point _C 14_, might drain into the end of the

lateral, and it no more needs the action of the main drain than does that

which lies between the laterals. Of course, angles and connecting lines

are indispensable, except where the laterals can run independently across

the entire field, and discharge beyond it. The longer the laterals can be

made, and the more angles can be avoided, the more economical will the

arrangement be; and, until the arrangement of the lines has been made as

nearly perfect as possible, the time of the drainer can be in no way so

profitably spent as in amending his plan.

The series of laterals which discharge through the mains _A_, _C_, _D_ and

_E_, on the accompanying map, have been very carefully considered, and are

submitted to the consideration of the reader, in illustration of what has

been said above.

At one point, just above the middle of the east side of the field, the

laterals are placed at a general distance of 20 feet, because, as will be

seen by reference to Fig. 4, a ledge of rock, underground, will prevent

their being made more than 3 feet deep.

The line from _H_ to _I_, (Fig. 20,) at the north side of the field,

connecting the heads of the laterals, is to be a stone and tile drain,

such as is described on page 60, intended to collect the water which

follows the surface of the rock. (See Fig. 4.)

The swamp is to be drained by itself, by means of two series of laterals

discharging into the main lines _F_ and _G_, which discharge at the

outlet, by the side of the main drain from the silt-basin. By this

arrangement, these laterals, especially at the north side of the swamp,

being accurately laid, with very slight inclinations, can be placed more

deeply than if they ran in an east and west direction, and discharged into

the main, which has a greater inclination, and is only two and a half feet

deep at the basin. Being 3-1/2 (3.50) feet deep at the outlet, they may be

made fully 3 feet deep at their upper ends, and, being only 20 feet apart,

they will drain the land as well as is possible. The drains being now laid

out, over the whole field, the next thing to be attended to is

*The Ordering of the Tile.*--The main line from the outlet up to the

silt-basin, should be of 3-1/2-inch tiles, of which about 190 feet will be

required. The main drain _A_ should be laid with 2-1/4-inch tiles to the

point marked _m_, near its upper end, as the lateral entering there

carries the water of a spring, which is supposed to fill a 1-1/4-inch

tile. The length of this drain, from the silt-basin to that point is 575

feet. The main drain _C_ will require 2-1/4 inch tiles from the silt-basin

to the junction with the lateral, which is marked _C_ 10, above which

point there is about 1,700 feet of drain discharging into it, a portion of

which, being a stone-and-tile drain at the foot of a rock, may be supposed

to receive more water than that which lies under the rest of the

land;--distance 450 feet. The main drain _E_ requires 2-1/4-inch tiles from

the outlet to the point marked _o_, a distance of 380 feet. This tile

will, in addition to its other work, carry as much water from the spring,

on the line of its fourth lateral, as would fill a 1-1/4-inch pipe.(12)

The length of the main drains above the points indicated, and of all the

laterals, amounts to about 12,250 feet. These all require 1-1/4-inch

tiles.

Allowing about five per cent. for breakage, the order in round numbers,

will be as follows:(13)

3-1/2-inch round tiles 200 feet.

2-1/4-inch round tiles 1,500 feet.

1-1/4-inch round tiles 13,000 feet.

3-1/2-inch round tiles 1,600

2-1/4-inch round tiles 13,250

Order, also, 25 6-inch sole-tiles, to be used in making small silt-basins.

It should be arranged to have the tiles all on the ground before the work

of ditching commences, so that there may be no delay and consequent danger

to the stability of the banks of the ditches, while waiting for them to

arrive. As has been before stated, it should be especially agreed with the

tile-maker, at the time of making the contract, that every tile should be

perfect;--of uniform shape, and neither too much nor too little burned.

*Staking Out.*--Due consideration having been given to such preliminaries

as are connected with the mapping of the ground, and the arrangement, on

paper, of the drains to be made, the drainer may now return to his field,

and, while awaiting the arrival of his tiles, make the necessary

preparation for the work to be done. The first step is to fix certain

prominent points, which will serve to connect the map with the field, by

actual measurements, and this will very easily be done by the aid of the

stakes which are still standing at the intersections of the 50-foot lines,

which were used in the preliminary levelling.

Commencing at the southwest corner of the field, and measuring toward the

east a distance of 34 feet, set a pole to indicate the position of the

outlet. Next, mark the center of the silt-basin at the proper point, which

will be found by measuring 184 feet up the western boundary, and thence

toward the east 96 feet, on a line parallel with the nearest row of

50-foot stakes. Then, in like manner, fix the points _C1_, _C6_, _C9_,

_C10_, and _C17_, and the angles of the other main lines, marking the

stakes, when placed, to correspond with the same points on the map. Then

stake the angles and the upper ends of the laterals, and mark these stakes

to correspond with the map.

It will greatly facilitate this operation, if the plan of the drains which

is used in the field, from which the horizontal lines should be omitted,

have the intersecting 50-foot lines drawn upon it, so that the

measurements may be made from the nearest points of intersection.(14)

Having staked these guiding points of the drains, it is advisable to

remove all of the 50-foot stakes, as these are of no further use, and

would only cause confusion. It will now be easy to set the remaining

stakes,--placing one at every 50 feet of the laterals, and at the

intersections of all the lines.

A system for marking the stakes is indicated on the map, (in the _C_

series of drains,) which, to avoid the confusion which would result from

too much detail on such a small scale, has been carried only to the extent

necessary for illustration. The stakes of the line _C_ are marked _C1_,

_C2_, _C3_, etc. The stakes of the sub-main _C7_, are marked _C7a_, _C7b_,

_C7c_, etc. The stakes of the lateral which enters this drain at _C7a_,

are marked _C7a/1_, _C7a/2_, _C7a/3,_ etc. etc. This system, which

connects the lettering of each lateral with its own sub-main and main, is

perfectly simple, and avoids the possibility of confusion. The position of

the stakes should all be lettered on the map, at the original drawing, and

the same designating marks put on the stakes in the field, as soon as set.

_Grade Stakes_, (pegs about 8 or 10 inches long,) should be placed close

at the sides of the marked stakes, and driven nearly their full length

into the ground. The tops of these stakes furnish fixed points of

elevation from which to take the measurements, and to make the

computations necessary to fix the depth of the drain at each stake. If the

measurements were taken from the surface of the ground, a slight change of

position in placing the instrument, would often make a difference of some

inches in the depth of the drain.

*Taking the Levels.*--For accurate work, it is necessary to ascertain the

comparative levels of the tops of all of the grade stakes; or the distance

of each one of them below an imaginary horizontal plane. This plane, (in

which we use only such lines as are directly above the drains,) may be

called the "Datum Line." Its elevation should be such that it will be

above the highest part of the land, and, for convenience, it is fixed at

the elevation of the levelling instrument when it is so placed as to look

over the highest part of the field.

_Levelling Instruments_ are of various kinds. The best for the work in

hand, is the common railroad level, which is shown in Fig. 6. This is

supported on three legs, which bring it to about the level of the eye. Its

essential parts are a telescope, which has two cross-hairs intersecting

each other in the line of sight, and which may be turned on its pivot

toward any point of the horizon; a bubble glass placed exactly parallel to

the line of sight, and firmly secured in its position so as to turn with

the telescope; and an apparatus for raising or depressing any side of the

instrument by means of set-screws. The instrument is firmly screwed to the

tripod, and placed at a point convenient for looking over a considerable

part of the highest land. By the use of the set-screws, the plane in which

the instrument revolves is brought to a level, so that in whatever

direction the instrument is pointed, the bubble will be in the center of

the glass. The line of sight, whichever way it is turned, is now in our

imaginary plane. A convenient position for the instrument in the field

under consideration, would be at the point, east of the center, marked

_K_, which is about 3 feet below the level of the highest part of the

ground. The telescope should stand about 5 feet above the surface of the

ground directly under it.

_The Levelling-Rod_, (See Fig. 7,) is usually 12 feet long, is divided

into feet and hundredths of a foot, and has a movable target which may be

placed at any part of its entire length. This is carried by an attendant,

who holds it perpendicularly on the top of the grade-stake, while the

operator, looking through the telescope, directs him to move the target up

and down until its center is exactly in the line of sight. The attendant

then reads the elevation, and the operator records it as the distance

below the _datum-line_ of the top of the grade-stake. For convenience, the

letterings of the stakes should be systematically entered in a small field

book, before the work commences, and this should be accompanied by such a

sketch of the plan as will serve as a guide to the location of the lines

on the ground.

The following is the form of the field book for the main drain _C_, with

the levels recorded:

LETTERING OF THE STAKE. DEPTH FROM DATUM LINE.

Silt Basin 18.20

C 1 15.44

C 2 14.36

C 3 12.85

C 4 12.18

C 5 11.79

C 6 11.69

C 7 11.55

C 8 11.37

C 9 11.06

C 10 8.94

C 11 8.52

C 12 7.86

C 13 7.70

C 14 7.39

C 15 7.06

C 16 6.73

The levelling should be continued in this manner, until the grades of all

the points are recorded in the field book.

[Illustration: Fig. 21 - PROFILE OF DRAIN C.]

Fig. 21 - PROFILE OF DRAIN C.

Horizontal Scale, 66 ft. to the inch.

Vertical Scale, 15 ft. to the inch.

1 to 17. Numbers of Stakes.

(82) etc. Distances between Stakes.

18.20 etc. Depths from _datum-line_ to surface.

2.50 etc. Depths of ditch.

20.70 etc. Depths from _datum-line_ to drain.

If, from too great depression of the lower parts of the field, or too

great distances for observation, it becomes necessary to take up a new

position with the instrument, the new level should be connected, by

measurement, with the old one, and the new observations should be computed

to the original plane.

It is not necessary that these levels should be noted on the map,--they are

needed only for computing the depth of cutting, and if entered on the map,

might be mistaken for the figures indicating the depth, which it is more

important to have recorded in their proper positions, for convenience of

reference during the work.

*The Depth and Grade of the Drains.*--Having now staked out the lines upon

the land, and ascertained and recorded the elevations at the different

stakes, it becomes necessary to determine at what depth the tile shall be

placed at each point, so as to give the proper fall to each line, and to

bring all of the lines of the system into accord. As the simplest means of

illustrating the principle on which this work should be done, it will be

convenient to go through with the process with reference to the main drain

_C_, of the plan under consideration. A profile of this line is shown in

Fig. 21, where the line is broken at stake No. 7, and continued in the

lower section of the diagram. The topmost line, from "Silt Basin" to "17,"

is the horizontal datum-line. The numbers above the vertical lines

indicate the stakes; the figures in brackets between these, the number of

feet between the stakes; and the heavy figures at the left of the vertical

lines, the recorded measurements of depth from the datum-line to the

surface of the ground, which is indicated by the irregular line next below

the datum-line. The vertical measurements are, of course, very much

exaggerated, to make the profile more marked, but they are in the proper

relation to each other.

The depth at the silt-basin is fixed at 2-1/2 feet (2.50.) The rise is

rapid to stake 3, very slight from there to stake 7, very rapid from there

to stake 10, a little less rapid from there to stake 11, and still less

rapid from there to stake 17.

To establish the grade by the profile alone, the proper course would be to

fix the depth at the stakes at which the inclination is to be changed, to

draw straight lines between the points thus found, and then to measure the

vertical distance from these lines to the line indicating the surface of

the ground at the different stakes; thus, fixing the depth at stake 3, at

4 feet and 13 hundredths,(15) the line drawn from that point to the depth

of 2.50, at the silt-basin, will be 3 feet and 62 hundredths (3.62) below

stake 1, and 3 feet and 92 hundredths (3.92) below stake 2. At stake 7 it

is necessary to go sufficiently deep to pass from 7 to 10, without coming

too near the surface at 9, which is at the foot of a steep ascent. A line

drawn straight from 4.59 feet below stake 10 to 4.17 feet at stake 17,

would be unnecessarily deep at 11, 12, 13, and 14; and, consequently it is

better to rise to 4.19 feet at 11. So far as this part of the drain is

concerned, it would be well to continue the same rise to 12, but, in doing

so, we would come too near the surface at 13, 14, and 15; or must

considerably depress the line at 16, which would either make a bad break

in the fall at that point, or carry the drain too deep at 17.

By the arrangement adopted, the grade is broken at 3, 7, 10, and 11.

Between these points, it is a straight line, with the rate of fall

indicated in the following table, which commences at the upper end of the

drain and proceeds toward its outlet:

FROM STAKE, TO STAKE, DISTANCE. TOTAL FALL. RATE OF

DEPTH. DEPTH. FALL. PER

100 FT.

No. No. 246 ft. 2.46 ft. 1.09 ft.

17...4.17 11...4.19

ft. ft.

No. No. 41 ft. 82 ft. 2.00 ft.

11...4.19 10...4.59

ft. ft.

No. No. 91 ft. 2.49 ft. 2.83 ft.

10...4.59 7...4.47

ft. ft.

No. No. 173 ft. 96 ft. 56 ft.

7...4.47 3...4.13

ft. ft.

No. S. Basin 186 ft. 3.47 ft. 1.87 ft.

3...4.13 2.25 ft.

ft.

It will be seen that the fall becomes more rapid as we ascend from stake

7, but below this point it is very much reduced, so much as to make it

very likely that silt will be deposited, (see page 91), and the drain,

thereby, obstructed. To provide against this, a silt-basin must be placed

at this point which will collect the silt and prevent its entrance into

the more nearly level tile below. The construction of this silt-basin is

more particularly described in the next chapter. From stake 7 to the main

silt-basin the fall is such that the drain will clear itself.

The drawing of regular profiles, for the more important drains, will be

useful for the purpose of making the beginner familiar with the method of

grading, and with the principles on which the grade and depth are

computed; and sometimes, in passing over very irregular surfaces, this

method will enable even a skilled drainer to hit upon the best adjustment

in less time than by computation. Ordinarily, however, the form of

computation given in the following table, which refers to the same drain,

(_C_,) will be more expeditious, and its results are mathematically more

correct.(16)

Fall. Depth

Feet and from

Decimals. Datum

Line.

No. of Distance Per 100 Between To To Depth of Remarks.

Stake. Between Feet. Stakes. Drain. Surface. Drain.

Stakes.

Silt 20.70 18.20 2.50 ft

Basin. ft. ft.

C. 1. 82 ft. 2 ft. 1.64 ft. 19.06 " 15.44 " 3.48 ft

C. 2. 39 ft. do. .78 ft. 18.28 " 14.36 " 3.83 ft

C. 3. 65 ft. do. 1.30 16.98 " 12.85 " 4.13 ft

ft.

C. 4. 51 ft. .56 .28 ft. 16.70 " 12.18 " 4.52 ft

C. 5. 43 ft. do. .24 ft. 16.46 " 11.79 " 4.67 ft

C. 6. 47 ft. do. .26 ft. 16.20 " 11.69 " 4.51 ft

C. 7. 32 ft. do. .18 ft. 16.02 " 11.55 " 4.47 ft Silt-Basin

here.

Made

deep at

Nos. 7

and 10

to pass

a

depression

of the

surface

at No.

9.

C. 8. 41 ft. 2.83 1.16 14.86 " 11.37 " 3.49 ft

ft.

C. 9. 12 ft. do. .34 ft. 14.52 " 11.06 " 3.46 ft

C.10. 38 ft. do. .99 ft. 13.53 " 8.94 " 4.59 ft

C.11. 41 ft. 2.00 .82 ft. 12.61 " 8.52 " 4.19 ft

C.12. 41 ft. 1.09 .44 ft. 12.27 " 7.86 " 4.41 ft

C.13. 41 ft. do. .44 ft. 11.83 " 7.70 " 4.13 ft

C.14. 41 ft. do. .44 ft. 11.39 " 7.39 " 4.00 ft

C.15. 41 ft. do. .44 ft. 10.95 " 7.06 " 3.89 ft

C.16. 41 ft. do. .44 ft. 10.51 " 6.73 " 3.88 ft

C.17. 41 ft. do. .44 ft. 10.07 " 5.90 " 4.17 ft

NOTE.--The method of making the foregoing computation is this:

1st. Enter the lettering of the stakes in the first column,

commencing at the lower end of the drain.

2d. Enter the distances between each two stakes in the second

column, placing the measurement on the line with the number of the

_upper_ stake of the two.

3d. In the next to the last column enter, on the line with each

stake, its depth below the datum-line, as recorded in the field

book of levels, (See page 105.)

4th. On the first line of the last column, place the depth of the

lower end of the drain, (this is established by the grade of the

main or other outlet at which it discharges.)

5th. Add this depth to the first number of the line next preceding

it, and enter the sum obtained on the first line of the fifth

column, as the depth of the _drain_ below the datum-line.

6th. Having reference to the grade of the surface, (as shown by

the figures in the sixth column,) as well as to any necessity for

placing the drain at certain depths at certain places, enter the

desired depth, _in pencil,_ in the last column, opposite the

stakes marking those places. Then add together this depth and the

corresponding surface measurement in the column next preceding,

and enter the sum, _in pencil_, in the fifth column, as the depth

from the datum-line to the desired position of the drain. (In the

example in hand, these points are at Nos. 3, 7, 10, 11, and 17.)

7th. Subtract the second amount in the fifth column from the first

amount for the total fall between the two points--in the example,

"3" from "Silt-Basin." Divide this total fall, (in feet and

hundredths,) by one hundredth of the total number of feet between

them. The result will be the rate of fall per 100 feet, and this

should be entered, in the third column, opposite each of the

intermediate distances between the points.

Example:

Depth of the Drain at 20.45 feet.

the Silt-Basin

Depth of the Drain at 16.98 feet.

the Stake No. 3

----

Difference 3.47 feet.

Distance between the 186.-- feet.

two

1.86)3.47(1.865 or 1.87

1 86

----

1 610

1 488

----

1 220

1 116

----

1 040

930

----

110

8th. Multiply the numbers of the second column by those of the

third and divide the product by 100. The result will be the amount

of fall between the stakes, (fourth column.)--Example:

1.87x82=153/100=1.53.

9th. Subtract the first number of the fourth column from the first

number of the fifth column, (on the line above it,) and place the

remainder on the next line of the fifth column.--Example:

20.70-1.64= 19.06.

Then, from this new amount, subtract the second number of the

fourth column, for the next number of the fifth, and so on, until,

in place of the entry in pencil, (Stake 3,) we place the exact

result of the computation.

Proceed in like manner with the next interval,--3 to 7.

10th. Subtract the numbers in the sixth column from those in the

fifth, and the remainders will be the depths to be entered in the

last.

Under the head of "Remarks," note any peculiarity of the drain

which may require attention in the field.

The main lines _A_, _D_, and _E_, and the drain _B_, should next be graded

on the plan set forth for _C_, and their laterals, all of which have

considerable fall, and being all so steep as not to require silt-basins at

any point,--can, by a very simple application of the foregoing principles,

be adjusted at the proper depths. In grading the stone and tile drain,

(_H, I_,) it is only necessary to adopt the depth of the last stakes of

the laterals, with which it is connected, as it is immaterial in which

direction the water flows. The ends of this drain,--from H to the head of

the drain _C10_, and from _I_ to the head of _C17_,--should, of course,

have a decided fall toward the drains.

The laterals which are placed at intervals of 20 feet, over the

underground rock on the east side of the field, should be continued at a

depth of about 3 feet for nearly their whole length, dropping in a

distance of 8 or 10 feet at their lower ends to the top of the tile of the

main. The intervals between the lower ends of _C7c_, _C7d_, and _C7e_,

being considerably more than 20 feet, the drains may be gradually

deepened, throughout their whole length from 3 feet at the upper ends to

the depth of the top of the main at the lower ends.

The main drains _F_ and _G_, being laid in flat land, their outlets being

fixed at a depth of 3.50, (the floor of the main outlet,) and it being

necessary to have them as deep as possible throughout their entire length,

should be graded with great care on the least admissible fall. This, in

ordinary agricultural drainage, may be fixed at .25, or 3 inches, per 100

feet. Their laterals should commence with the top of their 1/4 tile even

with the top of the 2-1/2 collar of the main,--or .15 higher than the grade

of the main,--and rise, at a uniform inclination of .25, to the upper end.

Having now computed the depth at which the tile is to lie, at each stake,

and entered it on the map, we are ready to mark these depths on their

respective stakes in the field, when the preliminary engineering of the

work will be completed.

It has been deemed advisable in this chapter to consider the smallest

details of the work of the draining engineer. Those who intend to drain in

the best manner will find such details important. Those who propose to do

their work less thoroughly, may still be guided by the principles on which

they are based. Any person who will take the pains to mature the plans of

his work as closely as has been here recommended, will as a consequence

commence his operations in the field much more understandingly. The

advantage of having everything decided beforehand,--so that the workmen

need not be delayed for want of sufficient directions, and of making, on

the map, such alterations as would have appeared necessary in the field,

thus saving the cost of cutting ditches in the wrong places, will well

repay the work of the evenings of a whole winter.

CHAPTER IV. - HOW TO MAKE THE DRAINS.

Knowing, now, precisely what is to be done; having the lines all staked

out, and the stakes so marked as to be clearly designated; knowing the

precise depth at which the drain is to be laid, at every point; having the

requisite tiles on the ground, and thoroughly inspected, the operator is

prepared to commence actual work.

He should determine how many men he will employ, and what tools they will

require to work to advantage. It may be best that the work be done by two

or three men, or it may be advisable to employ as many as can work without

interfering with each other. In most cases,--especially where there is much

water to contend with,--the latter course will be the most economical, as

the ditches will not be so liable to be injured by the softening of their

bottoms, and the caving in of their sides.

*The Tools Required* are a subsoil plow, two garden lines, spades,

shovels, and picks; narrow finishing spades, a finishing scoop, a tile

pick, a scraper for filling the ditches, a heavy wooden maul for

compacting the bottom filling, half a dozen boning-rods, a measuring rod,

and a plumb rod. These should all be on hand at the outset, so that no

delay in the work may result from the want of them.

[Illustration: Fig. 22 - SET OF TOOLS.]

Fig. 22 - SET OF TOOLS.

Flat Spades of various lengths and widths, Bill-necked Scoop (_A_);

Tile-layer (_B_); Pick-axe (_C_); and Scoop Spades, and Shovel.

Writers on drainage, almost without exception, recommend the use of

elaborate sets of tools which are intended for cutting very narrow

ditches,--only wide enough at the bottom to admit the tile, and not

allowing the workmen to stand in the bottom of the ditch. A set of these

tools is shown in Fig. 22.

Possibly there may be soils in which these implements, in the hands of men

skilled in their use, could be employed with economy, but they are very

rare, and it is not believed to be possible, under any circumstances, to

regulate the bottom of the ditch so accurately as is advisable, unless the

workman can stand directly upon it, cutting it more smoothly than he could

if the point of his tool were a foot or more below the level on which he

stands.

On this subject, Mr. J. Bailey Denton, one of the first draining engineers

of Great Britain, in a letter to Judge French, says:

"As to tools, it is the same with them as it is with the art of draining

itself,--too much rule and too much drawing upon paper; all very right to

begin with, but very prejudicial to progress. I employ, as engineer to the

General Land Drainage Company, and on my private account, during the

drainage season, as many as 2,000 men, and it is an actual fact, that not

one of them uses the set of tools figured in print. I have frequently

purchased a number of sets of the Birmingham tools, and sent them down on

extensive works. The laborers would purchase a few of the smaller tools,

such as Nos. 290, 291, and 301, figured in Morton's excellent Cyclopaedia

of Agriculture, and would try them, and then order others of the country

blacksmith, differing in several respects; less weighty and much less

costly, and moreover, much better as working tools. All I require of the

cutters, is, that the bottom of the drain should be evenly cut, to fit the

size of the pipe. The rest of the work takes care of itself; for a good

workman will economize his labor for his own sake, by moving as little

earth as practicable; thus, for instance, a first-class cutter, in clays,

will get down 4 feet with a 12-inch opening, _ordinarily_; if he wishes to

_show off_, he will sacrifice his own comfort to appearance, and will do

it with a 10-inch opening."

In the Central Park work, sets of these tools were procured, at

considerable expense, and every effort was made to compel the men to use

them, but it was soon found that, even in the easiest digging, there was a

real economy in using, for the first 3 feet of the ditch, the common

spade, pick, and shovel,--finishing the bottoms with the narrow spade and

scoop hereafter described, and it is probable that the experience of that

work will be sustained by that of the country at large.

*Marking the Lines.*--To lay a drain directly under the position of its

stakes, would require that enough earth be left at each point to hold the

stake, and that the ditch be tunneled under it. This is expensive and

unnecessary. It is better to dig the ditches at one side of the lines of

stakes, far enough away for the earth to hold them firmly in their places,

but near enough to allow measurements to be taken from the grade pegs. If

the ditch be placed always to the right, or always to the left, of the

line, and at a uniform distance, the general plan will remain the same,

and the lines will be near enough to those marked on the map to be easily

found at any future time. In fact, if it be known that the line of tiles

is two feet to the right of the position indicated, it will only be

necessary, at any time, should it be desired to open an old drain, to

measure two feet to the right of the surveyed position to strike the line

at once.

In soils of ordinary tenacity, ditches 4 feet deep need not be more than

twenty (20) inches wide at the surface, and four (4) inches wide at the

bottom. This will allow, in each side, a slope of eight (8) inches, which

is sufficient except in very loose soils, and even these may be braced up,

if inclined to cave in. There are cases where the soil contains so much

running sand, and is so saturated with water, that no precautions will

avail to keep up the banks. Ditches in such ground will sometimes fall in,

until the excavation reaches a width of 8 or 10 feet. Such instances,

however, are very rare, and must be treated as the occasion suggests.

One of the garden lines should be set at a distance of about 6 inches from

the row of stakes, and the other at a further distance of 20 inches. If

the land is in grass, the position of these lines may be marked with a

spade, and they may be removed at once; but, if it is arable land, it will

be best to leave the lines in position until the ditch is excavated to a

sufficient depth to mark it clearly. Indeed, it will be well to at once

remove all of the sod and surface soil, say to a depth of 6 inches,

(throwing this on the same side with the stakes, and back of them.) The

whole force can be profitably employed in this work, until all of the

ditches to be dug are scored to this depth over the entire tract to be

drained, except in swamps which are still too wet for this work.

*Water Courses.*--The brooks which carry the water from the springs should

be "jumped" in marking out the lines, as it is desirable that their water

be kept in separate channels, so far as possible, until the tiles are

ready to receive it, as, if allowed to run in the open ditches, it would

undermine the banks and keep the bottom too soft for sound work.

With this object, commence at the southern boundary of our example tract,

10 or 15 feet east of the point of outlet, and drive a straight,

temporary, shallow ditch to a point a little west of the intersection of

the main line _D_ with its first lateral; then carry it in a northwesterly

direction, crossing _C_ midway between the silt-basin and stake _C 1_, and

thence into the present line of the brook, turning all of the water into

the ditch. A branch of this ditch may be run up between the lines _F_ and

_G_ to receive the water from the spring which lies in that direction.

This arrangement will keep the water out of the way until the drains are

ready to take it.

*The Outlet.*--The water being all discharged through the new temporary

ditch, the old brook, beyond the boundary, should be cleared out to the

final level (3.75,) and an excavation made, just within the boundary,

sufficient to receive the masonry which is to protect the outlet. A good

form of outlet is shown in Fig. 23. It may be cheaply made by any farmer,

especially if he have good stone at hand;--if not, brick may be used, laid

on a solid foundation of stout planks, which, (being protected from the

air and always saturated with water,) will last a very long time.

[Illustration: Fig. 23 - OUTLET, SECURED WITH MASONRY AND GRATING.]

Fig. 23 - OUTLET, SECURED WITH MASONRY AND GRATING.

If made of stone, a solid floor, at least 2 feet square, should be placed

at, or below, the level of the brook. If this consist of a single stone,

it will be better than if of several smaller pieces. On this, place

another layer extending the whole width of the first, but reaching only

from its inner edge to its center line, so as to leave a foot in width of

the bottom stone to receive the fall of the water. This second layer

should reach exactly the grade of the outlet (3.50) or a height of 3

inches from the brook level. On the floor thus made, there should be laid

the tiles which are to constitute the outlets of the several drains;

_i.e._, one 3-1/2-inch tile for the line from the silt-basin, two

1-1/4-inch for the lines _F_ and _G_, and one 2-1/4-inch for the main line

_E_. These tiles should lie close to each other and be firmly cemented

together, so that no water can pass outside of them, and a rubble-work of

stone may with advantage be carried up a foot above them. Stone work,

which may be rough and uncemented, but should always be solid, may then be

built up at the sides, and covered with a secure coping of stone. A floor

and sloping sides of stone work, jointed with the previously described

work, and well cemented, or laid in strong clay or mortar, may, with

benefit, be carried a few feet beyond the outlet. This will effectually

prevent the undermining of the structure. After the entire drainage of the

field is finished, the earth above these sloping sides, and that back of

the coping, should be neatly sloped, and protected by sods. An iron

grating, fine enough to prevent the entrance of vermin, placed in front of

the tile, at a little distance from them,--and secured by a flat stone set

on edge and hollowed out, so as merely to allow the water to flow freely

from the drains,--the stone being cemented in its place so as to allow no

water to pass under it,--will give a substantial and permanent finish to

the structure.

An outlet finished in this way, at an extra cost of a few dollars, will be

most satisfactory, as a lasting means of securing the weakest and most

important part of the system of drains. When no precaution of this sort is

taken, the water frequently forces a passage under the tile for some

distance up the drains, undermining and displacing them, and so softening

the bottom that it will be difficult, in making repairs, to secure a solid

foundation for the work. Usually, repairs of this sort, aside from the

annoyance attending them, will cost more than the amount required to make

the permanent outlet described above. As well constructed outlets are

necessarily rather expensive, as much of the land as possible should be

drained to each one that it is necessary to make, by laying main lines

which will collect all of the water which can be brought to it.

*The Main Silt-Basin.*--The silt-basin, at which the drains are collected,

may best be built before any drains are brought to it, and the work may

proceed simultaneously with that at the outlet. It should be so placed

that its center will lie exactly under the stake which marks its position,

because it will constitute one of the leading landmarks for the survey of

the drains.(17)

Before removing the stake and grade stake, mark their position by four

stakes, set at a distance from it of 4 or 5 feet, in such positions that

two lines, drawn from those which are opposite to each other, will

intersect at the point indicated; and place near one of them a grade

stake, driven to the exact level of the one to be removed. This being

done, dig a well, 4 feet in diameter, to a depth of 2-1/2 feet below the

grade of the outlet drain, (in the example under consideration this would

be 5 feet below the grade stake.) If much water collects in the hole,

widen it, in the direction of the outlet drain, sufficiently to give room

for baling out the water. Now build, in this well, a structure 2 feet in

interior diameter, such as is shown in Fig. 24, having its bottom 2 feet,

in the clear, below the grade of the outlet, and carry its wall a little

higher than the general surface of the ground. At the proper height

insert, in the brick work, the necessary for tiles all incoming and

outgoing drains; in this case, a 3-1/2-inch tile for the outlet,

2-1/4-inch for the mains _A_ and _C_, and 1-1/4-inch for _B_ and _D_.

[Illustration: Fig. 24 - SILT-BASIN, BUILT TO THE SURFACE.]

Fig. 24 - SILT-BASIN, BUILT TO THE SURFACE.

This basin being finished and covered with a flat stone or other suitable

material, connect it with the outlet by an open ditch, unless the bottom

of the ditch, when laid open to the proper depth, be found to be of muck

or quicksand. In such case, it will be best to lay the tile at once, and

cover it in for the whole distance, as, on a soft bottom, it would be

difficult to lay it well when the full drainage of the field is flowing

through the ditch. The tiles should be laid with all care, on a perfectly

regulated fall,--using strips of board under them if the bottom is shaky or

soft,--as on this line depends the success of all the drains above it,

which might be rendered useless by a single badly laid tile at this point,

or by any other cause of obstruction to the flow.

While the work is progressing in the field above, there will be a great

deal of muddy water and some sticks, grass, and other rubbish, running

from the ditches above the basin, and care must be taken to prevent this

drain from becoming choked. A piece of wire cloth, or basket work, placed

over the outlet in the basin, will keep out the coarser matters, and the

mud which would accumulate in the tile may be removed by occasional

flushing. This is done by crowding a tuft of grass,--or a bit of sod,--into

the lower end of the tile (at the outlet,) securing it there until the

water rises in the basin, and then removing it. The rush of water will be

sufficient to wash the tile clean.

This plan is not without objections, and, as a rule, it is never well to

lay any tiles at the lower end of a drain until all above it is finished;

but when a considerable outlet must be secured through soft land, which is

inclined to cave in, and to get soft at the bottom, it will save labor to

secure the tile in place before much water reaches it, even though it

require a daily flushing to keep it clean.

*Opening the Ditches.*--Thus far it has been sought to secure a permanent

outlet, and to connect it by a secure channel, with the silt-basin, which

is to collect the water of the different series of drains. The next step

is to lay open the ditches for these. It will be best to commence with the

main line _A_ and its laterals, as they will take most of the water which

now flows through the open brook, and prevent its interference with the

rest of the work.

The first work is the opening of the ditches to a depth of about 3 feet,

which may be best done with the common spade, pick, and shovel, except

that in ground which is tolerably free from stones, a subsoil plow will

often take the place of the pick, with much saving of labor. It _may_ be

drawn by oxen working in a long yoke, which will allow them to walk one on

each side of the ditch, but this is dangerous, as they are liable to

disturb the stakes, (especially the grade stakes,) and to break down the

edges of the ditches. The best plan is to use a small subsoil plow, drawn

by a single horse, or strong mule, trained to walk in the ditch. The beast

will soon learn to accommodate himself to his narrow quarters, and will

work easily in a ditch 2-1/2 feet deep, having a width of less than afoot

at the bottom; of course there must be a way provided for him to come out

at each end. Deeper than this there is no economy in using horse power,

and even for this depth it will be necessary to use a plow having only one

stilt.

[Illustration: Fig. 25 - FINISHING SPADE.]

Fig. 25 - FINISHING SPADE.

Before the main line is cut into the open brook, this should be furnished

with a wooden trough, which will carry the water across it, so that the

ditch shall receive only the filtration from the ground. Those laterals

west of the main line, which are crossed by the brook, had better not be

opened at present,--not until the water of the spring is admitted to and

removed by the drain.

[Illustration: Fig. 26 - FINISHING SCOOP.]

Fig. 26 - FINISHING SCOOP.

The other laterals and the whole of the main line, having been cut to a

depth of 3 feet, take a finishing spade, (Fig. 25,) which is only 4 inches

wide at its point, and dig to within 2 or 3 inches of the depth marked on

the stakes, making the bottom tolerably smooth, with the aid of the

finishing scoop, (Fig. 26,) and giving it as regular an inclination as can

be obtained by the eye alone.

[Illustration: Fig. 27 - BRACING THE SIDES IN SOFT LAND.]

Fig. 27 - BRACING THE SIDES IN SOFT LAND.

If the ground is "rotten," and the banks of the ditches incline to cave

in, as is often the case in passing wet places, the earth which is thrown

out in digging must be thrown back sufficiently far from the edge to

prevent its weight from increasing the tendency; and the sides of the

ditch may be supported by bits of board braced apart as is shown in Fig.

27.

[Illustration: Fig. 28 - MEASURING STAFF.]

Fig. 28 - MEASURING STAFF.

The manner of opening the ditches, which is described above, for the main

_A_ and its laterals, will apply to the drains of the whole field and to

all similar work.

*Grading the Bottoms.*--The next step in the work is to grade the bottoms

of the ditches, so as to afford a bed for the tiles on the exact lines

which are indicated by the figures marked on the different stakes.

The manner in which this is to be done may be illustrated by describing

the work required for the line from *C10* to *C17*, (Fig. 20,) after it

has been opened, as described above, to within 2 or 3 inches of the final

depth.

A measuring rod, or square, such as is shown in Fig. 28,(18) is set at

*C10*, so that the lower side of its arm is at the mark 4.59 on the staff,

(or at a little less than 4.6 if it is divided only into feet and tenths,)

and is held upright in the ditch, with its arm directly over the grade

stake. The earth below it is removed, little by little, until it will

touch the top of the stake and the bottom of the ditch at the same time.

If the ground is soft, it should be cut out until a flat stone, a block of

wood, or a piece of tile, or of brick, sunk in the bottom, will have its

surface at the exact point of measurement. This point is the bottom of the

ditch on which the collar of the tile is to lie at that stake. In the same

manner the depth is fixed at _C11_ (4.19,) and _C12_ (4.41,) as the rate

of fall changes at each of these points, and at _C15_ (3.89,) and _C17_

(4.17,) because (although the fall is uniform from _C12_ to _C17_,) the

distance is too great for accurate sighting.

[Illustration: Fig. 29 - BONING ROD.]

Fig. 29 - BONING ROD.

Having provided _boning-rods_, which are strips of board 7 feet long,

having horizontal cross pieces at their upper ends, (see Fig. 29,) set

these perpendicularly on the spots which have been found by measurement to

be at the correct depth opposite stakes 10, 11, 12, 15, and 17, and fasten

each in its place by wedging it between two strips of board laid across

the ditch, so as to clasp it, securing these in their places by laying

stones or earth upon their ends.

As these boning-rods are all exactly 7 feet long, of course, a line

sighted across their tops will be exactly 7 feet higher, at all points,

than the required grade of the ditch directly beneath it, and if a plumb

rod, (similar to the boning-rod, but provided with a line and plummet,) be

set perpendicularly on any point of the bottom of the drain, the relation

of its cross piece to the line of sight across the tops of the boning-rods

will show whether the bottom of the ditch at that point is too high, or

too low, or just right. The manner of sighting over two boning-rods and an

intermediate plumb-rod, is shown in Fig. 31.

[Illustration: Fig. 30 - POSITION OF WORKMAN AND USE OF FINISHING SCOOP.]

Fig. 30 - POSITION OF WORKMAN AND USE OF FINISHING SCOOP.

Three persons are required to finish the bottom of the ditch; one to sight

across the tops of the boning-rods, one to hold the plumb-rod at different

points as the finishing progresses, and one in the ditch, (see Fig. 30,)

provided with the finishing spade and scoop,--and, in hard ground, with a

pick,--to cut down or fill up as the first man calls "too high," or, "too

low." An inch or two of filling maybe beaten sufficiently hard with the

back of the scoop, but if several inches should be required, it should be

well rammed with the top of a pick, or other suitable instrument, as any

subsequent settling would disarrange the fall.

[Illustration: Fig. 31 - SIGHTING BY THE BONING-RODS.]

Fig. 31 - SIGHTING BY THE BONING-RODS.

As the lateral drains are to be laid first, they should be the first

graded, and as they are arranged to discharge into the tops of the mains,

their water will still flow off, although the main ditches are not yet

reduced to their final depth. After the laterals are laid and filled in,

the main should be graded, commencing at the upper end; the tiles being

laid and covered as fast as the bottom is made ready, so that it may not

be disturbed by the water of which the main carries so much more than the

laterals.

*Tile-Laying.*--Gisborne says: "It would be scarcely more absurd to set a

common blacksmith to eye needles than to employ a common laborer to lay

pipes and collars." The work comes under the head of _skilled labor,_ and,

while no very great exercise of judgment is required in its performance,

the little that is required is imperatively necessary, and the details of

the work should be deftly done. The whole previous outlay,--the survey and

staking of the field, the purchase of the tiles, the digging and grading

of the ditches--has been undertaken that we may make the conduit of

earthenware pipes which is now to be laid, and the whole may be rendered

useless by a want of care and completeness in the performance of this

chief operation. This subject, (in connection with that of finishing the

bottoms of the ditches,) is very clearly treated in Mr. Hoskyns' charming

essay,(19) as follows:

"It was urged by Mr. Brunel, as a justification for more attention and

expense in the laying of the rails of the Great Western, than had been

ever thought of upon previously constructed lines, that all the

embankments and cuttings, and earthworks and stations, and law and

parliamentary expenses--in fact, the whole of the outlay encountered in the

formation of a railway, had for its main and ultimate object _a perfectly

smooth and level line of rail_; that to turn stingy at this point, just

when you had arrived at the great ultimatum of the whole proceedings, viz:

the iron wheel-track, was a sort of saving which evinced a want of true

preception of the great object of all the labor that had preceded it. It

may seem curious to our experiences, in these days, that such a doctrine

could ever have needed to be enforced by argument; yet no one will deem it

wonderful who has personally witnessed the unaccountable and ever new

difficulty of getting proper attention paid to the leveling of the bottom

of a drain, and the laying of the tiles in that continuous line, where one

single depression or irregularity, by collecting the water at that spot,

year after year, tends toward the eventual stoppage of the whole drain,

through two distinct causes, the softening of the foundation underneath

the sole, or tile flange, and the deposit of soil inside the tile from the

water collected at the spot, and standing there after the rest had run

off. Every depression, however slight, is constantly doing this mischief

in every drain where the fall is but trifling; and if to the two

consequences above mentioned, we may add the decomposition of the tile

itself by the action of water long stagnant within it, we may deduce that

every tile-drain laid with these imperfections in the finishing of the

bottom, has a tendency toward obliteration, out of all reasonable

proportion with that of a well-burnt tile laid on a perfectly even

inclination, which, humanly speaking, may be called a permanent thing. An

open ditch cut by the most skillful workman, in the summer, affords the

best illustration of this underground mischief. Nothing can look smoother

and more even than the bottom, until that uncompromising test of accurate

levels, the water, makes its appearance: all on a sudden the whole scene

is changed, the eye-accredited level vanishes as if some earthquake had

taken place: here, there is a gravelly _scour_, along which the stream

rushes in a thousand little angry-looking ripples; there, it hangs and

looks as dull and heavy as if it had given up running at all, as a useless

waste of energy; in another place, a few dead leaves or sticks, or a

morsel of soil broken from the side, dams back the water for a

considerable distance, occasioning a deposit of soil along the whole

reach, greater in proportion to the quantity and the muddiness of the

water detained. All this shows the paramount importance of perfect

evenness in the bed on which the tiles are laid. _The worst laid tile is

the measure of the goodness and permanence of the whole drain_, just as

the weakest link of a chain is the measure of its strength."

The simple laying of the smaller sizes of pipes and collars in the lateral

drains, is an easy matter. It requires care and precision in placing the

collar equally under the end of each pipe, (having the joint at the middle

of the collar,) in having the ends of the pipes actually touch each other

within the collars, and in brushing away any loose dirt which may have

fallen on the spot on which the collar is to rest. The connection of the

laterals with the mains, the laying of the larger sizes of tiles so as to

form a close joint, the wedging of these larger tiles firmly into their

places, and the trimming which is necessary in going around sharp curves,

and in putting in the shorter pieces which are needed to fill out the

exact length of the drain, demand more skill and judgment than are often

found in the common ditcher. Still, any clever workman, who has a careful

habit, may easily be taught all that is necessary; and until he is

thoroughly taught,--and not only knows how to do the work well, but, also,

understands the importance of doing it well,--the proprietor should

carefully watch the laying of every piece.

_Never have tiles laid by the rod, but always by the day._ "The more

haste, the less speed," is a maxim which applies especially to

tile-laying.

If the proprietor or the engineer does not overlook the laying of each

tile as it is done, and probably he will not, he should carefully inspect

every piece before it is covered. It is well to walk along the ditches and

touch each tile with the end of a light rod, in such a way as to see

whether it is firm enough in its position not to be displaced by the earth

which will fall upon it in filling the ditches.

Preparatory to laying, the tiles should be placed along one side of the

ditch, near enough to be easily reached by a man standing in it. When

collars are to be used, one of these should be slipped over one end of

each tile. The workman stands in the ditch, with his face toward its upper

end. The first tile is laid with a collar on its lower end, and the collar

is drawn one-half of its length forward, so as to receive the end of the

next tile. The upper end of the first tile is closed with a stone, or a

bit of broken tile placed firmly against it. The next tile has its nose

placed into the projecting half of the collar of the first one, and its

own collar is drawn forward to receive the end of the third, and thus to

the end of the drain, the workman walking backward as the work progresses.

By and by, when he comes to connect the lateral with the main, he may find

that a short piece of tile is needed to complete the length; this should

not be placed next to the tile of the main, where it is raised above the

bottom of the ditch, but two or three lengths back, leaving the connection

with the main to be made with a tile of full length. If the piece to be

inserted is only two or three inches long, it may be omitted, and the

space covered by using a whole 21/2-inch tile in place of the collar. In

turning corners or sharp curves, the end of the tile may be chipped off,

so as to be a little thinner on one side, which will allow it to be turned

at a greater angle in the collar.

If the drain turns a right angle, it will be better to dig out the bottom

of the ditch to a depth of about eight inches, and to set a 6-inch tile on

end in the hole, perforating its sides, so as to admit the ends of the

pipes at the proper level. This 6-inch tile, (which acts as a small

silt-basin,) should stand on a board or on a flat stone, and its top

should be covered with a stone or with a couple of bricks. Wood will last

almost forever below the level of the drain, where it will always be

saturated with water, but in the drier earth above the tile, it is much

more liable to decay.

[Illustration: Fig. 32 - PICK FOR DRESSING AND PREFORATING TILE.]

Fig. 32 - PICK FOR DRESSING AND PREFORATING TILE.

The trimming and perforating of the tile is done with a "tile-pick," (Fig.

32,) the hatchet end, tolerably sharp, being used for the trimming, and

the point, for making the holes. This is done by striking lightly around

the circumference of the hole until the center piece falls in, or can be

easily knocked in. If the hole is irregular, and does not fit the tile

nicely, the open space should be covered with bits of broken tile, to keep

the earth out.

As fast as the laterals are laid and inspected, they should be filled in

to the depth of at least a foot, to protect the tiles from being broken by

the falling of stones or lumps of earth from the top, and from being

displaced by water flowing in the ditch. Two or three feet of the lower

end may be left uncovered until the connection with the main is finished.

In the main drains, when the tiles are of the size with which collars are

used, the laying is done in the same manner. If it is necessary to use

3-1/2-inch tiles, or any larger size, much more care must be given to the

closing of the joints. All tiles, in manufacture, dry more rapidly at the

top, which is more exposed to the air, than at the bottom, and they are,

therefore, contracted and made shorter at the top. This difference is most

apparent in the larger sizes. The large _round_ tiles, which can be laid

on any side, can easily be made to form a close joint, and they should be

secured in their proper position by stones or lumps of earth, wedged in

between them and the sides of the ditch. The sole tiles must lie with the

shortest sides up, and, usually, the space between two tiles, at the top,

will be from one-quarter to one-half of an inch. To remedy this defect,

and form a joint which may he protected against the entrance of earth, the

bottom should he trimmed off, so as to allow the tops to come closer

together. Any opening, of less than a quarter of an inch, can he

satisfactorily covered,--more than that should not be allowed. In turning

corners, or in passing around curves, with large tiles, their ends must he

beveled off with the pick, so as to fit nicely in this position.

The best covering for the joints of tiles which are laid without collars,

is a scrap of tin, bent so as to fit their shape,--scraps of leather, or

bits of strong wood shavings, answer a very good purpose, though both of

these latter require to be held in place by putting a little earth over

their ends as soon as laid on the tile. _Very small_ grass ropes drawn

over the joints, (the ends being held down with stones or earth,) form a

satisfactory covering, but care should be taken that they be not too

thick. A small handful of wood shavings, thrown over the joints, also

answers a good purpose. Care, however, should always be taken, in using

any material which will decay readily, to have no more than is necessary

to keep the earth out, lest, in its decay, it furnish material to be

carried into the tile and obstruct the flow. This precaution becomes less

necessary in the case of drains which always carry considerable streams of

water, but if they are at times sluggish in their flow, too much care

cannot be given to keep them free of all possible causes of obstruction.

As nothing is gained by increasing the quantity of loose covering beyond

what is needed to close the joints, and as such covering is only procured

with some trouble, there is no reason for its extravagant use.

There seems to remain in the minds of many writers on drainage a

glimmering of the old fallacy that underdrains, like open drains, receive

their water from above, and it is too commonly recommended that porous

substances be placed above the tile. If, as is universally conceded, the

water rises into the tile from below, this is unnecessary. The practice of

covering the joints, and even covering the whole tile, (often to the depth

of a foot,) with tan-bark, turf, coarse gravel, etc., is in no wise to be

commended; and, while the objections to it are not necessarily very grave

in all cases, it always introduces an element of insecurity, and it is a

waste of money, if nothing worse.

The tile layer need not concern himself with the question, of affording

entrance room for the water. Let him, so far as the rude materials at hand

will allow, make the joints perfectly tight, and when the water comes, it

will find ample flaws in his work, and he will have been a good workman if

it do not find room to flow in a current, carrying particles of dirt with

it.

In ditches in which water is running at the time of laying the tiles, the

process should follow closely after the grading, and the stream may even

be dammed back, section after section, (a plugged tile being placed under

the dam, to be afterwards replaced by a free one,) and graded, laid and

covered before the water breaks in. There is one satisfaction in this kind

of work,--that, while it is difficult to lay the drain so thoroughly well

as in a dry ditch, the amount of water is sufficient to overcome any

slight tendency to obstruction.

*Connections.*--As has been before stated, lateral drains should always

enter at the top of the main. Even in the most shallow work, the slightly

decreased depth of the lateral, which this arrangement requires, is well

compensated for by the free outlet which it secures.

After the tile of the main, which is to receive a side drain, has been

fitted to its place, and the point of junction marked, it should be taken

up and perforated; then the end of the tile of the lateral should be so

trimmed as to fit the hole as accurately as may be, the large tile

replaced in its position, and the small one laid on it,--reaching over to

the floor of the lateral ditch. Then connect it with the lateral as

previously laid, fill up solidly the space under the tile which reaches

over to the top of the main, (so that it cannot become disturbed in

filling,) and lay bits of tile, or other suitable covering, around the

connecting joint.(20)

[Illustration: Fig. 33 - LATERAL DRAIN ENTERING AT TOP.]

Fig. 33 - LATERAL DRAIN ENTERING AT TOP.

When the main drain is laid with collars, it should be so arranged that,

by substituting a full tile in the place of the collar,--leaving, within

it, a space between the smaller pipes,--a connection can be made with this

larger tile, as is represented in Figures 33 and 34.

[Illustration: Fig. 34 - SECTIONAL VIEW OF JOINT.]

Fig. 34 - SECTIONAL VIEW OF JOINT.

*Silt-Basins* should be used at all points where a drain, after running

for any considerable distance at a certain rate of fall, changes to a less

rapid fall,--unless, indeed, the diminished fall be still sufficiently

great for the removal of silty matters, (say two feet or more in a

hundred). They may be made in any manner which will secure a stoppage of

the direct current, and afford room below the floor of the tile for the

deposit of the silt which the water has carried in suspension; and they

may be of any suitable material;--even a sound flour barrel will serve a

pretty good purpose for many years. The most complete form of basin is

that represented in Figure 24.

[Illustration: Fig. 35 - SQUARE BRICK SILT-BASIN.]

Fig. 35 - SQUARE BRICK SILT-BASIN.

When the object is only to afford room for the collection of the silt of a

considerable length of drain, and it is not thought worth while to keep

open a communication with the surface, for purposes of inspection, a

square box of brick work, (Fig. 35,) having a depth of one and a half or

two feet below the floor of the drain,--tiles for the drains being built in

the walls, and the top covered with a broad stone,--will answer very well.

[Illustration: Fig. 36 - SILT-BASIN OF VITRIFIED PIPE.]

Fig. 36 - SILT-BASIN OF VITRIFIED PIPE.

A good sort of basin, to reach to the surface of the ground, may be made

of large, vitrified drain pipes,--such as are used for town

sewerage,--having a diameter of from six to twelve inches, according to the

requirements of the work. This basin is shown in Figure 36.

Figure 37 represents a basin made of a 6-inch tile,--similar to that

described on page 130, for turning a short corner. A larger basin of the

same size, cheaper than if built of brick, may be made by using a large

vitrified drain pipe in the place of the one shown in the cut. These

vitrified pipes may be perforated in the manner described for the common

tile.

[Illustration: Fig. 37 - TILE SILT-BASIN.]

Fig. 37 - TILE SILT-BASIN.

In laying the main line _C_, (Fig. 21,) an underground basin of brick

work, (Fig. 35,) or its equivalent, should be placed at stake 7, because

at that point the water, which has been flowing on an inclination of 1.09,

2.00 and 2.83 per 100, continues its course over the much less fall of

only 0.56 per 100.

If, among the tiles which have passed the inspection, there are some

which, from over burning, are smaller than the average, they should be

laid at the upper ends of the laterals. The cardinal rule of the tile

layer should be _never to have a single tile in the finished drain of

smaller size, of more irregular shape, or less perfectly laid, than any

tile above it_. If there is to be any difference in the quality of the

drain, at different points, let it grow better as it approaches the outlet

and has a greater length above depending upon its action.

*Covering the Tiles, and Filling-in the Ditches.*--The best material for

covering the tiles is that which will the most completely surround them,

so as to hold them in their places; will be the least likely to have

passages for the flow of _streams_ of water into the joints, and will

afford the least silt to obstruct the drain. Clay is the best of all

available materials, because it is of the most uniform character

throughout its mass, and may be most perfectly compacted around the tiles.

As has been before stated, all matters which are subject to decay are

objectionable, because they will furnish fine matters to enter the joints,

and by their decrease of bulk, may leave openings in the earth through

which streams of muddy water may find their way into the tiles. Gravel is

bad, and will remain bad until its spaces are filled with fine dirt

deposited by water, which, leaving only a part of its impurities here,

carries the rest into the drain. A gravelly loam, free from roots or other

organic matter, if it is strong enough to be worked into a ball when wet,

will answer a very good purpose.

Ordinarily, the earth which was thrown out from the bottom of the ditch,

and which now lies at the top of the dirt heap, is the best to be returned

about the tiles, being first freed from any stones it may contain which

are large enough to break or disturb the tiles in falling on to them.

If the bottom of the ditch consists of quicksand or other silty matters,

clay or some other suitable earth should be sought in that which was

excavated from a less depth, or should be brought from another place. A

thin layer of this having been placed in the bottom of the ditch when

grading, a slight covering of the same about the tiles will so encase them

as to prevent the entrance of the more "slippy" soil.

The first covering of fine earth, free from stones and clods, should be

sprinkled gently over the tiles, no full shovelfuls being thrown on to

them until they are covered at least six inches deep. When the filling has

reached a height of from fifteen to twenty inches, the men may jump into

the ditch and tramp it down evenly and regularly, not treading too hard in

any one place at first. When thus lightly compacted about the tile, so

that any further pressure cannot displace them, the filling should be

repeatedly rammed, (the more the better,) by two men standing astride the

ditch, facing each other, and working a maul, such as is shown in Figure

38, and which may weigh from 80 to 100 pounds.

[Illustration: Fig. 38 - MAUL FOR RAMMING.]

Fig. 38 - MAUL FOR RAMMING.

Those to whom this recommendation is new, will, doubtless, think it

unwise. The only reply to their objection must be that others who shared

their opinion, have, by long observation and experience, been convinced of

its correctness. They may practically convince themselves of the value of

this sort of covering by a simple and inexpensive experiment: Take two

large, water-tight hogsheads, bore through the side of each, a few inches

from the bottom, a hole just large enough to admit a 1-1/4-inch tile;

cover the bottom to the hight of the lower edge of the hole with strong,

wet clay, beaten to a hard paste; on this, lay a line of pipes and

collars,--the inner end sealed with putty, and the tile which passes

through the hole so wedged about with putty, that no water could pass out

between it and the outside of the hole. Cover the tile in one hogshead

with loose gravel, and then fill it to the top with loose earth. Cover the

tile in the other, twenty inches deep, with ordinary stiff clay, (not wet

enough to _puddle_, but sufficiently moist to pack well,) and ram it

thoroughly, so as to make sure that the tiles are completely clasped, and

that there is no crack nor crevice through which water can trickle, and

then fill this hogshead to the top with earth, of the same character with

that used in the other case. These hogsheads should stand where the water

of a small roof, (as that of a hog-pen,) may be led into them, by an

arrangement which shall give an equal quantity to each;--this will give

them rather more than the simple rain-fall, but will leave them exposed to

the usual climatic changes of the season. A vessel, of a capacity of a

quart or more, should be connected with each outlet, and covered from the

dust,-- these will act as silt-basins. During the first few storms the

water will flow off much more freely from the first barrel; but, little by

little, the second one, as the water finds its way through the clay, and

as the occasional drying, and repeated filtration make it more porous,

will increase in its flow until it will, by the end of the season, or, at

latest, by the end of the second season, drain as well as the first, if,

indeed, that be not by this time somewhat obstructed with silt. The amount

of accumulation in the vessels at the outlet will show which process has

best kept back the silt, and the character of the deposit will show which

would most probably be carried off by the gentle flow of water in a nearly

level drain.

It is no argument against this experiment that its results cannot be

determined even in a year, for it is not pretended that drains laid in

compact clay will dry land so completely during the first month as those

which give more free access to the water; only that they will do so in a

comparatively short time; and that, as drainage is a work for all time,

(practically as lasting as the farm itself,) the importance of permanence

and good working for long years to come, is out of all proportion to that

of the temporary good results of one or two seasons, accompanied with

doubtful durability.

It has been argued that _surface water_ will be more readily removed by

drains having porous filling. Even if this were true to any important

degree,--which it is not,--it would be an argument against the plan, for the

remedy would be worse than the disease. If the water flow from the surface

down into the drain, it will not fail to carry dirt with it, and instead

of the clear water, which alone should rise into the tiles from below, we

should have a trickling flow from above, muddy with wasted manure and

silty earth.

_The remaining filling of the ditch_ is a matter of simple labor, and may

be done in whatever way may be most economical under the circumstances of

the work. If the amount to be filled is considerable, so that it is

desirable to use horse-power, the best way will be to use a scraper, such

as is represented in Figure 39, which is a strongly ironed plank, 6 feet

long and 18 inches wide, sharp shod at one side, and supplied with handles

at the other. It is propelled by means of the curved rods, which are

attached to its under side by flexible joints. These rods are connected by

a chain which has links large enough to receive the hook of an ox-chain.

This scraper may be used for any straight-forward work by attaching the

power to the middle of the chain. By moving the hook a few links to the

right or left, it will act somewhat after the manner of the mould-board of

a plow, and will, if skillfully handled, shoot the filling rapidly into

the ditch.

[Illustration: Fig. 39 - BOARD SCRAPER FOR FILLING DITCHES.]

Fig. 39 - BOARD SCRAPER FOR FILLING DITCHES.

If the work is done by hand, mix the surface soil and turf with the

subsoil filling for the whole depth. If with a scraper, put the surface

soil at the bottom of the loose filling, and the subsoil at the top, as

this will be an imitation, for the limited area of the drains, of the

process of "trenching," which is used in garden cultivation.

When the ditches are filled, they will be higher than the adjoining land,

and it will be well to make them still more so by digging or plowing out a

small trench at each side of the drain, throwing the earth against the

mound, which will prevent surface water, (during heavy rains,) from

running into the loose filling before it is sufficiently settled. A cross

section of a filled drain provided with these ditches is shown in Figure

40.

[Illustration: Fig. 40 - CROSS-SECTION OF DITCH (FILLED), WITH FURROW

AT EACH SIDE.]

Fig. 40 - CROSS-SECTION OF DITCH (FILLED), WITH FURROW AT EACH SIDE.

In order that the silt-basins may be examined, and their accumulations of

earth removed, during the early action of the drains, those parts of the

ditches which are above them may be left open, care being taken, by

cutting surface ditches around them, to prevent the entrance of water from

above. During this time the covers of the basins should be kept on, and

should be covered with inverted sods to keep loose dirt from getting into

them.

*Collecting the Water (C)f Springs.*--The lateral which connects with the

main drain, _A_, (Fig. 21,) at the point _m_, and which is to take the

water of the spring at the head of the brook, should not be opened until

the main has been completed and filled into the silt-basin,--the brook

having, meantime, been carried over the other ditches in wooden troughs.

This lateral may now be made in the following way: Dig down to the tile of

the main, and carry the lateral ditch back, a distance of ten feet. In the

bottom of this, place a wooden trough, at least six feet long, laid at

such depth that its channel shall be on the exact grade required for

laying the tiles, and lay long straw, (held down by weights,) lengthwise

within it. Make an opening in the tile of the main and connect the trough

with it. The straw will prevent any coarse particles of earth from being

carried into the tile, and the flow of the water will be sufficient to

carry on to the silt-basin any finer matters. Now open the ditch to and

beyond the spring, digging at least a foot below the grade in its

immediate vicinity, and filling to the exact grade with small stones,

broken bricks, or other suitable material. Lay the tiles from the upper

end of the ditch across the stone work, and down to the wooden trough. Now

spread a sufficient layer of wood shavings over the stone work to keep the

earth from entering it, cover the tiles and fill in the ditch, as before

directed, and then remove the straw from the wooden trough and lay tiles

in its place. In this way, the water of even a strong spring may be

carried into a finished drain without danger. In laying the tile which

crosses the stone work, it is well to use full 2-1/2-inch tiles in the

place of collars, leaving the joints of these, and of the 1-1/4-inch

tiles, (which should join near the middle of the collar tile,) about a

quarter of an inch open, to give free entrance to the water.

The stone and tile drain, _H, I_, is simply dug out to the surface of the

rock, if this is not more than two feet below the grade of the upper ends

of the laterals with which it connects, and then filled up with loose

stones to the line of grade. If the stones are small, so as to form a good

bottom for the tiles, they may be laid directly upon it; if not, a bottom

for them may be made of narrow strips of cheap boards. Before filling, the

tiles and stone work should be covered with shavings, and the filling

above these should consist of a strong clay, which will remain in place

after the shavings rot away.

*Amending the Map.*--When the tiles are laid, and before they are covered,

all deviations of the lines, as in passing around large stones and other

obstructions, which may have prevented the exact execution of the original

plan, and the location and kind of each underground silt-basin should also

be carefully noted, so that they may be transferred to the map, for future

reference, in the event of repairs becoming necessary. In a short time

after the work is finished, the surface of the field will show no trace of

the lines of drain, and it should be possible, in case of need, to find

any point of the drains with precision, so that no labor will be lost in

digging for it. It is much cheaper to measure over the surface than to dig

four feet trenches through the ground.

CHAPTER V. - HOW TO TAKE CARE OF DRAINS AND DRAINED LAND.

So far as tile drains are concerned, if they are once well laid, and if

the silt-basins have been emptied of silt until the water has ceased to

deposit it, they need no care nor attention, beyond an occasional cleaning

of the outlet brook. Now and then, from the proximity of willows, or

thrifty, young, water-loving trees, a drain will be obstructed by roots;

or, during the first few years after the work is finished, some weak

point,--a badly laid tile, a loosely fitted connection between the lateral

and a main, or an accumulation of silt coming from an undetected and

persistent vein of quicksand,--will be developed, and repairs will have to

be made. Except for the slight danger from roots, which must always be

guarded against to the extent of allowing no young trees of the dangerous

class to grow near a drain through which a _constant_ stream of water

flows, it may be fairly assumed that drains which have been kept in order

for four or five years have passed the danger of interruption from any

cause, and they may be considered entirely safe.

A drain will often, for some months after it is laid, run muddy water

after rains. Sometimes the early deposit of silt will nearly fill the

tile, and it will take the water of several storms to wash it out. If the

tiles have been laid in packed clay, they cannot long receive silt from

without, and that which makes the flow turbid, may be assumed to come from

the original deposit in the conduit. Examinations of newly laid drains

have developed many instances where tiles were at first half filled with

silt, and three months later were entirely clean. The muddiness of the

flow indicates what the doctors call "an effort of nature to relieve

herself," and nature may be trusted to succeed, at least, until she

abandons the effort. If we are sure that a drain has been well laid, we

need feel no anxiety because it fails to take the water from the ground so

completely as it should do, until it settles into a flow of clear water

after the heaviest storms.

In the case of art actual stoppage, which will generally be indicated by

the "bursting out" of the drain, i.e., the wetting of the land as though

there were a spring under it, or as though its water had no underground

outlet, (which is the fact,) it will be necessary to lay open the drain

until the obstruction is found.

In this work, the real value of the map will be shown, by the facility

which it offers for finding any point of any line of drains, and the exact

locality of the junctions with the mains, and of the silt-basins. In

laying out the plan on the ground, and in making his map, the surveyor

will have had recourse to two or more fixed points; one of them, in our

example, (fig. 21,) would probably be the center of the main silt-basin,

and one, a drilled hole or other mark on the rock at the north side of the

field. By staking out on the ground the straight line connecting these two

points, and drawing a corresponding line on the map; we shall have a

_base-line_, from which it will be easy, by perpendicular offsets, to

determine on the ground any point upon the map. By laying a small square

on the map, with one of its edges coinciding with the base-line, and

moving it on this line until the other edge meets the desired point, we

fix, at the angle of the square, the point on the base-line from which we

are to measure the length of the offset. The next step is to find, (by the

scale,) the distance of this point from the nearest end of the base-line,

and from the point sought. Then measure off, in the field, the

corresponding distance on the base-line, and, from the point thus found,

measure on a line perpendicular to the base line, the length of the

offset; the point thus indicated will be the locality sought. In the same

manner, find another point on the same drain, to give the range on which

to stake it out. From this line, the drains which run parallel to it, can

easily be found, or it may be used as a base-line, from which to find, by

measuring offsets, other points near it.

The object of this staking is, to find, in an inexpensive and easy way,

the precise position of the drains, for which it would be otherwise

necessary to grope in the dark, verifying our guesses by digging four-foot

trenches, at random.

If there is a silt-basin, or a junction a short distance below the point

where the water shows itself, this will be the best place to dig. If it is

a silt-basin, we shall probably find that this has filled up with dirt,

and has stopped the flow. In this case it should be cleaned out, and a

point of the drain ten feet below it examined. If this is found to be

clear, a long slender stick may be pushed up as far as the basin and

worked back and forth until the passage is cleared. Then replace the tile

below, and try with the stick to clean the tiles above the basin, so as to

tap the water above the obstruction. If this cannot be done, or if the

drain ten feet below is clogged, it will be necessary to uncover the tiles

in both directions until an opening is found, and to take up and relay the

whole. If the wetting of the ground is sufficient to indicate that there

is much water in the drain, only five or six tiles should be taken up at a

time, cleaned and relaid,--commencing at the lower end,--in order that, when

the water commences to flow, it may not disturb the bottom of the ditch

for the whole distance.

If the point opened is at a junction with the main, examine both the main

and the lateral, to see which is stopped, and proceed with one or the

other, as directed above. In doing this work, care should be taken to send

as little muddy water as possible into the drain below, and to allow the

least possible disturbance of the bottom.

If silt-basins have been placed at those points at which the fall

diminishes, the obstruction will usually be found to occur at the outlets

of these, from a piling up of the silt in front of them, and to extend

only a short distance below and above. It is not necessary to take up the

tiles until they are found to be entirely clean, for, if they are only

one-half or one-third full, they will probably be washed clean by the rush

of water, when that which is accumulated above is tapped. The work should

be done in settled fair weather, and the ditches should remain open until

the effect of the flow has been observed. If the tiles are made thoroughly

clean by the time that the accumulated water has run off, say in 24 hours,

they may be covered up; if not, it may be necessary to remove them again,

and clean them by hand. When the work is undertaken it should be

thoroughly done, so that the expense of a new opening need not be again

incurred.

It is worse than useless to substitute larger sizes of tiles for those

which are taken up. The obstruction, if by silt, is the result of a too

sluggish flow, and to enlarge the area of the conduit would only increase

the difficulty. If the tiles are too small to carry the full flow which

follows a heavy rain, they will be very unlikely to become choked, for the

water will then have sufficient force to wash them clean, while if they

are much larger than necessary, a deposit of silt to one half of their

height will make a broad, flat bed for the stream, which will run with

much less force, and will be more likely to increase the deposit.

If the drains are obstructed by the roots of willows, or other trees, the

proprietor must decide whether he will sacrifice the trees or the drains;

both he cannot keep, unless he chooses to go to the expense of laying in

cement all of the drains which carry constant streams, for a distance of

at least 50 feet from the dangerous trees. The trouble from trees is

occasionally very great, but its occurrence is too rare for general

consideration, and must be met in each case with such remedies as

circumstances suggest as the best.

The gratings over the outlets of silt-basins which open at the surface of

the ground, are sometimes, during the first year of the drainage,

obstructed by a fungoid growth which collects on the cross bars. This

should be occasionally rubbed off. Its character is not very well

understood, and it is rarely observed in old drains. The decomposition of

the grass bands which are used to cover the joints of the larger tiles may

encourage its formation.

If the surface soil have a good proportion of sand, gravel, or organic

matter, so as to give it the consistency which is known as "loamy," it

will bear any treatment which it may chance to receive in cultivation, or

as pasture land; but if it be a decided clay soil, no amount of draining

will enable us to work it, or to turn cattle upon it when it is wet with

recent rains. It will much sooner become dry, because of the drainage, and

may much sooner be trodden upon without injury; but wet clay cannot be

worked or walked over without being more or less _puddled_, and, thereby,

injured for a long time.

No matter how thoroughly heavy clay pasture lands may be under-drained,

the cattle should be removed from them when it rains, and kept off until

they are comparatively dry. Neglect of this precaution has probably led to

more disappointment as to the effects of drainage than any other

circumstances connected with it. The injury from this cause does not

extend to a great depth, and in the Northern States it would always be

overcome by the frosts of a single winter; as has been before stated, it

is confined to stiff clay soils, but as these are the soils which most

need draining, the warning given is important.

CHAPTER VI. - WHAT DRAINING COSTS.

Draining is expensive work. This fact must be accepted as a very stubborn

one, by every man who proposes to undertake the improvement. There is no

royal road to tile-laying, and the beginner should count the cost at the

outset. A good many acres of virgin land at the West might be bought for

what must be paid to get an efficient system of drains laid under a single

acre at home. Any man who stops at this point of the argument will

probably move West,--or do nothing.

Yet, it is susceptible of demonstration that, even at the West, in those

localities where Indian Corn is worth as much as fifty cents per bushel at

the farm, it will pay to drain, in the best manner, all such land as is

described in the first chapter of this book as in need of draining.

Arguments to prove this need not be based at all on cheapness of the work;

only on its effects and its permanence.

In fact, so far as draining with tiles is concerned, cheapness is a

delusion and a snare, for the reason that it implies something less than

the best work, a compromise between excellence and inferiority. The moment

that we come down from the best standard, we introduce a new element into

the calculation. The sort of tile draining which it is the purpose of this

work to advocate is a system so complete in every particular, that it may

be considered as an absolutely permanent improvement. During the first

years of the working of the drains, they will require more or less

attention, and some expense for repairs; but, in well constructed work,

these will be very slight, and will soon cease altogether. In proportion

as we resort to cheap devices, which imply a neglect of important parts of

the work, and a want of thoroughness in the whole, the expense for repairs

will increase, and the duration of the usefulness of the drains will

diminish.

Drains which are permanently well made, and which will, practically, last

for all time, may be regarded as a good investment, the increased crop of

each year, paying a good interest on the money that they cost, and the

money being still represented by the undiminished value of the

improvement. In such a case the draining of the land may be said to cost,

not $50 per acre,--but the interest on $50 each year. The original amount

is well invested, and brings its yearly dividend as surely as though it

were represented by a five-twenty bond.

With badly constructed drains, on the other hand, the case is quite

different. In buying land which is subject to no loss in quantity or

quality, the farmer considers, not so much the actual cost, as the

relation between the yearly interest on the cost, and the yearly profit on

the crop,--knowing that, a hundred years hence, the land will still be

worth his money.

But if the land were bounded on one side by a river which yearly

encroached some feet on its bank, leaving the field a little smaller after

each freshet; or if, every spring, some rods square of its surface were

sure to be covered three feet deep with stones and sand, so that the

actual value of the property became every year less, the purchaser would

compare the yearly value of the crops, not only with the interest on the

price, but, in addition to this, with so much of the prime value as yearly

disappears with the destruction of the land.

It is exactly so with the question of the cost of drainage. If the work is

insecurely done, and is liable, in five years or in fifty, to become

worthless; the increase of the crops resulting from it, must not only

cover the yearly interest on the cost, but the yearly depreciation as

well. Therefore what may seem at the time of doing the work to be

cheapness, is really the greatest extravagance. It is like building a

brick wall with clay for mortar. The bricks and the workmanship cost full

price, and the small saving on the mortar will topple the wall over in a

few years, while, if well cemented, it would have lasted for centuries.

The cutting and filling of the ditches, and the purchase and

transportation of the tiles, will cost the same in every case, and these

constitute the chief cost; if the proper care in grading, tile-laying and

covering, and in making outlets be stingily withheld,--saving, perhaps,

one-tenth of the expense,--what might have been a permanent improvement to

the land, may disappear, and the whole outlay be lost in ten years. A

saving of ten per cent. in the cost will have lost us the other ninety in

a short time.

But, while cheapness is to be shunned, economy is to be sought in every

item of the work of draining, and should be studied, by proprietor and

engineer, from the first examination of the land, to the throwing of the

last shovelful of earth on to the filling of the ditch. There are few

operations connected with the cultivation of the soil in which so much may

be imperceptibly lost through neglect, and carelessness about little

details, as in tile-draining. In the original levelling of the ground, the

adjustment of the lines, the establishing of the most judicious depth and

inclination at each point of the drains, the disposition of surface

streams during the prosecution of the work, and in the width of the

excavation, the line which divides economy and wastefulness is extremely

narrow and the most constant vigilance, together with the best judgment

and foresight, are needed to avoid unnecessary cost. In the laying and

covering of the tile, on the other hand, it is best to disregard a little

slowness and unnecessary care on the part of the workmen, for the sake of

the most perfect security of the work.

*Details of Cost.*--The items of the work of drainage may be classified as

follows:

1. Engineering and Superintendence.

2. Digging the ditches.

3. Grading the bottoms.

4. Tile and tile-laying.

5. Covering the tile and filling the ditches.

6. Outlets and silt-basins.

1. _Engineering and Superintendence._--It is not easy to say what would be

the proper charge for this item of the work. In England, the Commissioners

under the Drainage Acts of Parliament, and the Boards of Public Works, fix

the charge for engineering at $1.25 per acre. That is in a country when

the extent of lands undergoing the process of draining is very great,

enabling one person to superintend large tracts in the same neighborhood

at the same time, and with little or no outlay for travelling expenses. In

this country, where the improvement is, thus far, confined to small areas,

widely separated; and where there are comparatively few engineers who make

a specialty of the work, the charge for services is necessarily much

higher, and the amount expended in travelling much greater. In most cases,

the proprietor of the land must qualify himself to superintend his own

operations, (with the aid of a country surveyor, or a railroad engineer in

the necessary instrumental work.) As draining becomes more general, the

demand for professional assistance will, without doubt, cause local

engineers to turn their attention to the subject, and their services may

be more cheaply obtained. At present, it would probably not be prudent to

estimate the cost of engineering and superintendence, including the time

and skill of the proprietor, at less than $5 per acre, even where from 20

to 50 acres are to be drained at once.

2. _Digging the Ditches._--The labor required for the various operations

constitutes the principal item of cost in draining, and the price of labor

is now so different in different localities, and so unsettled in all, that

it is difficult to determine a rate which would be generally fair. It will

be assumed that the average wages of day laborers of the class employed in

digging ditches, is $1.50 per day, and the calculation will have to be

changed for different districts, in proportion to the deviation of the

actual rate of wages from this amount. There is a considerable advantage

in having the work done at some season, (as after the summer harvest, or

late in the fall,) when wages are comparatively low.

The cutting of the ditches should always be let by the rod. When working

at day's work, the men will invariably open them wider than is necessary,

for the sake of the greater convenience of working, and the extra width

causes a corresponding waste of labor.

A 4-foot ditch, in most soils, need be only 20 inches wide at the surface,

and 4 inches at the bottom. This gives a mean width of 12 inches, and

requires the removal of nearly 2-1/2 cubic yards of earth for each rod of

ditch; but an increase to a mean width of 16 inches, (which day workmen

will usually reach, while piece workmen almost never will,) requires the

removal of 3-1/4 cubic yards to the rod. As the increased width is usually

below the middle of the drain, the extra earth will all have to be raised

from 2 to 4 feet, and the extra 3/4 yards will cost as much as a full yard

taken evenly from the whole side, from top to bottom.

In clay soils, free from stones or "hard pan," but so stiff as to require

considerable picking, ordinary workmen, after a little practice, will be

able to dig 3-1/2 rods of ditch per day, to an average depth of

3.80,--leaving from 2 to 3 inches of the bottom of 4-foot ditches to be

finished by the graders. This makes the cost of digging about 43 cents per

rod. In loamy soil the cost will be a little less than this, and in very

hard ground, a little more. In sandy and peaty soils, the cost will not be

more than 30 cents. Probably 43 cents would be a fair average for soils

requiring drainage, throughout the country.

This is about 17 cents for each yard of earth removed.

In soft ground, the caving in of the banks will require a much greater

mean width than 12 inches to be thrown out, and, if the accident could not

have been prevented by ordinary care on the part of the workman, (using

the bracing boards shown in Fig. 28,) he should receive extra pay for the

extra work. In passing around large stones it may also be necessary to

increase the width.

The following table will facilitate the calculations for such extra work:

CUBIC YARDS OF EXCAVATION IN DITCHES OF VARIOUS WIDTH.

_Length of 12 _Inches 18 _Inches 24 _Inches 30 _Inches 36 _Inches

Ditch._ Wide._ Wide._ Wide._ Wide._ Wide._

Yds. Feet. Yds. Feet. Yds. Feet. Yds. Feet. Yds. Feet.

1 Yard. 0 12 0 18 0 24 1 3 1 9

1 Rod. 2 12 3 18 4 24 6 3 7 9

Men will, in most soils, work best in couples,--one shovelling out the

earth, and working forward, and the other, (moving backward,) loosening

the earth with a spade or foot-pick, (Fig. 41.) In stony land, the men

should be required to keep their work well closed up,--excavating to the

full depth as they go. Then, if they strike a stone too large to be taken

out within the terms of their contract, they can skip a sufficient

distance to pass it, and the digging of the omitted part may be done by a

faithful day workman. This will usually be cheaper and more satisfactory

than to pay the contractors for extra work.

[Illustration: Fig. 41 - FOOT PICK.]

Fig. 41 - FOOT PICK.

Concerning the amount of work that one man can do in a day, in different

soils, digging ditches 4 feet deep, French says: "In the writer's own

field, where the pick was used to loosen the lower two feet of earth, the

labor of opening and _filling_ drains 4 feet deep, and of the mean width

of 14 inches, all by hand labor, has been, in a mile of drains, being our

first experiments, about one day's labor to 3 rods in length. The

excavated earth of such a drain measures not quite 3 cubic yards,

(exactly, 2.85.)" In a subsequent work, in a sandy soil, two men opened,

_laid_, and _refilled_ 14 rods in one day;--the mean width being 12

inches.(21)

"In the same season, the same men opened, _laid_, and _filled_ 70 rods of

4-foot drain of the same mean width of 12 inches, in the worst kind of

clay soil, where the pick was constantly used. It cost 35 days' labor to

complete the job, being 50 cents _per_ rod for the labor alone." Or, under

the foregoing calculation of $1.50 per day, 75 cents per rod. These

estimates, in common with nearly all that are published, are for the

entire work of digging, grading, tile-laying, and refilling. Deducting the

time required for the other work, the result will be about as above

estimated; for the rough excavation, 3 1/2-rods to the day's work,

costing, at $1.50 per day, 43 cents to the rod.

_Grading_ is the removal of 2 or 3 inches in depth, and about 4 inches in

width, of the soil at the bottom of the ditch. It is chiefly done with the

finishing scoop, which, (being made of two thin plates, one of iron and

one of steel, welded together, the iron wearing away and leaving the sharp

steel edge always prominent,) will work in a very hard clay without the

aid of the pick. Three men,--the one in the ditch being a skillful workman,

and the others helping him when not sighting the rods,--will grade about

100 rods per day, making the cost about 6 cents per rod. Until they

acquire the skill to work thus rapidly, they should not be urged beyond

what they can readily do in the best manner, as this operation, (which is

the preparing of the foundation for the tiles,) is probably the most

important of the whole work of draining.

_Tiles and Tile-Laying._--After allowing for breakage, it will take about

16 tiles and 16 collars to lay a rod in length of drain. The cost of these

will, of course, be very much affected by the considerations of the

nearness of the tile-kiln and the cost of transportation. They should, in

no ordinary case, cost, delivered on the ground, more than $8 per thousand

for 1-1/4-inch tiles, and $4 per thousand for the collars, making a total

of $12 for both, equal to about 19 cents per rod. The laying of the tiles,

may be set down at 2 cents per rod,--based on a skilled man laying 100 rods

daily, and receiving $2 per day.

_Covering and filling_ will probably cost 10 cents per rod, (if the

scraper, Fig. 39, can be successfully used for the rough filling, the cost

will be reduced considerably below this.)

The four items of the cost of making one rod of lateral drain are as

follows:

Digging the ditches - - - .43

Grading - - - .06

Tiles and laying - - - .21

Covering and filling - - - .10

- - -.80 cts.

If the drains are placed at intervals of 40 feet, there are required 64

rods to the acre,--this at 80 cents per rod will make the cost per

acre,--for the above items,--$51.20.

How much should be allowed for main drains, outlets, and silt-basins, it

is impossible to say, as, on irregular ground, no two fields will require

the same amount of this sort of work. On very even land, where the whole

surface, for hundreds of acres, slopes gradually in one or two directions,

the outlay for mains need not be more than two per cent. of the cost of

the laterals. This would allow laterals of a uniform length of 800 feet to

discharge into the main line, at intervals of 40 feet, if we do not

consider the trifling extra cost of the larger tiles. On less regular

ground, the cost of mains will often be considerably more than two per

cent. of the cost of the laterals; but in some instances the increase of

main lines will be fully compensated for by the reduction in the length of

the laterals, which, owing to rocks, hills too steep to need drains at

regular intervals, and porous, (gravelly,) streaks in the land, cannot be

profitably made to occupy the whole area so thoroughly.(22)

Probably 7-1/2 per cent. of the cost of the laterals for mains, outlets,

and silt-basins will be a fair average allowance.

This will bring the total cost of the work to about $60 per acre, made up

as follows:

Cost of the finished drains per acre - - - $51.20

7-1/2 per cent. added for mains, etc. - - - 3.83

Engineering and Superintendence - - - 5.00

Of course this is an arbitrary calculation, an estimate without a single

ascertained fact to go upon,--but it is as close as it can be made to what

would probably be the cost of the best work, on average ground, at the

present high prices of labor and material. Five years ago the same work

could have been done for from $40 to $45 per acre, and it will be again

cheaper when wages fall, and when a greater demand for draining tiles

shall have caused more competition in their manufacture. With a large

general demand, such as has existed in England for the last 20 years, they

would now be sold for one-half of their present price here, and the

manufacture would be more profitable.

There are many light lands on retentive subsoils, which could be drained,

at present prices, for $50 or less per acre, and there are others, which

are very hard to dig, on which thorough-draining could not now be done for

$60.

The cost and the promise of the operation in each instance, must guide the

land owner in deciding whether or not to undertake the improvement.

In doubtful cases, there is one compromise which may be safely made,--that

is, to omit each alternate drain, and defer its construction until labor

is cheaper.

This is doing half the work,--a very different thing from half-doing the

work. In such cases, the lines should be laid out as though they were to

be all done at once, and, finally, when the omitted drains are made, it

should be in pursuance of the original plan. Probably the drains which are

laid will produce more than one-half of the benefit that would result if

they were all laid, but they will rarely be satisfactory, except as a

temporary expedient, and the saving will be less than would at first seem

likely, for when the second drains are laid; the cultivation of the land

must be again interrupted; the draining force must be again brought

together; the levels of the new lines must be taken, and connected with

those of the old ones; and great care must be taken, selecting the dryest

weather for the work,--to admit very little, if any, muddy water into the

old mains.

This practice of draining by installments is not recommended; it is only

suggested as an allowable expedient, when the cost of the complete work

could not be borne with out inconvenience.

If any staid and economical farmer is disposed to be alarmed at the cost

of draining, he is respectfully reminded of the miles of expensive stone

walls and other fences, in New England and many other parts of the

country, which often are a real detriment to the farms, occupying, with

their accompanying bramble bushes and head lands, acres of valuable land,

and causing great waste of time in turning at the ends of short furrows in

plowing;--while they produce no benefit at all adequate to their cost and

annoyance.

It should also be considered that, just as the cost of fences is scarcely

felt by the farmer, being made when his teams and hands could not be

profitably employed in ordinary farming operations, so the cost of

draining will be reduced in proportion to the amount of the work which he

can "do within himself,"--without hiring men expressly for it. The estimate

herein given is based on the supposition that men are hired for the work,

at wages equal to $1.50 per day,--while draining would often furnish a

great advantage to the farmer in giving employment to farm hands who are

paid and subsisted by the year.

CHAPTER VII. - "WILL IT PAY?"

Starting with the basis of $60, as the cost of draining an acre of

ordinary farm land;--what is the prospect that the work will prove

remunerative?

In all of the older States, farmers are glad to lend their surplus funds,

on bond and mortgage on their neighbors' farms, with interest at the rate

of 7, and often 6 per cent.

In view of the fact that a little attention must be given each year to the

outlets, and, to the silt-basins, as well, for the first few years, it

will be just to charge for the use of the capital 8-1/3 per cent.

This will make a yearly charge on the land, for the benefits resulting

from such a system of draining as has been described, OF FIVE DOLLARS PER

ACRE.

_Will it Pay?_--Will the benefits accruing, year after year,--in wet seasons

and in dry,--with root crops and with grain,--with hay and with fruit,--in

rotations of crops and in pasture,--be worth $5 an acre?

On this question depends the value of tile-draining as a _practical_

improvement, for if there is a self-evident proposition in agriculture, it

is that what is not profitable, one year with another, is _not_ practical.

To counterbalance the charge of $5, as the yearly cost of the draining,

each acre must produce, in addition to what it would have yielded without

the improvement:

10 bushels of Corn at .50 per bushel.

3 bushels of Wheat at $1.66 per bushel.

5 bushels of Rye at 1.00 per bushel.

12-1/2 bushels of Oats at .40 per bushel.

10 bushels of Potatoes at .50 per bushel.

6-2/3 bushels of Barley at .75 per bushel.

1,000 pounds of Hay at 10.00 per ton.

50 pounds of Cotton at .10 per pound.

20 pounds of Tobacco at .25 per pound.

Surely this is not a large increase,--not in a single case,--and the prices

are generally less than may be expected for years to come.

The United States Census Report places the average crop of Indian Corn, in

Indiana and Illinois, at 33 bushels per acre. In New York it was but 27

bushels, and in Pennsylvania but 20 bushels. It would certainly be

accounted extremely liberal to fix the average yield of such soils as need

draining, at 30 bushels per acre. It is extremely unlikely that they would

yield this, in the average of seasons, with the constantly recurring

injury from backward springs, summer droughts, and early autumn frosts.

Heavy, retentive soils, which are cold and late in the spring, subject to

hard baking in midsummer, and to become cold and wet in the early fall,

are the very ones which are best suited, when drained, to the growth of

Indian Corn. They are "strong" and fertile,--and should be able to absorb,

and to prepare for the use of plants, the manure which is applied to them,

and the fertilizing matters which are brought to them by each storm;--but

they cannot properly exercise the functions of fertile soils, for the

reason that they are strangled with water, chilled by evaporation, or

baked to almost brick-like hardness, during nearly the whole period of the

growth and ripening of the crop. The manure which has been added to them,

as well as their own chemical constituents, are prevented from undergoing

those changes which are necessary to prepare them for the uses of

vegetation. The water of rains, finding the spaces in the soil already

occupied by the water of previous rains, cannot enter to deposit the gases

which it contains,--or, if the soil has been dried by evaporation under the

influence of sun and wind, the surface is almost hermetically sealed, and

the water is only slowly soaked up, much of it running off over the

surface, or lying to be removed by the slow and chilling process of

evaporation. In wet times and in dry, the air, with its heat, its oxygen,

and its carbonic acid, (its universal solvent,) is forbidden to enter and

do its beneficent work. The benefit resulting from cultivating the surface

of the ground is counteracted by the first unfavorable change of the

weather; a single heavy rain, by saturating the soil, returning it to

nearly its original condition of clammy compactness. In favorable seasons,

these difficulties are lessened, but man has no control over the seasons,

and to-morrow may be as foul as to-day has been fair. A crop of corn on

undrained, retentive ground, is subject to injury from disastrous changes

of the weather, from planting until harvest. Even supposing that, in the

most favorable seasons, it would yield as largely as though the ground

were drained, it would lose enough in unfavorable seasons to reduce the

average more than ten (10) bushels per acre.

The average crop, on such land, has been assumed to be 30 bushels per

acre; it would be an estimate as moderate as this one is generous, to say

that, with the same cultivation and the same manure, the average crop,

after draining, would be 50 bushels, or an increase equal to twice as much

as is needed to pay the draining charge. If the method of cultivation is

improved, by deep plowing, ample manuring, and thorough working,--all of

which may be more profitably applied to drained than to undrained

land,--the _average_ crop,--of a series of years,--will not be less than 60

bushels.

The cost of extra harvesting will be more than repaid by the value of the

extra fodder, and the increased cultivation and manuring are lasting

benefits, which can be charged, only in small part, to the current crop.

Therefore, if it will pay to plow, plant, hoe and harvest for 30 bushels

of corn, it will surely pay much better to double the crop at a yearly

extra cost of $5, and, practically, it amounts to this;--the extra crop is

nearly all clear gain.

The quantity of Wheat required to repay the annual charge for drainage is

so small, that no argument is needed to show that any process which will

simply prevent "throwing out" in winter, and the failure of the plant in

the wetter parts of the field, will increase the product more than that

amount,--to say nothing of the general importance to this crop of having

the land in the most perfect condition, (in winter as well as in summer.)

It is stated that, since the general introduction of drainage in England,

(within the past 25 years,) the wheat crop of that country has been more

than doubled. Of course, it does not necessarily follow that the amount

_per acre_ has been doubled, large areas which were originally unfit for

the growth of this crop, having been, by draining, excellently fitted for

its cultivation;--but there can be no doubt that its yield has been greatly

increased on all drained lands, nor that large areas, which, before being

drained, were able to produce fair crops only in the best seasons, are now

made very nearly independent of the weather.

It is not susceptible of demonstration, but it is undoubtedly true, that

those clay or other heavy soils, which are devoted to the growth of wheat

in this country, would, if they were thoroughly under-drained, produce, on

the average of years, at least double their present crop.

Mr. John Johnston, a venerable Scotch farmer, who has long been a

successful cultivator in the Wheat region of Western New York,--and who was

almost the pioneer of tile-draining in America,--has laid over 50 miles of

drains within the last 30 years. His practice is described in Klippart's

Land Drainage, from which work we quote the following:

"Mr. Johnston says he never saw 100 acres in any one farm, but a portion

of it would pay for draining. Mr. Johnston is no rich man who has carried

a favorite hobby without regard to cost or profit. He is a hardworking

Scotch farmer, who commenced a poor man, borrowed money to drain his land,

has gradually extended his operations, and is now reaping the benefits, in

having crops of 40 bushels of wheat to the acre. He is a gray-haired

Nestor, who, after accumulating the experience of a long life, is now, at

68 years of age, written to by strangers in every State of the Union for

information, not only in drainage matters, but all cognate branches of

farming. He sits in his homestead, a veritable Humboldt in his way,

dispensing information cheerfully through our agricultural papers and to

private correspondents, of whom he has recorded 164 who applied to him

last year. His opinions are, therefore, worth more than those of a host of

theoretical men, who write without practice." * * * * *

"Although his farm is mainly devoted to wheat, yet a considerable area of

meadow and some pasture has been retained. He now owns about 300 acres of

land. The yield of wheat has been 40 bushels this year, and in former

seasons, when his neighbors were reaping 8, 10, or 15 bushels, he has had

30 and 40." * * * * *

"Mr. Johnston says tile-draining pays for itself in two seasons, sometimes

in one. Thus, in 1847, he bought a piece of 10 acres to get an outlet for

his drains. It was a perfect quagmire, covered with coarse aquatic

grasses, and so unfruitful that it would not give back the seed sown upon

it. In 1848 a crop of corn was taken from it, which was measured and found

to be _eighty bushels_ per acre, and as, because of the Irish famine, corn

was worth $1 per bushel that year, this crop paid not only all the expense

of drainage, but the first cost of the land as well.

"Another piece of 20 acres, adjoining the farm of the late John Delafield,

was wet, and would never bring more than 10 bushels of corn per acre. This

was drained at a great cost, nearly $30 per acre. The first crop after

this was 83 bushels and some odd pounds per acre. It was weighed and

measured by Mr. Delafield, and the County Society awarded a premium to Mr.

Johnston. Eight acres and some rods of this land, at one side, averaged 94

bushels, or the trifling increase of 84 bushels per acre over what it

would bear before those insignificant clay tiles were buried in the

ground. But this increase of crop is not the only profit of drainage; for

Mr. Johnston says that, on drained land, one half the usual quantity of

manure suffices to give maximum crops. It is not difficult to find a

reason for this. When the soil is sodden with water, air can not enter to

any extent, and hence oxygen can not eat off the surfaces of

soil-particles and prepare food for plants; thus the plant must in great

measure depend on the manure for sustenance, and, of course, the more this

is the case, the more manure must be applied to get good crops. This is

one reason, but there are others which we might adduce if one good one

were not sufficient.

"Mr. Johnston says he never made money until he drained, and so convinced

is he of the benefits accruing from the practice, that he would not

hesitate,--as he did not when the result was much more uncertain than at

present,--to borrow money to drain. Drains well laid, endure, but unless a

farmer intends doing the job well, he had best leave it alone and grow

poor, and move out West, and all that sort of thing. Occupiers of

apparently dry land are not safe in concluding that they need not go to

the expense of draining, for if they will but dig a three-foot ditch in

even the driest soil, water will be found in the bottom at the end of

eight hours, and if it does come, then draining will pay for itself

speedily."

Some years ago, the Rural New Yorker published a letter from one of its

correspondents from which the following is extracted:--

"I recollect calling upon a gentleman in the harvest field, when

something like the following conversation occurred:

'Your wheat, sir, looks very fine; how many acres have you in this

field?'

'In the neighborhood of eight, I judge.'

'Did you sow upon fallow?'

'No sir. We turned over green sward--sowed immediately upon the

sod, and dragged it thoroughly--and you see the yield will probably

be 25 bushels to the acre, where it is not too wet.'

'Yes sir, it is mostly very fine. I observed a thin strip through

it, but did not notice that it was wet.'

'Well, it is not _very_ wet. Sometimes after a rain, the water

runs across it, and in spring and fall it is just wet enough to

heave the wheat and kill it.'

I inquired whether a couple of good drains across the lot would

not render it dry.

'Perhaps so--but there is not over an acre that is killed out.'

'Have you made an estimate of the loss you annually sustain from

this wet place?'

'No, I had not thought much about it.'

'Would $30 be too high?'

'O yes, double.'

'Well, let's see; it cost you $3 to turn over the sward? Two

bushels of seed, $2; harrowing in, 75 cents; interest, taxes, and

fences, $5.25; 25 bushels of wheat lost, $25.'

'Deduct for harvesting----'

'No; the straw would pay for that.'

'Very well, all footed $36.'

'What will the wheat and straw on this acre be worth this year?'

'Nothing, as I shall not cut the ground over.'

'Then it appears that you have lost, in what you have actually

expended, and the wheat you would have harvested, had the ground

been dry, $36, a pretty large sum for one acre.'

'Yes I see,' said the farmer."

While Rye may be grown, with tolerable advantage, on lands which are less

perfectly drained than is necessary for Wheat, there can be no doubt that

an increase of more than the six and two-thirds bushels needed to make up

the drainage charge will be the result of the improvement.

While Oats will thrive in soils which are too wet for many other crops,

the ability to plant early, which is secured by an early removal from the

soil of its surplus water, will ensure, one year with another, more than

twelve and a half bushels of increased product.

In the case of Potatoes, also, the early planting will be a great

advantage; and, while the cause of the potato-rot is not yet clearly

discovered, it is generally conceded that, even if it does not result

directly from too great wetness of the soil, its development is favored by

this condition, either from a direct action on the tubers, or from the

effect in the air immediately about the plants, of the exhalations of a

humid soil.

An increase of from five to ten per cent. on a very ordinary crop of

potatoes, will cover the drainage charge, and with facilities for

marketing, the higher price of the earlier yield is of much greater

consequence.

Barley will not thrive in wet soil, and there is no question that drainage

would give it much more than the increased yield prescribed above.

As to hay, there are many wet, rich soils which produce very large crops

of grass, and it is possible that drainage might not always cause them to

yield a thousand pounds more of hay to the acre, but the _quality_ of the

hay from the drained soil, would, of itself, more than compensate for the

drainage charge. The great benefit of the improvement, with reference to

this crop, however, lies in the fact that, although wet, grass lands,--and

by "wet" is meant the condition of undrained, retentive clays, and heavy

loams, or other soils requiring drainage,--in a very few years "run out,"

or become occupied by semi-aquatic and other objectionable plants, to the

exclusion of the proper grasses; the same lands, thoroughly drained, may

be kept in full yield of the finest hay plants, as long as the ground is

properly managed. It must, of course, be manured, from time to time, and

care should be taken to prevent the puddling of its surface, by men or

animals, while it is too wet from recent rain. With proper attention to

these points, it need not be broken up in a lifetime, and it may be relied

on to produce uniformly good crops, always equal to the best obtained

before drainage.

So far as Cotton and Tobacco are concerned, there are not many instances

recorded of the systematic drainage of lands appropriated to their

cultivation, but there is every reason to suppose that they will both be

benefitted by any operation which will have the effect of placing the soil

in a better condition for the uses of all cultivated plants. The average

crop of tobacco is about 700 lbs., and that of cotton probably 250 lbs. An

addition of one-fifth to the cotton crop, and of only one thirty-fifth to

the tobacco crop, would make the required increase.

The failure of the cotton crop, during the past season, (1866,) might have

been entirely prevented, in many districts, by the thorough draining of

the land.

The advantages claimed for drainage with reference to the above-named

staple crops, will apply with equal, if not greater force, to all garden

and orchard culture. In fact, with the exception of osier willows, and

cranberries, there is scarcely a cultivated plant which will not yield

larger and better crops on drained than on undrained land,--enough better,

and enough larger, to pay much more than the interest on the cost of the

improvement.

Yet, this advantage of draining, is, by no means, the only one which is

worthy of consideration. Since the object of cultivation is to produce

remunerative crops, of course, the larger and better the crops, the more

completely is the object attained;--and to this extent the greatest benefit

resulting from draining, lies in the increased yield. But there is another

advantage,--a material and moral advantage,--which is equally to be

considered.

Instances of the profit resulting from under-draining, (coupled, as it

almost always is, with improved cultivation,) are frequently published,

and it would be easy to fortify this chapter with hundreds of well

authenticated cases. It is, however, deemed sufficient to quote the

following, from an old number of one of the New York dailies:--

"Some years ago, the son of an English farmer came to the United

States, and let himself as a farm laborer, in New York State, on

the following conditions: Commencing work at the first of

September, he was to work ten hours a day for three years, and to

receive in payment a deed of a field containing twelve

acres--securing himself by an agreement, by which his employer was

put under bonds of $2,000 to fulfill his part of the contract;

also, during these three years, he was to have the control of the

field; to work it at his own expense, and to give his employer

one-half the proceeds. The field lay under the south side of a

hill, was of dark, heavy clay resting on a bluish-colored, solid

clay subsoil, and for many years previous, had not been known to

yield anything but a yellowish, hard, stunted vegetation.

"The farmer thought the young man was a simpleton, and that he,

himself, was most wise and fortunate; but the former, nothing

daunted by this opinion, which he was not unconscious that the

latter entertained of him, immediately hired a set of laborers,

and set them to work in the field trenching, as earnestly as it

was well possible for men to labor. In the morning and evening,

before and after having worked his ten hours, as per agreement, he

worked with them, and continued to work in this way until, about

the middle of the following November, he had finished the laying

of nearly 5,000 yards of good tile under-drains. He then had the

field plowed deep and thoroughly, and the earth thrown up as much

as possible into ridges, and thus let it remain during the winter.

Next spring he had the field again plowed as before, then

cross-plowed and thoroughly pulverized with a heavy harrow, then

sowed it with oats and clover. The yield was excellent--nothing to

be compared to it had ever before been seen upon that field. Next

year it gave two crops of clover, of a rich dark green, and

enormously heavy and luxuriant; and the year following, after

being manured at an expense of some $7 an acre, nine acres of the

field yielded 936 bushels of corn, and 25 wagon loads of pumpkins;

while from the remaining three acres were taken 100 bushels of

potatoes--the return of this crop being upwards of $1,200. The time

had now come for the field to fall into the young man's

possession, and the farmer unhesitatingly offered him $1,500 to

relinquish his title to it; and when this was unhesitatingly

refused, he offered $2,000, which was accepted.

"The young man's account stood thus

Half proceeds of oats $165 00

and straw, first year

Half value of sheep 25 00

pasturage, first year

Half of first crops of 112 50

clover, first year

Half of second crops of 135 00

clover, including seed,

second year

Half of sheep 15 00

pasturage, second year

Half of crops of corn, 690 00

pumpkins and potatoes,

third year

Received from farmer, 2,000 00

for relinquishment of

title

------

Account Dr. $3,142 50

To under-draining, $325 00

labor and tiles

To labor and manure, 475 00

three seasons

To labor given to 576 00--1,376 00

farmer, $16 per month,

36 months

------

Balance in his favor $1,766 50

Draining makes the farmer, to a great extent, the master of his vocation.

With a sloppy, drenched, cold, uncongenial soil, which is saturated with

every rain, and takes days, and even weeks, to become sufficiently dry to

work upon, his efforts are constantly baffled by unfavorable weather, at

those times when it is most important that his work proceed without

interruption. Weeks are lost, at a season when they are all too short for

the work to be done. The ground must be hurriedly, and imperfectly

prepared, and the seed is put in too late, often to rot in the over-soaked

soil, requiring the field to be planted again at a time which makes it

extremely doubtful whether the crop will ripen before the frost destroys

it.

The necessary summer cultivation, between the rows, has to be done as the

weather permits; and much more of it is required because of the baking of

the ground. The whole life of the farmer, in fact, becomes a constant

struggle with nature, and he fights always at a disadvantage. What he does

by the work of days, is mainly undone by a single night's storm. Weeds

grow apace, and the land is too wet to admit of their being exterminated.

By the time that it is dry enough, other pressing work occupies the time;

and if, finally, a day comes when they may be attacked, they offer ten

times the resistance that they would have done a week earlier. The

operations of the farm are carried on more expensively than if the ability

to work constantly allowed a smaller force to be employed. The crops which

give such doubtful promise, require the same cultivation as though they

were certain to be remunerative, and the work can be done only with

increased labor, because of the bad condition of the soil.

From force of tradition and of habit, the farmer accepts his fate and

plods through his hard life, piously ascribing to the especial

interference of an inscrutable Providence, the trials which come of his

own neglect to use the means of relief which Providence has placed within

his reach.

Trouble enough he must have, at any rate, but not necessarily all that he

now has. It is not within the scope of the best laid drains to control

storm or sunshine,--but it is within their power to remove the water of the

storm, rapidly and sufficiently, and to allow the heat of the sunshine to

penetrate the soil and do its hidden work. No human improvement can change

any of the so-called "phenomena" of nature, or prevent the action of the

least of her laws; but their effects upon the soil and its crops may be

greatly modified, and that which, under certain circumstances, would have

caused inconvenience or loss, may, by a change of circumstances, be made

positively beneficial.

In the practice of agriculture, which is pre-eminently an economic art,

draining will be prosecuted because of the pecuniary profit which it

promises, and,--very properly,--it will not be pursued, to any considerable

extent, where the money, which it costs, will not bring money in return.

Yet, in a larger view of the case, its collateral advantages are of even

greater moment than its mere profits. It is the foundation and the

commencement of the most intelligent farming. It opens the way for other

improvements, which, without it, would produce only doubtful or temporary

benefits; and it enables the farmer so to extend and enlarge his

operations, with fair promise of success, as to raise his occupation from

a mere waiting upon the uncertain favors of nature, to an intelligent

handling of her forces, for the attainment of almost certain results.

The rude work of an unthinking farmer, who scratches the surface soil with

his plow, plants his seed, and trusts to the chances of a greater or less

return, is unmitigated drudgery,--unworthy of an intelligent man; but he

who investigates all of the causes of success and failure in farming, and

adapts every operation to the requirements of the circumstances under

which he works; doing everything in his power that may tend to the

production of the results which he desires, and, so far as possible,

avoiding everything that may interfere with his success,--leaving nothing

to chance that can be secured, and securing all that chance may offer,--is

engaged in the most ennobling, the most intelligent and the most

progressive of all industrial avocations.

In the cultivation of retentive soils, drainage is the key to all

improvement, and its advantage is to be measured not simply by the effect

which it directly produces in increasing production, but, in still greater

degree, by the extent to which it prepares the way for the successful

application of improved processes, makes the farmer independent of weather

and season, and offers freer scope to intelligence in the direction of his

affairs.

CHAPTER VIII. - HOW TO MAKE DRAINING TILES.

Draining tiles are made of burnt clay, like bricks and earthen-ware.

In general terms, the process is as follows:--The clay is mixed with sand,

or other substances which give it the proper consistency, and is so wetted

as to form a plastic mass, to which may be given any desired form, and

which is sufficiently stiff to retain its shape. Properly prepared clay is

forced through the aperture of a die of the shape of the outside of the

tile, while a plug,--held by a support in the rear of the die,--projects

through the aperture, and gives the form to the bore of the tile. The

shape of the material of the tile, as it comes from the die, corresponds

to the open space, between the plug and the edge of the aperture. The clay

is forced out in a continuous pipe, which is cut to the desired length by

a wire, which is so thin as to pass through the mass without altering the

shape of the pipe. The short lengths of pipe are dried in the air as

thoroughly as they can be, and are then burned in a kiln, similar to that

used for pottery.

*Materials.*--The range of earths which may be used in the manufacture of

tiles is considerable, though clay is the basis of all of them. The best

is, probably, the clay which is almost invariably found at the bottom of

muck beds, as this is finer and more compact than that which is dug from

dry land, and requires but little preparation. There is, also, a peculiar

clay, found in some localities, which is almost like quick-sand in its

nature, and which is excellent for tile-making,--requiring no freezing, or

washing to prepare it for the machine. As a general rule, any clay which

will make _good_ bricks will make tiles. When first taken from the ground,

these clays are not usually adhesive, but become so on being moistened and

kneaded.

It is especially important that no limestone _pebbles_ be mixed with the

clay, as the burning would change these to quicklime, which, in slaking,

would destroy the tiles. The presence of a limey earth, however, mixed

through the mass, is a positive advantage, as in this intimate admixture,

the lime forms, under the heat of the kiln, a chemical combination with

the other ingredients; and, as it melts more readily than some of them, it

hastens the burning and makes it more complete. What is known as _plastic

clay_, (one of the purest of the native clays,) is too strong for

tile-making, and must be "tempered," by having other substances mixed with

it, to give it a stiffer quality.

The clay which is best for brick-making, contains Silica, and Alumina in

about the following proportions:

Silica ... 55 to 75 per cent.

Alumina ... 35 to 25 per cent.

Variable quantities of other materials are usually found in connection

with the clay, in its native condition. The most common of these are the

following:--

Magnesia 1 to 5 per cent.--sometimes 20 to 30 per cent.

Lime 0 to 19 per cent.

Potash 0 to 5 per cent.

Oxyd of iron 0 to 19 per cent.

"These necessary elements give fusibility to earthenware, and, therefore,

allow its constituent substances to combine in such a manner as to form a

resisting body; and thus is performed with a temperature lower in

proportion as the necessary elements are more abundant."(23)

When the earth of the locality where tiles are to be made is not

sufficiently strong for the purpose, and plastic clay can be cheaply

obtained from a distance, a small quantity of this may be used to give

strength and tenacity to the native material.

The compound must always contain a proper proportion of clay and sand. If

too little _clay_ is used, the mass will not be sufficiently tough to

retain its compactness as it passes through the die of the tile machine;

if too little _sand_, the moulded tiles will not be strong enough to bear

handling, and they will crack and warp in drying and burning. Within the

proper limits, the richer earths may be moulded much thinner, and tiles

made from them may, consequently, be made lighter for transportation,

without being too weak. The best materials for tempering stiff clays are

sand, pounded brick or tile, or _scoria_, from smelting furnaces.

*Preparation Of Earths.*--The clay from which tiles are to be made, should

be thrown out in the fall, (the upper and lower parts of the beds being

well mixed in the operation,) and made into heaps on the surface, not more

than about 3 feet square and 3 feet high. In this form, it is left exposed

to the freezing and thawing of winter, which will aid very much in

modifying its character,--making it less lumpy and more easily workable.

Any stones which may appear in the digging, should, of course, be removed,

and most earths will be improved by being passed through a pair of heavy

iron rollers, before they are piled up for the winter. The rollers should

be made of cast iron, about 15 inches in diameter, and 30 inches long, and

set as close together as they can be, and still be revolved by the power

of two horses. The grinding, by means of these rollers, may add 50 cents

per thousand to the cost of the tiles, but it will greatly improve their

quality.

In the spring, the clay should be prepared for tempering, by the removal

of such pebbles as it may still contain. The best way to do this is by

"washing," though, if there be only a few coarse pebbles, they may be

removed by building the clay into a solid cone 2 or 3 feet high, and then

paring it off into thin slices with a long knife having a handle at each

end. This paring will discover any pebbles larger than a pea that may have

remained in the clay.

_Washing_ is the process of mixing the clay with a considerable quantity

of water, so as to form a thin paste, in which all stones and gravel will

sink to the bottom; the liquid portion is then drawn off into shallow pits

or vats, and allowed to settle, the clear water being finally removed by

pumping or by evaporation, according to the need for haste. For washing

small quantities of clay, a common mortar bed, such as is used by masons,

will answer, if it be supplied with a gate for draining off the muddy

water after the gravel has settled; but, if the work is at all extensive,

a washing mill will be required. It may be made in the form of a circular

trough, with scrapers for mixing the clay and water attached to a circular

horse-sweep.

"Another convenient mixing machine may be constructed in the following

manner: Take a large hollow log, of suitable length, say five or six feet;

hew out the inequalities with an adz, and close up the ends with pieces of

strong plank, into which bearing have been cut to support a revolving

shaft. This shaft should be sufficiently thick to permit being transfixed

with wooden pins long enough to reach within an inch or two of the sides

of the log or trough, and they should be so beveled as to form in their

aggregate shape an interrupted screw, having a direction toward that end

of the box where the mixed clay is designed to pass out. In order to

effect the mixing more thoroughly, these pins may be placed sufficiently

far apart to permit the interior of the box to be armed with other pins

extending toward the center, between which they can easily move. The whole

is placed either horizontally or vertically, and supplied with clay and

water in proper quantities, while the shaft is made to revolve by means of

a sweep, with horse power, running water or steam, as the case may be. The

clay is put into the end farthest from the outlet, and is carried forward

to it and mixed by the motion, and mutual action and re-action of the pins

in the shaft and in the sides of the box. Iron pins may, of course, be

substituted for the wooden ones, and have the advantage of greater

durability and of greater strength in proportion to their size, and the

number may therefore be greater in a machine of any given length. The

fluid mass of clay and water may be permitted to fall upon a sieve or

riddle, of heavy wire, and afterward be received in a settling vat, of

suitable size and construction, to drain off the water and let the clay

dry out sufficiently by subsequent evaporation. A machine of this

construction may be made of such a size that it may be put in motion by

hand, by means of a crank, and yet be capable of mixing, if properly

supplied, clay enough to mold 800 or 1000 pieces of drain pipe per

day."(24)

Mr. Parkes, in a report to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, in

1843, says:

"It is requisite that the clay be well washed and sieved before pugging,

for the manufacture of these tiles, or the operation of drawing them would

be greatly impeded, by having to remove stones from the small space

surrounding the die, which determines the thickness of the pipe. But it

results from this necessary washing, that the substance of the pipe is

uniformly and extremely dense, which, consequently, gives it immense

strength, and ensures a durability which cannot belong to a more porous,

though thicker, tile.

"The clay is brought from the pug-mill so dry that, when squeezed through

the machine, not a drop of water exudes,--moisture is, indeed, scarcely

apparent on the surface of the raw pipe. Hence, the tiles undergo little

or no change of figure while drying, which takes place very rapidly,

because of their firm and slight substance."

[Illustration: Fig. 42 - PUG-MILL.]

Fig. 42 - PUG-MILL.

_Tempering._--After the fine clay is relieved of the water with which it

was washed, and has become tolerably dry, it should be mixed with the

sand, or other tempering material, and passed through the _Pug-Mill_,

(Fig. 42,) which will thoroughly mix its various ingredients, and work the

whole into a homogeneous mass, ready for the tile machine. The _pug-mill_

is similar to that used in brick-yards, only, as the clay is worked much

stiffer for tiles than for bricks, iron knives must be substituted for the

wooden pins. These knives are so arranged as to cut the clay in every

part, and, by being set at an angle, they force it downward toward the

outlet gate at the bottom. The clay should be kept at the proper degree of

moisture from the time of tempering, and after passing through the

pug-mill it should be thoroughly beaten to drive out the air, and the

beaten mass should be kept covered with wet cloths to prevent drying.

*Moulding the Tiles.*--Machines for moulding tiles are of various styles,

with much variation in the details of their construction, but they all act

on the same general principle;--that of forcing the clay through a

ring-shaped aperture in an iron plate, forming a continuous pipe, which is

carried off on an endless apron, or on rollers, and cut by wires into the

desired lengths. The plates with the ring-shaped apertures are called

_dies_; the openings are of any desired form, corresponding to the

external shape of the tiles; and the size and shape of the bore, is

determined by the core or plug, which is held in the centers of the

apertures. The construction of the die plates, and the manner of fastening

the plugs, which determine the bore of the tiles, is shown in Fig. 43. The

view taken is of the inside of the plate.

[Illustration: Fig. 43 - PLATE OF DIES.]

Fig. 43 - PLATE OF DIES.

The machine consists usually of a strong iron chest, with a hinged cover,

into which the clay is placed, having a piston moving in it, connected by

a rod or bar, having cog-teeth, with a cog-wheel, which is moved by horse

or hand power, and drives the piston forward with steadiness, forcing the

clay through the openings in the die-plate. The clay issues in continuous

lines of pipe. The machines most in use in this country are connected

directly with the pug-mill, and as the clay is pugged, it at once passes

into the box, and is pressed out as tiles. These machines are usually run

by horse-power.

Mr. Barral, in his voluminous work on drainage,(25) describes, as follows,

a cheap hand machine which can be made by any country wheelwright, and

which has a capacity of 3,000 tiles per day (Fig. 44):

"Imagine a simple, wooden box, divided into two compartments. In the rear

compartment there stands a vertical post, fastened with two iron bolts,

having heads at one end, and nuts and screws at the other. The box is thus

fixed to its support. We simply place this support on the ground and bind

its upper part with a rope to a tree, a stake, or a post. The front

compartment is the reservoir for the clay, presenting at its front an

orifice, in which we fix the desired die with a simple bolt. A wooden

piston, of which the rod is jointed with a lever, which works in a bolt at

the top of the supporting post, gives the necessary pressure. When the

chest is full of clay, we bear down on the end of the lever, and the

moulded tiles run out on a table supplied with rollers. Raising the

piston, it comes out of the box, which is again packed with clay. The

piston is replaced in the box; pressure is again applied to the lever, and

so on. When the line of tiles reaches the end of the table, we lower a

frame on which brass wires are stretched, and cut it into the usual

lengths."

[Fig. 44 - CHEAP WOODEN MACHINE.]

Fig. 44 - CHEAP WOODEN MACHINE.

The workmen must attend well to the degree of moisture of the clay which

is put into the machine. It should be dry enough to show no undue moisture

on its surface as it comes out of the die-plate, and sufficiently moist

not to be crumbled in passing the edge of the mould. The clay for small

(thin) tiles must, necessarily, be more moist than that which is to pass

through a wider aperture; and for the latter there may, with advantage, be

more sand in the paste than would be practicable with the former.

After the tiles are cut into lengths, they are removed by a set of

mandrils, small enough to pass easily into them, such as are shown in Fig.

45, (the number of fingers corresponding with the number of rows of tiles

made by the machine,) and are placed on shelves made of narrow strips sawn

from one-inch boards, laid with spaces between them to allow a free

circulation of air.

[Fig. 45 - MANDRIL FOR CARRYING TILES FROM MACHINE.]

Fig. 45 - MANDRIL FOR CARRYING TILES FROM MACHINE.

*Drying and Rolling.*--Care must be taken that freshly made tiles be not

dried too rapidly. They should be sheltered from the sun and from strong

winds. Too rapid drying has the effect of warping them out of shape, and,

sometimes, of cracking the clay. To provide against this injury, the

drying is done under sheds or other covering, and the side which is

exposed to the prevailing winds is sometimes boarded up.

For the first drying, the tiles are placed in single layers on the

shelves. When about half dried,--at which time they are usually warped more

or less from their true shape,--it is well to _roll_ them. This is done by

passing through them a smooth, round stick, (sufficiently smaller than the

bore to enter it easily, and long enough to project five or six inches

beyond each end of the tile,) and,--holding one end of the stick in each

hand,--rolling them carefully on a table. This operation should be

performed when the tiles are still moist enough not to be broken by the

slight bending required to make them straight. After rolling, the tiles

may be piled up in close layers, some four or five feet high, (which will

secure them against further warping,) and left until they are dry enough

for burning,--that is, as dry as they can be made by exposure to the air.

*Burning.*--Tiles are burned in kilns in which, by the effect of flame

acting directly upon them, they are raised to a heat sufficient to melt

some of their more easily fusible ingredients, and give to them a

stone-like hardness.

Kilns are of various construction and of various sizes. As this book is

not intended for the instruction of those who are engaged in the general

manufacture of tiles, only for those who may find it necessary to

establish local works, it will be sufficient to describe a temporary

earthen kiln which may be cheaply built, and which will answer an

excellent purpose, where only 100,000 or 200,000 tiles per season will be

required.

Directions for its construction are set forth in a letter from Mr. T. Law

Hodges, of England, to the late Earl Spencer, published in the Journal of

the Royal Agricultural Society for the year 1843, as follows:

"The form of the clay-kiln is circular, 11 feet in diameter, and 7 feet

high. It is wholly built of damp, clayey earth, rammed firmly together,

and plastered, inside and out, with loam (clay?). The earth to form the

walls is dug out around the base, leaving a circular trench about four

feet wide and as many deep, into which the fire-holes of the kiln open. If

wood be the fuel used, three fire-holes will be sufficient; if coal, four

will be needed. About 1,200 common brick will be wanted to build these

fire-holes and flues; if coal is used, rather fewer bricks will be wanted,

but, then, some iron bars are necessary,--six bars to each fire-hole.

"The earthen walls are four feet thick at the floor of the kiln, seven

feet high, and tapering to a thickness of two feet at the top; this will

determine the slope of the exterior face of the kiln. The inside of the

wall is carried up perpendicularly, and the loam plastering inside

becomes, after the first burning, like a brick wall. The kiln may be

safely erected in March, or whenever the danger of injury from frost is

over. After the summer use of it, it must be protected, by faggots or

litter, against the wet and frost of winter. A kiln of these dimensions

will contain 32,500 1-1/4-inch tiles, * * * or 12,000 2-1/4-inch tiles. *

* *

"In good weather, this kiln can be filled, burnt, and discharged once in

every fortnight, and fifteen kilns may be obtained in a good season,

producing 487,500 1-1/4-inch tiles, and in proportion for the other sizes.

"It requires 2 tons 5 cwt. of good coals to burn the above kiln, full of

tiles."

[Fig. 46 - CLAY-KILN.]

Fig. 46 - CLAY-KILN.

A sectional view of this kiln is shown in Fig. 46, in which _C, C_

represent sections of the outer trench; _A_, one of the three fire-holes;

and _B, B_, sections of a circular passage inside of the wall, connected

with the fire-holes, and serving as a flue for the flames, which, at

suitable intervals, pass through openings into the floor of the kiln. The

whole structure should be covered with a roof of rough boards, placed high

enough to be out of the reach of the fire. A door in the side of the kiln

serves for putting in and removing the tiles, and is built up,

temporarily, with bricks or clay, during the burning. Mr. Hodges estimates

the cost of this kiln, all complete, at less than $25. Concerning its

value, he wrote another letter in 1848, from which the following is

extracted:

"The experience of four years that have elapsed since my letter to the

late Earl Spencer, published in the 5th volume of the proceedings of the

Royal Agricultural Society, page 57, has thoroughly tested the merits of

the temporary clay-kilns for the burning of draining-pipes described in

that letter.

"I am well aware that there were persons, even among those who came to see

it, who pronounced at once upon the construction and duration of the kiln

as unworthy of attention. How far their expectations have been realized,

and what value belongs to their judgment, the following short statement

will exhibit:

"The kiln, in question, was constructed, in 1844, at a cost of L5.

"It was used four times in that year, burning each time between 18,000 and

19,000 draining pipes, of 1-3/4 inches in diameter.

"In 1845, it was used nine times, or about once a fortnight, burning each

time the same quantity of nearly 19,000 pipes.

"In 1846, the same result.

"In 1847, it has been used twelve times, always burning the same quantity.

In the course of the last year a trifling repair in the bottom of the

kiln, costing rather less than 10 shillings, was necessary, and this is

the only cost for repair since its erection. It is now as good as ever,

and might be worked at least once a fortnight through the ensuing season.

"The result of this experiment of four years shows not only the practical

value of this cheap kiln, but Mr. Hatcher, who superintends the brick and

tile-yard at Benenden, where this kiln stands, expresses himself strongly

in favor of this kiln, as always producing better and more evenly burned

pipes than either of his larger and better built brick-kilns can do."

The floor of the kiln is first covered with bricks, placed on end, at a

little distance from each other, so as to allow the fire to pass between

them, and the tiles are placed _on end_ on these. This position will

afford the best draft for the flames. After the kiln is packed full, the

door-way is built up, and a slow fire is started,--only enough at first to

complete the drying of the tiles, and to do this so slowly as not to warp

them out of shape. They will be thoroughly dry when the smoke from the top

of the kiln loses its dark color and becomes transparent. When the fires

are well started, the mouths of the fire-holes may be built up so as to

leave only sufficient room to put in fresh fuel, and if the wind is high,

the fire-holes, on the side against which it blows, should be sheltered by

some sort of screen which will counteract its influence, and keep up an

even heat on all sides.

The time required for burning will be from two days and a night to four

days and four nights, according to the dryness of the tiles, the state of

the weather, and the character of the fuel. The fires should be drawn when

the tiles in the hottest part of the kiln are burned to a "ringing"

hardness. By leaving two or three holes in the door-way, which can be

stopped with loose brick, a rod may be run in, from time to time, to take

out specimen tiles from the hottest part of the kiln, which shall have

been so placed as to be easily removed. The best plan, however,--the only

prudent plan, in fact,--will be to employ an intelligent man who is

thoroughly experienced in the burning of brick and pottery, and whose

judgment in the management of the fires, and in the cooling off of the

kiln, will save much of the waste that would result from inexperienced

management. After the burning is completed, from 40 to 60 hours must be

allowed for the cooling of the kiln before it is opened. If the cold air

is admitted while it is still very hot, the unequal contraction of the

material will cause the tiles to crack, and a large portion of them may be

destroyed.

If any of the tiles are too much burned, they will be melted, and may

stick together, or, at least, have their shape destroyed. Those which are

not sufficiently burned would not withstand the action of the water in the

soil, and should not be used. For the first of these accidents there is no

remedy; for the latter, reburning will be necessary, and under-done tiles

may be left, (or replaced,) in the kiln in the position which they

occupied at the first burning, and the second heat will probably prove

sufficient. There is less danger of unequal burning in circular than in

square kilns. Soft wood is better than hard, as making a better flame. It

should be split fine, and well seasoned.

*Arrangement of the Tilery.*--Such a tilery as is described above should

have a drying shed from 60 to 80 feet long, and from 12 to 18 feet wide.

This shed may be built in the cheapest and roughest manner, the roof being

covered with felting, thatch, or hemlock boards, as economy may suggest.

It should have a tier of drying shelves, (made of slats rather than of

boards,) running the whole length of each side. A narrow, wooden tram-way,

down the middle, to carry a car, by which the green tiles may be taken

from the machine to the shelves, and the dry ones from the shelves to the

kiln, will greatly lessen the cost of handling.

The pug-mill and tile-machine, as well as the clay pit and the

washing-mill, should be at one end of the shed, and the kiln at the other,

so that, even in rainy weather, the work may proceed without interruption.

A shed of the size named will be sufficient to dry as many tiles of

assorted sizes as can be burned in the clay-kiln described above.

*The Cost of Tiles.*--It would be impossible, at any time, to say what

should be the precise cost of tiles in a given locality, without knowing

the prices of labor and fuel; and in the present unsettled condition of

the currency, any estimate would necessarily be of little value. Mr.

Parker's estimated the cost of inch pipes in England at 6_s._, (about

$1.50,) per thousand, when made on the estate where they were to be used,

by a process similar to that described herein. Probably they could at no

time have been made for less than twice that cost in the United

States,--and they would now cost much more; though if the clay is dug out

in the fall, when the regularly employed farm hands are short of work, and

if the same men can cut and haul the wood during the winter, the hands

hired especially for the tile making, during the summer season, (two men

and two or three boys,) cannot, even at present rates of wages, bring the

cost of the tiles to nearly the market prices. If there be only temporary

use for the machinery, it may be sold, when no longer needed, for a good

percentage of its original cost, as, from the slow movement to which it is

subjected, it is not much worn by its work.

There is no reason why tiles should cost more to make than bricks. A

common brick contains clay enough to make four or five 1-1/4-inch tiles,

and it will require about the same amount of fuel to burn this clay in one

form as in the other. This advantage in favor of tiles is in a measure

offset by the greater cost of handling them, and the greater liability to

breakage.

The foregoing description of the different processes of the manufacture of

draining tiles has been given, in order that those who find it necessary,

or desirable, to establish works to supply the needs of their immediate

localities may commence their operations understandingly, and form an

approximate opinion of the promise of success in the undertaking.

Probably the most positive effect of the foregoing description, on the

mind of any man who contemplates establishing a tilery, will be to cause

him to visit some successful manufactory, during the busy season, and

examine for himself the mode of operation. Certainly it would be unwise,

when such a personal examination of the process is practicable, to rely

entirely upon the aid of written descriptions; for, in any work like

tile-making, where the selection, combination and preparation of the

materials, the means of drying, and the economy and success of the burning

must depend on a variety of conditions and circumstances, which change

with every change of locality, it is impossible that written directions,

however minute, should be a sufficient guide. Still, in the light of such

directions, one can form a much better idea of the bearing of the

different operations which he may witness, than he could possibly do if

the whole process were new to him.

If a personal examination of a successful tilery is impracticable, it will

be necessary to employ a practical brick-maker, or potter, to direct the

construction and operation of the works, and in any case, this course is

advisable.

In any neighborhood where two or three hundred acres of land are to be

drained, if suitable earths can be readily obtained, it will be cheaper to

establish a tile-yard, than to haul the necessary tiles, in wagons, a

distance of ten or twenty miles. Then again, the prices demanded by the

few manufacturers, who now have almost a monopoly of the business, are

exorbitantly high,--at least twice what it will cost to make the tiles at

home, with the cheap works described above, so that if the cost of

transportation on the quantity desired would be equal to the cost of

establishing the works, there will be a decided profit in the home

manufacture. Probably, also, a tile-yard, in a neighborhood where the

general character of the soil is such as to require drainage, will be of

value after the object for which it was made has been accomplished.

While setting forth the advantage to the farmer of everything which may

protect him against monopolies, whether in the matter of draining-tile, or

of any other needful accessory of his business, or which will enable him

to procure supplies without a ruinous outlay for transportation, it is by

no means intended that every man shall become his own tile-maker.

In this branch of manufacture, as in every other, organized industry will

accomplish results to which individual labor can never attain. A hundred

years ago, when our mill-made cloths came from England, and cost more than

farmers could afford to pay, they wore home-spun, which was neither so

handsome nor so good as the imported article; but, since that time, the

growing population and the greater demand have caused cloth mills to be

built here, greater commercial facilities have placed foreign goods within

easy reach, and the house loom has fallen into general disuse.

At present, the manufacture of draining tiles is confined to a few, widely

separated localities, and each manufacturer has, thus far, been able to

fix his own scale of charges. These, and the cost of transportation to

distant points, make it difficult, if not impossible, for many farmers to

procure tiles at a cost low enough to justify their use. In such cases,

small works, to supply local demand, may enable many persons to drain with

tiles, who, otherwise, would find it impossible to procure them cheaply

enough for economical use; and the extension of under-draining, causing a

more general acquaintance with its advantages, would create a sufficient

demand to induce an increase of the manufacture of tiles, and a consequent

reduction of price.

CHAPTER IX. - THE RECLAIMING OF SALT MARSHES.

"Adjoining to it is Middle Moor, containing about 2,500 acres,

spoken of by Arthur Young as 'a watery desert,' growing sedge and

rushes, and inhabited by frogs and bitterns;--it is now fertile,

well cultivated, and profitable land."

The foregoing extract, from an account of the Drainage of the Fens on the

eastern coast of England, is a text from which might be preached a sermon

worthy of the attention of all who are interested in the vast areas of

salt marsh which form so large a part of our Atlantic coast, from Maine to

Florida.

Hundreds of thousands of acres that might be cheaply reclaimed, and made

our most valuable and most salubrious lands, are abandoned to the inroads

of the sea;--fruitful only in malaria and musquitoes,--always a dreary

waste, and often a grave annoyance.

A single tract, over 20,000 acres in extent, the center of which is not

seven miles from the heart of New York City, skirts the Hackensack River,

in New Jersey, serving as a barrier to intercourse between the town and

the country which lies beyond it, adding miles to the daily travel of the

thousands whose business and pleasure require them to cross it, and

constituting a nuisance and an eyesore to all who see it, or come near it.

How long it will continue in this condition it is impossible to say, but

the experience of other countries has proved that, for an expense of not

more than fifty dollars per acre, this tract might be made better, for all

purposes of cultivation, than the lands adjoining it, (many of which are

worth, for market gardening, over one thousand dollars per acre,) and that

it might afford profitable employment, and give homes, to all of the

industrious poor of the city. The work of reclaiming it would be child's

play, compared with the draining of the Harlaem Lake in Holland, where

over 40,000 acres, submerged to an average depth of thirteen feet, have

been pumped dry, and made to do their part toward the support of a dense

population.

The Hackensack meadows are only a conspicuous example of what exists over

a great extent of our whole seaboard;--virgin lands, replete with every

element of fertility, capable of producing enough food for the support of

millions of human beings, better located, for residence and for

convenience to markets, than the prairies of the Western States,--all

allowed to remain worse than useless; while the poorer uplands near them

are, in many places, teeming with a population whose lives are endangered,

and whose comfort is sadly interfered with by the insects and the miasma

which the marsh produces.

The inherent wealth of the land is locked up, and all of its bad effects

are produced, by the water with which it is constantly soaked or

overflowed. Let the waters of the sea be excluded, and a proper outlet for

the rain-fall and the upland wash be provided,--both of which objects may,

in a great majority of cases, be economically accomplished,--and this land

may become the garden of the continent. Its fertility will attract a

population, (especially in the vicinity of large towns,) which could no

where else live so well nor so easily.

The manner in which these salt marshes were formed may be understood from

the following account of the "Great Level of the Fens" of the eastern

coast of England, which is copied, (as is the paragraph at the head of

this chapter,) from the Prize Essay of Mr. John Algernon Clarke, written

for the Royal Agricultural Society in 1846.

The process is not, of course, always the same, nor are the exact

influences, which made the English Fens, generally, operating in precisely

the same manner here, but the main principle is the same, and the lesson

taught by the improvement of the Fens is perfectly applicable in our case.

"This great level extends itself into the six counties of Cambridge,

Lincoln, Huntington, Northampton, Suffolk and Norfolk, being bounded by

the highlands of each. It is about seventy miles in length, and varies

from twenty to forty miles in breadth, having an area of more than 680,000

acres. Through this vast extent of flat country, there flow six large

rivers, with their tributary streams; namely, the Ouse, the Cam, the Nene,

the Welland, the Glen, and the Witham.

"These were, originally, natural channels for conveying the upland waters

to the sea, and whenever a heavier downfall of rain than usual occurred,

and the swollen springs and rivulets caused the rivers to overflow, they

must necessarily have overflowed the land to a great extent.

"This, however, was not the principal cause of the inundation of the Fens:

these rivers were not allowed a free passage to the ocean, being thus made

incapable of carrying off even the ordinary amount of upland water which,

consequently, flowed over the land. The obstruction was two-fold; first,

the outfalls became blocked up by the deposits of silt from the sea

waters, which accumulated to an amazing thickness. The well known

instances of boats found in 1635 eight feet below the Wisbeck River, and

the smith's forge and tools found at Skirbeck Shoals, near Boston, buried

with silt sixteen feet deep, show what an astonishing quantity of sediment

formerly choked up the mouths of these great rivers. But the chief

hindrance caused by the ocean, arose from the tide rushing twice every day

for a very great distance up these channels, driving back the fresh

waters, and overflowing with them, so that the whole level became deluged

with deep water, and was, in fact, one great bay.

"In considering the state of this region as it first attracted the

enterprise of man to its improvement, we are to conceive a vast, wild

morass, with only small, detached portions of cultivated soil, or islands,

raised above the general inundation; a most desolate picture when

contrasted with its present state of matchless fertility."

Salt marshes are formed of the silty deposits of rivers and of the sea.

The former bring down vegetable mould and fine earth from the uplands, and

the latter contribute sea weeds and grasses, sand and shells, and millions

of animalculae which, born for life in salt water only, die, and are

deposited with the other matters, at those points where, from admixture

with the fresh flow of the rivers, the water ceases to be suitable for

their support. It is estimated that these animalculae alone are the chief

cause of the obstructions at the mouths of the rivers of Holland, which

retard their flow, and cause them to spread over the flat country

adjoining their banks. It is less important, however, for the purposes of

this chapter, to consider the manner in which salt marshes are formed,

than to discuss the means by which they may be reclaimed and made

available for the uses of agriculture. The improvement may be conveniently

considered under three heads:--

First--The exclusion of the sea water.

Second--The removal of the causes of inundation from the upland.

Third--The removal of the rain-fall and water of filtration.

*The Exclusion of the Sea* is of the first importance, because not only

does it saturate the land with water,--but this water, being salt, renders

it unfertile for the plants of ordinary cultivation, and causes it to

produce others which are of little, or no value.

The only means by which the sea may be kept out is, by building such dykes

or embankments as shut out the highest tides, and, on shores which are

exposed to the action of the waves, will resist their force. Ordinarily,

the best, because the cheapest, material of which these embankments can be

made, is the soil of the marsh itself. This is rarely,--almost never,--a

pure peat, such as is found in upland swamps; it contains a large

proportion of sand, blue clay, muscle mud, or other earthy deposits, which

give it great weight and tenacity, and render it excellent for forming the

body of the dyke. On lands which are overflowed to a considerable extent

at each high tide, (twice a day,) it will be necessary to adopt more

expensive, and more effective measures, but on ordinary salt meadows,

which are deeply covered only at the spring tides, (occurring every

month,) the following plan will be found practical and economical.

_Locating the line of the embankment_ far enough back from the edge of the

meadow to leave an ample flat outside of it to break the force of the

waves, if on the open coast, or to resist the inroads of the current if on

the bank of an estuary or a river,--say from ten to one hundred yards,

according to the danger of encroachment,--set a row of stakes parallel to

the general direction of the shore, to mark the outside line of the base

of the dyke. Stake out the inside line at such distance as will give a

pitch or inclination to the slopes of one and a half to one on the

outside, and of one to one on the inside, and will allow the necessary

width at the top, which should be at least two feet higher than the level

of the highest tide that is known ever to have occurred at that place. The

width of the top should never be less than four feet, and in exposed

localities it should be more. If a road will be needed around the land, it

is best, if a heavy dyke is required, to make it wide enough to answer

this purpose, with still wider places, at intervals, to allow vehicles to

turn or to pass each other. Ordinarily, however, especially if there be a

good stretch of flat meadow in front, the top of the dyke need not be more

than four feet wide. Supposing such a dyke to be contemplated where the

water has been known to rise two feet above the level of the meadows,

requiring an embankment four feet high, it will be necessary to allow for

the base a width of fourteen feet;--four feet for the width of the top, six

feet for the reach of the front slope, (1-1/2 to 1,) and four feet for the

reach of the back slope, (1 to 1.)

Having staked out two parallel lines, fourteen feet apart, and erected, at

intervals of twenty or thirty feet, frames made of rough strips of board

of the exact shape of the section of the proposed embankment, the workmen

may remove the sod to a depth of six inches, laying it all on the outside

of the position of the proposed embankment. The sod from the line of the

ditch, from which the earth for the embankment is to be taken, should also

be removed and placed with the other. This ditch should be always _inside_

of the dyke, where it will never be exposed to the action of the sea. It

should be, at the surface, broader than the base of the dyke, and five

feet deep in the center, but its sides may slope from the surface of the

ground directly to the center line of the bottom. This is the best form to

give it, because, while it should be five feet deep, for future uses as a

drain, its bottom need have no width. The great width at the surface will

give such a pitch to the banks as to ensure their stability, and will

yield a large amount of sod for the facing of the dyke. The edge of this

ditch should be some feet away from the inner line of the embankment,

leaving it a firm support or shoulder at the original level of the ground,

the sod not being removed from the interval. The next step in the work

should be to throw, or wheel, the material from the ditch on to the place

which has been stripped for the dyke, building it up so as to conform

exactly to the profile frames, these remaining in their places, to

indicate the filling necessary to make up for the settling of the

material, as the water drains out of it.

[Fig. 47 - DYKE AND DITCH.]

Fig. 47 - DYKE AND DITCH.

As fast as a permanent shape can be given to the outer face of the dyke,

it should be finished by having the sod placed against it, being laid

flatwise, one on top of another, (like stone work,) in the most solid

manner possible. This should be continued to the top of the slope, and the

flat top of the dyke should also be sodded,--the sods on the top, and on

the slope, being firmly beaten to their places with the back of the spade

or other suitable implement. This will sufficiently protect the exposed

parts of the work against the action of any waves that may be formed on

the flat between the dyke and the deep water, while the inner slope and

the banks of the ditch, not being exposed to masses of moving water, will

retain their shape and will soon be covered with a new growth.(26) A

sectional view of the above described dyke and ditch is shown in the

accompanying diagram, (Fig. 47.)

In all work of this character, it is important to regulate the amount of

work laid out to be done between the spring tides, to the laboring force

employed, so that no unfinished work will remain to be submerged and

injured. When the flood comes, it should find everything finished up and

protected against its ravages, so that no part of it need be done over

again.

If the land is crossed by creeks, the dyke should be finished off and

sodded, a little back from each bank, and when the time comes for closing

the channel, sufficient force should be employed to complete the dam at a

single tide, so that the returning flow shall not enter to wash away the

material which has been thrown in.

If, as is often the case, these creeks are not merely tidal estuaries, but

receive brooks or rivers from the upland, provision must be made, as will

be hereafter directed, for either diverting the upland flow, or for

allowing it to pass out at low water, through valve gates or sluices. When

the dam has been made, the water behind it should never be allowed to rise

to nearly the level of the full tide, and, as soon as possible, grass and

willows should be grown on the bank, to add to its strength by the binding

effect of their roots.

When the dyke is completed across the front of the whole flat,--from the

high land on one side to the high land on the other, the creeks should be

closed, one after the other, commencing with the smallest, so that the

experience gained in their treatment may enable the force to work more

advantageously on those which carry more water.

If the flow of water in the creek is considerable, a row of strong stakes,

or piles, should be firmly driven into the bottom mud, across the whole

width of the channel, at intervals of not more than one or two feet, and

_fascines_,--bundles of brush bound together,--should be made ready on the

banks, in sufficient quantity to close the spaces between the piles. These

will serve to prevent the washing away of the filling during construction.

The pile driving, and the preparation of the fascines may be done before

the closing of the channel with earth is commenced, and if upland clay or

gravel, to be mixed with the local material, can be economically brought

to the place by boats or wagons, it will be an advantage. Everything being

in readiness, a sufficient force of laborers to finish the dam in six

hours should commence the work a little before dead low-water, and, (with

the aid of wheelbarrows, if necessary,) throw the earth in rapidly

_behind_ the row of stakes and fascines, giving the dam sufficient width

to resist the pressure of the water from without, and keeping the work

always in advance of the rising of the tide, so that, during the whole

operation, none of the filling shall be washed away by water flowing over

its top.

If the creek has a sloping bottom, the work may be commenced earlier,--as

soon as the tide commences to recede,--and pushed out to the center of the

channel by the time the tide is out. When the dam is built, it will be

best to heavily sod, or otherwise protect its surface against the action

of heavy rains, which would tend to wash it away and weaken it; and the

bed of the creek should be filled in back of the dam for a distance of at

least fifty yards, to a height greater than that at which water will stand

in the interior drains,--say to within three feet of the surface,--so that

there shall never be a body of water standing within that distance of the

dam.

This is a necessary precaution against the attacks of muskrats, which are

the principal cause of the insecurity of all salt marsh embankments. It

should be a cardinal rule with all who are engaged in the construction of

such works, never to allow two bodies of water, one on each side of the

bank to be nearer than twenty-five yards of each other, and fifty yards

would be better. Muskrats do not bore through a bank, as is often

supposed, to make a passage from one body of water to another, (they would

find an easier road over the top); but they delight in any elevated mound

in which they can make their homes above the water level and have its

entrance beneath the surface, so that their land enemies cannot invade

them. When they enter for this purpose, only from one side of the dyke,

they will do no harm, but if another colony is, at the same time, boring

in from the other side, there is great danger that their burrows will

connect, and thus form a channel for the admission of water, and destroy

the work. A disregard of this requirement has caused thousands of acres of

salt marsh that had been enclosed by dykes having a ditch on each side,

(much the cheapest way to make them,) to be abandoned, and it has induced

the invention of various costly devices for the protection of embankments

against these attacks.(27)

When the creek or estuary to be cut off is very wide, the embankment may

be carried out, at leisure, from each side, until the channel is only wide

enough to allow the passage of the tide without too great a rush of water

against the unfinished ends of the work; but, even in these cases, there

will be economy in the use of fascines and piles from the first, or of

stones if these can be readily procured. In wide streams, partial

obstructions of the water course will sometimes induce the deposit of silt

in such quantities as will greatly assist the work. No written description

of a single process will suffice for the direction of those having charge

of this most delicate of all drainage operations. Much must be left to the

ingenuity of the director of the work, who will have to avail himself of

the assistance of such favorable circumstances as may, in the case in

hand, offer themselves.

If the barrier to be built will require a considerable outlay, it should

be placed in the hands of a competent engineer, and it will generally

demand the full measure of his skill and experience.

The work cannot be successful, unless the whole line of the water-front is

protected by a continuous bank, sufficiently high and strong in all of its

parts to resist the action of the highest tides and the strongest waves to

which it will be subjected. As it is always open to inspection, at each

ebb tide, and can always be approached for repair, it will be easy to keep

it in good condition; and, if properly attended to, it will become more

solid and effective with age.

*The removal of the causes of inundation from the upland* is often of

almost equal importance with the shutting out of the sea, since the amount

of water brought down by rivers, brooks, and hill-side wash, is often more

than can be removed by any practicable means, by sluice gates, or pumps.

It will be quite enough for the capacity of these means of drainage, to

remove the rain-water which falls on the flat land, and that which reaches

it by under-ground springs and by infiltration,--its proper drainage-water

in short,--without adding that which, coming from a higher level, may be

made to flow off by its own fall.

Catch-water drains, near the foot of the upland, may be so arranged as to

receive the surface water of the hills and carry it off, always on a level

above that of the top of the embankment, and these drains may often be,

with advantage, enlarged to a sufficient capacity to carry the streams as

well. If the marsh is divided by an actual river, it may be best to embank

it in two separate tracts; losing the margins, that have been recommended,

outside of the dykes, and building the necessary additional length of

these, rather than to contend with a large body of water. But, frequently,

a very large marsh is traversed by a tortuous stream which occupies a

large area, and which, although the tidal water which it contains gives it

the appearance of a river, is only the outlet of an insignificant stream,

which might be carried along the edge of the upland in an ordinary

mill-race. In such case it is better to divert the stream and reclaim the

whole area.

When a stream is enclosed between dykes, its winding course should be made

straight in order that its water may be carried off as rapidly as

possible, and the land which it occupies by its deviations, made available

for cultivation. In the loose, silty soil of a salt marsh, the stream may

be made to do most of the work of making its new bed, by constructing

temporary "jetties," or other obstructions to its accustomed flow, which

shall cause its current to deposit silt in its old channel, and to cut a

new one out of the opposite bank. In some instances it may be well to make

an elevated canal, straight across the tract, by constructing banks high

enough to confine the stream and deliver it over the top of the dyke; in

others it may be more expedient to carry the stream over, or through, the

hill which bounds the marsh, and cause it to discharge through an

adjoining valley. Improvements of this magnitude, which often affect the

interest of many owners, or of persons interested in the navigation of the

old channel, or in mill privileges below the point at which the water

course is to be diverted, will generally require legislative interference.

But they not seldom promise immense advantages for a comparatively small

outlay.

The instance cited of the Hackensack Meadows, in New Jersey, is a case in

point. Its area is divided among many owners, and, while ninety-nine acres

in every hundred are given up to muskrats, mosquitoes, coarse rushes and

malaria, the other one acre may belong to the owner of an adjacent farm

who values the salt hay which it yields him, and the title to the whole is

vested in many individual proprietors, who could never be induced to unite

in an improvement for the common benefit. Then again, thanks to the tide

that sets back in the Hackensack River, it is able to float an occasional

vessel to the unimportant villages at the northern end of the meadows, and

the right of navigation can be interfered with only by governmental

action. If the Hackensack River proper, that part of it which only serves

as an outlet for the drainage of the high land north of the meadows, could

be diverted and carried through the hills to the Passaic; or confined

within straight elevated banks and made to discharge at high water mark at

the line of the Philadelphia Rail-road;--the wash of the highlands, east

and west of the meadows, being also carried off at this level,--the bridge

of the railroad might be replaced by an earth embankment, less than a

quarter of a mile in length, effecting a complete exclusion of the tidal

flow from the whole tract.

This being done, a steam-pump, far less formidable than many which are in

profitable use in Europe for the same purpose, would empty, and keep

empty, the present bed of the river, which would form a capital outlet for

the drainage of the whole area. Twenty thousand acres, of the most fertile

land, would thus be added to the available area of the State, greatly

increasing its wealth, and inducing the settlement of thousands of

industrious inhabitants.

As the circumstances under which upland water reaches lands of the class

under consideration vary with every locality, no specific directions for

the treatment of individual cases can be given within the limits of this

chapter; but the problem will rarely be a difficult one.

*The removal of the rain-fall and water of filtration* is the next point

to be considered.

So far as the drainage of the land, in detail, is concerned, it is only

necessary to say that it may be accomplished, as in the case of any other

level land which, from the slight fall that can be allowed the drains,

requires close attention and great care in the adjustment of the grades.

The main difficulty is in providing an outlet for the drains. This can

only be done by artificial means, as the water must be removed from a

level lower than high-water mark,--sometimes lower than low-water.

If it is only required that the outlet be at a point somewhat above the

level of ordinary low-water, it will be sufficient to provide a sufficient

reservoir, (usually a large open ditch,) to contain the drainage water

that is discharged while the tide stands above the floor of the outlet

sluice-way, and to provide for its outflow while the level of the tide

water is below the point of discharge. This is done by means of sluices

having self-acting valves, (or tide-gates,) opening outward, which will be

closed by the weight of the water when the tide rises against them, being

opened again by the pressure of the water from within, as soon the tide

falls below the level of the water inside of the bank.

The gates and sluices may be of wood or iron,--square or round. The best

would be galvanized iron pipes and valves; but a square wooden trunk,

closed with a heavy oak gate that fits closely against its outer end, and

moves freely on its hinges, will answer capitally well, if carefully and

strongly made. If the gate is of wood, it will be well to have it lie in a

slightly slanting position, so that its own weight will tend to keep it

closed when the tide first commences to rise above the floor, and might

trickle in, before it had acquired sufficient head to press the gate

against the end of the trunk.

As this outlet has to remove, in a short time, all of the water that is

delivered by the drains and ditches during several hours, it should, of

course, be considerably larger than would be required for a constantly

flowing drain from the same area; but the immense gates,--large enough for

a canal lock,--which are sometimes used for the drainage of a few acres of

marsh, are absurd. Not only are they useless, they are really

objectionable, inasmuch as the greater extent of their joints increases

the risk of leakage at the time of high water.

The channel for the outflow of the water may sometimes, with advantage, be

open to the top of the dyke or dam,--a canal instead of a trunk; but this

is rarely the better plan, and is only admissible where the discharge is

into a river or small bay, too small for the formation of high waves, as

these would be best received on the face of a well sodded, sloping bank.

The height, above absolute low water, at which the outlet should be

placed, will depend on the depth of the outlet of the land drain, and the

depth of storage room required to receive the drainage water during the

higher stages of the tide. Of course, it must not be higher than the floor

of the land drain outlet, and, except for the purpose of affording storage

room, it need not be lower, although all the drainage will discharge, not

only while the tide water is below the bottom of the gate, but as long as

it remains lower than the level of the water inside. It is well to place

the mouth of the trunk nearly as low as ordinary low-water mark. This will

frequently render it necessary to carry a covered drain, of wood or brick,

through the mud, out as far as the tide usually recedes,--connected with

the valve gate at the outlet of the trunk, by a covered box which will

keep rubbish from obstructing it, or interfering with its action.

_When the outlet of the land-drains is below low-water mark_, it is of

course necessary to pump out the drainage water. This is done by steam or

by wind, the latter being economical only for small tracts which will not

bear the cost of a steam pump. Formerly, this work was done entirely by

windmills, but these afford only an uncertain power, and often cause the

entire loss of crops which are ready for the harvest, by obstinately

refusing to work for days after a heavy rain has deluged the land. In

grass land they are tolerably reliable, and on _small_ tracts in

cultivation, it is easy, by having a good proportion of open ditches, to

afford storage room sufficient for general security; but in the reclaiming

of large areas, (and it is with these that the work is most economical,)

the steam pump may be regarded as indispensable. It is fast superseding

the windmills which, a few years ago, were the sole dependence in Holland

and on the English Fens. The magnitude of the pumping machinery on which

the agriculture of a large part of Holland depends, is astonishing.

There are such immense areas of salt marsh in the United States which may

be tolerably drained by the use of simple valve gates, discharging above

low-water mark, that it is not very important to consider the question of

pumping, except in cases where owners of small tracts, from which a

sufficient tidal outlet could not be secured, (without the concurrence of

adjoining proprietors who might refuse to unite in making the

improvement,) may find it advisable to erect small pumps for their own

use. In such cases, it would generally be most economical to use

wind-power, especially if an accessory steam pump be provided for

occasional use, in emergency. Certainly, the tidal drainage should first

be resorted to, for when the land has once been brought into cultivation,

the propriety of introducing steam pumps will become more apparent, and

the outlay will be made with more confidence of profitable return, and, in

all cases, the tidal outlet should be depended on for the outflow of all

water above its level. It would be folly to raise water by expensive

means, which can be removed, even periodically, by natural drainage.

When pumps are used, their discharge pipes should pass through the

embankment, and deliver the water at low-water mark, so that the engine

may have to operate only against the actual height of the tide water. If

it delivered above high-water mark, it would work, even at low tide,

against a constant head, equal to that of the highest tides.

CHAPTER X. - MALARIAL DISEASES.

So far as remote agricultural districts are concerned, it is not probable

that the mere question of health would induce the undertaking of costly

drainage operations, although this consideration may operate, in

connection with the need for an improved condition of soil, as a strong

argument in its favor. As a rule, "the chills" are accepted by farmers,

especially at the West, as one of the slight inconveniences attending

their residence on rich lands; and it is not proposed, in this work, to

urge the evils of this terrible disease, and of "sun pain," or "day

neuralgia," as a reason for draining the immense prairies over which they

prevail. The diseases exist,--to the incalculable detriment of the

people,--and thorough draining would remove them, and would doubtless bring

a large average return on the investment;--but the question is, after all,

one of capital; and the cost of such draining as would remove

fever-and-ague from the bottom lands and prairies of the West, and from

the infected agricultural districts at the East, would be more than the

agricultural capital of those districts could spare for the purpose.

In the vicinity of cities and towns, however, where more wealth has

accumulated, and where the number of persons subjected to the malarial

influence is greater, there can be no question as to the propriety of

draining, even if nothing but improved health be the object.

Then again, there are immense tracts near the large cities of this country

which would be most desirable for residence, were it not that their

occupancy, except with certain constant precautions, implies almost

inevitable suffering from fever-and-ague, or neuralgia.

Very few neighborhoods within thirty miles of the city of New York are

entirely free from these scourges, whose influence has greatly retarded

their occupation by those who are seeking country homes; while many, who

have braved the dangers of disease in these localities, have had sad cause

to regret their temerity.

Probably the most striking instance of the effect of malaria on the growth

and settlement of suburban districts, is to be found on Staten Island.

Within five miles of the Battery; accessible by the most agreeable and

best managed ferry from the city; practically, nearer to Wall street than

Murray Hill is; with most charming views of land and water; with a

beautifully diversified surface, and an excellent soil; and affording

capital opportunities for sea bathing, it should be, (were it not for its

sanitary reputation, it inevitably would be,) one vast residence-park.

Except on its extreme northern end, and along its higher ridges, it

has,--and, unfortunately, it deserves,--a most unenviable reputation for

insalubrity. Here and there, on the southern slope also, there are favored

places which are unaccountably free from the pest, but, as a rule, it is,

during the summer and autumn, unsafe to live there without having constant

recourse to preventive medication, or exercising unusual and inconvenient

precautions with regard to exposure to mid-day sun and evening dew. There

are always to be found attractive residences, which are deserted by their

owners, and are offered for sale at absurdly low prices. There are

isolated instances of very thorough and very costly draining, which has

failed of effect, because so extensive a malarial region cannot be

reclaimed by anything short of a systematic improvement of the whole.

It has been estimated that the thorough drainage of the low lands, valleys

and ponds of the eastern end of the island, including two miles of the

south shore, would at once add $5,000,000 to the market value of the real

estate of that section. There can be no question that any radical

improvement in this respect would remove the only obstacle to the rapid

settlement of the island by those who wish to live in the country, yet

need to be near to the business portion of the city. The hope of such

improvement being made, however, seems as remote as ever,--although any one

at all acquainted with the sources of miasm, in country neighborhoods, can

readily see the cause of the difficulty, and the means for its removal are

as plainly suggested.

Staten Island is, by no means, alone in this respect. All who know the

history of the settlement of the other suburbs of New York are very well

aware that those places which are free from fever-and-ague and malarial

neuralgia, are extremely rare.

The exact cause of fever-and-ague and other malarial diseases is unknown,

but it is demonstrated that, whatever the cause is, it is originated under

a combination of circumstances, one of which is undue moisture in the

soil. It is not necessary that land should be absolutely marshy to produce

the miasm, for this often arises on cold, springy uplands which are quite

free from deposits of muck. Thus far, the attention of scientific

investigators, given to the consideration of the origin of malarial

diseases, has failed to discover any well established facts concerning it;

but there have been developed certain theories, which seem to be sustained

by such knowledge as exists on the subject.

Dr. Bartlett, in his work on the Fevers of the United States, says:--"The

essential, efficient, producing cause of periodical fever,--the poison

whose action on the system gives rise to the disease,--is a substance or

agent which has received the names of _malaria_, or _marsh miasm_. The

nature and composition of this poison are wholly unknown to us. Like most

other analogous agents, like the contagious principle of small-pox and of

typhus, and like the epidemic poison of scarletina and cholera, they are

too subtle to be recognized by any of our senses, they are too fugitive to

be caught by any of our contrivances.

"As always happens in such cases and under similar circumstances, in the

absence of positive knowledge, we have been abundantly supplied with

conjecture and speculation; what observation has failed to discover,

hypothesis has endeavored and professed to supply. It is quite unnecessary

even to enumerate the different substances to which malaria has been

referred. Amongst them are all of the chemical products and compounds

possible in wet and marshy localities; moisture alone; the products of

animal and vegetable decomposition; and invisible living organisms. * * *

* Inscrutable, however, as the intimate nature of the substances or agents

may be, there are some few of its laws and relations which are very well

ascertained. One of these consists in its connection with low, or wet, or

marshy localities. This connection is not invariable and exclusive, that

is, there are marshy localities which are not malarious, and there are

malarious localities which are not marshy; but there is no doubt whatever

that it generally exists."

In a report to the United States Sanitary Commission, Dr. Metcalfe states,

that all hypotheses, even the most plausible, are entirely unsupported by

positive knowledge, and he says:--

"This confession of ignorance still leaves us in possession of certain

knowledge concerning malaria, from which much practical good may be

derived.

"1st. It affects, by preference, low and moist localities.

"2d. It is almost never developed at a lower temperature than 60 deg.

Fahrenheit.

"3d. Its evolution or active agency is checked by a temperature of 32 deg..

"4th. It is most abundant and most virulent as we approach the equator and

the sea-coast.

"5th. It has an affinity for dense foliage, which has the power of

accumulating it, when lying in the course of winds blowing from malarious

localities.

"6th. Forests, or even woods, have the power of obstructing and preventing

its transmission, under these circumstances.

"7th. By atmospheric currents it is capable of being transported to

considerable distances--probably as far as five miles.

"8th. It may be developed, in previously healthy places, by turning up the

soil; as in making excavations for foundations of houses, tracks for

railroads, and beds for canals.

"9th. In certain cases it seems to be attracted and absorbed by bodies of

water lying in the course of such winds as waft it from the miasmatic

source.

"10th. Experience alone can enable us to decide as to the presence or

absence of malaria, in any given locality.

"11th. In proportion as countries, previously malarious, are cleared up

and thickly settled, periodical fevers disappear--in many instances to be

replaced by the typhoid or typhus."

La Roche, in a carefully prepared treatise on "Pneumonia; its Supposed

Connection with Autumnal Fevers," recites various theories concerning the

mode of action of marsh miasm, and finds them insufficient to account for

the phenomena which they produce. He continues as follows:--

"All the above hypotheses failing to account for the effects in question,

we are naturally led to the admission that they are produced by the

morbific influence of some special agent; and when we take into

consideration all the circumstances attending the appearance of febrile

diseases, the circumscribed sphere of their prevalence, the suddenness of

their attack, the character of their phenomena, etc., we may safely say

that there is nothing left but to attribute them to the action of some

poison dissolved or suspended in the air of the infected locality; which

poison, while doubtless requiring for its development and dissemination a

certain degree of heat, and terrestrial and atmospheric moisture, a

certain amount of nightly condensation after evaporation, and the presence

of fermenting or decomposing materials, cannot be produced by either of

these agencies alone, and though indicated by the chemist, betrays its

presence by producing on those exposed to its influence the peculiar

morbid changes characterizing fever."

He quotes the following from the Researches of Dr. Chadwick:--

"In considering the circumstances external to the residence, which affect

the sanitary condition of the population, the importance of a general

land-drainage is developed by the inquiries as to the cause of the

prevalent diseases, to be of a magnitude of which no conception had been

formed at the commencement of the investigation. Its importance is

manifested by the severe consequences of its neglect in every part of the

country, as well as by its advantages in the increasing salubrity and

productiveness wherever the drainage has been skillful and effectual."

La Roche calls attention to these facts:--That the acclimated residents of

a malarious locality, while they are less subject than strangers to active

fever, show, in their physical and even in their mental organization,

evident indications of the ill effects of living in a poisonous

atmosphere,--an evil which increases with successive generations, often

resulting in a positive deterioration of the race; that the lower animals

are affected, though in a less degree than man; that deposits of organic

matter which are entirely covered with water, (as at the bottom of a

pond,) are not productive of malaria; that this condition of saturation is

infinitely preferable to imperfect drainage; that swamps which are shaded

from the sun's heat by trees, are not supposed to produce disease; and

that marshes which are exposed to constant winds are not especially

deleterious to persons living in their immediate vicinity,--while winds

frequently carry the emanations of miasmatic districts to points some

miles distant, where they produce their worst effects. This latter

statement is substantiated by the fact that houses situated some miles to

the leeward of low, wet lands, have been especially insalubrious until the

windows and doors on the side toward the source of the miasm were closed

up, and openings made on the other side,--and thenceforth remained free

from the disease, although other houses with openings on the exposed sides

continued unhealthy.

The literature relating to periodical fevers contains nothing else so

interesting as the very ingenious article of Dr. J. H. Salisbury, on the

"Cause of Malarious Fevers," contributed to the "American Journal of

Medical Science," for January, 1866. Unfortunately, while there is no

evidence to controvert the statements of this article, they do not seem to

be honored with the confidence of the profession,--not being regarded as

sufficiently authenticated to form a basis for scientific deductions. Dr.

Salisbury claims to have discovered the cause of malarial fever in the

spores of a very low order of plant, which spores he claims to have

invariably detected in the saliva, and in the urine, of fever patients,

and in those of no other persons, and which he collected on plates of

glass suspended over all marshes and other lands of a malarious character,

which he examined, and which he was never able to obtain from lands which

were not malarious. Starting from this point, he proceeds, (with

circumstantial statements that seem to the unprofessional mind to be

sufficient,) to show that the plant producing these spores is always

found, in the form of a whitish, green, or brick-colored incrustation, on

the surface of fever producing lands; that the spores, when detached from

the parent plant, are carried in suspension _only in the moist exhalations

of wet lands_, never rising higher, (usually from 35 to 60 feet,) nor

being carried farther, than the humid air itself; that they most

accumulate in the upper strata of the fogs, producing more disease on

lands slightly elevated above the level of the marsh than at its very

edge; that fever-and-ague are never to be found where this plant does not

grow; that it may be at once introduced into the healthiest locality by

transporting moist earth on which the incrustation is forming; that the

plant, being introduced into the human system through the lungs, continues

to grow there and causes disease; and that _quinia_ arrests its growth,

(as it checks the multiplication of yeast plants in fermentation,) and

thus suspends the action of the disease.

Probably it would be impossible to prove that the foregoing theory is

correct, though it is not improbable that it contains the germ from which

a fuller knowledge of the disease and its causes will be obtained. It is

sufficient for the purposes of this work to say that, so far as Dr.

Salisbury's opinion is valuable, it is,--like the opinion of all other

writers on the subject,--fully in favor of perfect drainage as the one

great preventive of all malarial diseases.

_The evidence of the effect of drainage_ in removing the cause of malarial

diseases is complete and conclusive. Instances of such improvement in this

country are not rare, but they are much less numerous and less conspicuous

here than in England, where draining has been much more extensively

carried out, and where greater pains have been taken to collect testimony

as to its effects.

If there is any fact well established by satisfactory experience, it is

that thorough and judicious draining will entirely remove the local source

of the miasm which produces these diseases.

The voluminous reports of various Committees of the English Parliament,

appointed to investigate sanitary questions, are replete with information

concerning experience throughout the whole country, bearing directly on

this question.

Dr. Whitley, in his report to the Board of Health, (in 1864,) of an

extended tour of observation, says of one town that he examined:--

"Mr. Nicholls, who has been forty years in practice here, and whom I was

unable to see at the time of my visit, writes: Intermittent and remittent

are greatly on the decline since the improved state of drainage of the

town and surrounding district, and more particularly marked is this

alteration, since the introduction of the water-works in the place.

Although we have occasional outbreaks of intermittent and remittent, with

neuralgic attacks, they yield more speedily to remedies, and are not

attended by so much enlargement of the liver or spleen as formerly, and

dysentery is of rare occurrence."

Dr. Whitley sums up his case as follows:--

"It would appear from the foregoing inquiry, that intermittent and

remittent fevers, and their consequences, can no longer be regarded as

seriously affecting the health of the population, in many of the

districts, in which those diseases were formerly of a formidable

character. Thus, in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Cambridgeshire, counties in

which these diseases were both frequent and severe, all the evidence,

except that furnished by the Peterborough Infirmary, and, in a somewhat

less degree, in Spaulding, tends to show that they are at the present

time, comparatively rare and mild in form."

He mentions similar results from his investigations in other parts of the

kingdom, and says:--

"It may, therefore, be safely asserted as regards England generally,

that:--

"The diseases which have been made the subject of the present inquiry,

have been steadily decreasing, both in frequency and severity, for several

years, _and this decrease is attributed, in nearly every case, mainly to

one cause,--improved land drainage;_" again:

"The change of local circumstances, unanimously declared to be the most

immediate in influencing the prevalence of malarious diseases, is land

drainage;" and again:

"Except in a few cases in which medical men believed that these affections

began to decline previously to the improved drainage of the places

mentioned, the decrease in all of the districts where extensive drainage

has been carried out, was stated to have commenced about the same time,

and was unhesitatingly attributed to that cause."

A select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to investigate the

condition and sanitary influence of the Thames marshes, reported their

minutes of evidence, and their deductions therefrom, in 1854, The

following is extracted from their report:

"It appears from the evidence of highly intelligent and eminent gentlemen

of the medical profession, residing in the neighborhood of the marshes on

both sides of the Thames below London Bridge, that the diseases prevalent

in these districts are highly indicative of malarious influences,

fever-and-ague being very prevalent; and that the sickness and mortality

are greatest in those localities which adjoin imperfectly drained lands,

and far exceed the usual average; and that ague and allied disorders

frequently extend to the high grounds in the vicinity. In those districts

where a partial drainage has been effected, a corresponding improvement in

the health of the inhabitants is perceptible."

In the evidence given before the committee, Dr. P. Bossey testified that

the malaria from salt marshes varied in intensity, being most active in

the morning and in the Summer season. The marshes are sometimes covered by

a little fog, usually not more than three feet thick, which is of a very

offensive odor, and detrimental to health. Away from the marshes, there is

a greater tendency to disease on the side toward which the prevailing

winds blow.

Dr. James Stewart testified that the effect of malaria was greatest when

very hot weather succeeds heavy rain or floods. He thought that malaria

could be carried _up_ a slope, but has never been known to descend, and

that, consequently, an intervening hill affords sufficient protection

against marsh malaria. He had known cases where the edges of a river were

healthy and the uplands malarious.

In Santa Maura and Zante, where he had been stationed with the army, he

had observed that the edge of a marsh would be comparatively healthy,

while the higher places in the vicinity were exceedingly unhealthy. He

thought that there were a great many mixed diseases which began like ague

and terminated very differently; those diseases would, no doubt, assume a

very different form if they were not produced by the marsh air; many

diseases are very difficult to treat, from being of a mixed character

beginning like marsh fevers and terminating like inflammatory fevers, or

diseases of the chest.

Dr. George Farr testified that rheumatism and tic-doloreux were very

common among the ladies who live at the Woolwich Arsenal, near the Thames

marshes. Some of these cases were quite incurable, until the patients

removed to a purer atmosphere.

W. H. Gall, M. D., thought that the extent to which malaria affected the

health of London, must of course be very much a theoretical question; "but

it is very remarkable that diseases which are not distinctly miasmatic, do

become much more severe in a miasmatic district. Influenzas, which

prevailed in England in 1847, were very much more fatal in London and the

surrounding parts than they were in the country generally, and influenza

and ague poisons are very nearly allied in their effects. Marsh miasms are

conveyed, no doubt, a considerable distance. Sufficiently authentic cases

are recorded to show that the influence of marsh miasm extends several

miles." Other physicians testify to the fact, that near the Thames

marshes, the prevalent diseases are all of them of an aguish type,

intermittent and remittent, and that they are accompanied with much

dysentery. Dr. John Manly said that, when he first went to Barking, he

found a great deal of ague, but since the draining, in a population of ten

thousand, there are not half-a-dozen cases annually and but very little

remittent.

The following Extract is taken from the testimony of Sir Culling Eardly,

Bart.:

"Chairman:--I believe you reside at Belvidere, in the parish of

Erith?--Yes.--Ch.: Close to these marshes?--Yes.--Ch.: Can you speak from your

own knowledge, of the state of these marshes, with regard to public

health?--Sir C.: I can speak of some of the results which have been

produced in the neighborhood, from the condition of the marshes; the

neighborhood is in one continual state of ague. My own house is protected,

from the height of its position, and a gentleman's house is less liable to

the influence of malaria than the houses of the lower classes. But even in

my house we are liable to ague; and to show the extraordinary manner in

which the ague operates, in the basement story of this house where my

men-servants sleep, we have more than once had bad ague. In the attics of

my house, where my maid-servants sleep, we have never had it. Persons are

deterred from settling in the neighborhood by the aguish character of the

country. Many persons, attracted by the beauty of the locality, wish to

come down and settle; but when they find the liability to ague, they are

compelled to give up their intention. I may mention that the village of

Erith itself, bears marks of the influence of malaria. It is more like one

of the desolate towns of Italy, Ferrara, for instance, than a healthy,

happy, English village. I do not know whether it is known to the

committee, that Erith is the village described in Dickens' _Household

Words_, as Dumble-down-deary, and that it is a most graphic and correct

description of the state of the place, attributable to the unhealthy

character of the locality."

He also stated that the ague is not confined to the marshes, but extends

to the high lands near them.

The General Board of Health, of England, at the close of a voluminous

report, publish the following "Conclusions as to the Drainage of Suburban

Lands:--

"1. Excess of moisture, even on lands not evidently wet, is a cause of

fogs and damps.

"2. Dampness serves as a medium for the conveyance of any decomposing

matter that may be evolved, and adds to the injurious effects of such

matters in the air:--in other words the excess of moisture may be said to

increase or aggravate atmospheric impurities.

"3. The evaporation of the surplus moisture lowers the temperature,

produces chills, and creates or aggravates the sudden and injurious

changes or fluctuations by which health is injured."

In view of the foregoing opinions as to the cause of malaria, and of the

evidence as to the effect of draining in removing the unhealthy condition

in which those causes originate, it is not too much to say that,--in

addition to the capital effect of draining on the productive capacity of

the land,--the most beneficial sanitary results may be confidently expected

from the extension of the practice, especially in such localities as are

now unsafe, or at least undesirable for residence.

In proportion to the completeness and efficiency of the means for the

removal of surplus water from the soil:--in proportion, that is, to the

degree in which the improved tile drainage described in these pages is

adopted,--will be the completeness of the removal of the causes of disease.

So far as the drying of malarious lands is concerned, it is only necessary

to construct drains in precisely the same manner as for agricultural

improvement.

The removal of the waste of houses, and of other filth, will be considered

in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XI. - HOUSE DRAINAGE AND TOWN SEWERAGE IN THEIR RELATIONS TO THE

PUBLIC HEALTH.

The following is extracted from a report made by the General Board of

Health to the British Parliament, concerning the administration of the

Public Health Act and the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts

from 1848 to 1854.

"Where instances have been favorable for definite observation, as in broad

blocks of buildings, the effects of sanitary improvement have been already

manifested to an extent greater than could have been anticipated, and than

can be readily credited by those who have not paid attention to the

subject.

"In one favorable instance, that of between 600 and 700 persons of the

working class in the metropolis, during a period of three years, the

average rate of mortality has been reduced to between 13 and 14 in 1000.

In another instance, for a shorter period, among 500 persons, the

mortality has been reduced as low as even 7 in 1000. The average rate of

mortality for the whole metropolis being 23 in 1000.

"In another instance, the abolishing of cess-pools and their replacement

by water-closets, together with the abolishing of brick drains and their

replacement by impermeable and self-cleansing stone-ware pipes, has been

attended with an immediate and extraordinary reduction of mortality. Thus,

in Lambeth Square, occupied by a superior class of operatives, in the

receipt of high wages, the deaths, which in ordinary times were above the

general average, or more than 30 in 1000, had risen to a rate of 55 in

1000. By the abolishing of cess-pools, which were within the houses, and

the substitution of water-closets, and with the introduction of tubular,

self-cleansing house-drains, the mortality has been reduced to 13 in 1000.

"The reduction of the mortality was effected precisely among the same

occupants, without any change in their habits whatever."

"Sewers are less important than the House-Drains and Water-Closets, and if

not carrying much water, may become cess-pools. In the case of the Square

just referred to, when cess-pools and drains of deposit were removed

without any alteration whatever in the adjacent sewers, fevers disappeared

from house to house, as these receptacles were filled up, and the

water-closet apparatus substituted, merely in consequence of the removal

of the decomposing matter from beneath the houses to a distant sewer of

deposit or open water course.

"If the mortality were at the same rate as in the model dwellings, or in

the improved dwellings in Lambeth Square, the annual deaths for the whole

of the metropolis would be 25,000 less, and for the whole of England and

Wales 170,000 less than the actual deaths.

"If the reduced rate of mortality in these dwellings should continue, and

there appears to be no reason to suppose that it will not, the extension

to all towns which have been affected, of the improvements which have been

applied in these buildings, would raise the average age at death to about

forty-eight instead of twenty-nine, the present average age at death of

the inhabitants of towns in all England and Wales."

The branch of the Art of Drainage which relates to the removal of the

fecal and other refuse wastes of the population of towns, is quite

different from that which has been described in the preceding pages, as

applicable to the agricultural and sanitary improvement of lands under

cultivation, and of suburban districts. Still, the fact that town and

house drainage affords a means for the preservation of valuable manures,

justifies its discussion in an agricultural work, and "draining for

health" would stop far short of completeness were no attention paid to the

removal of the cause of diseases, which are far more fatal than those that

originate in an undrained condition of the soil.

The extent to which these diseases, (of which typhoid fever is a type,)

are prevented by sanitary drainage, is strikingly shown in the extract

which commences this chapter. Since the experience to which this report

refers, it has been found that the most fatal epidemics of the lower

portions of London originated in the choked condition of the street

sewers, whose general character, as well as the plan of improvement

adopted are described in the following "Extracts from the Report of the

Metropolitan Board of Works," made in 1866.

"The main sewers discharged their whole contents direct into the Thames,

the majority of them capable of being emptied only at the time of low

water; consequently, as the tide rose, the outlets of the sewers were

closed, and the sewage was dammed back, and became stagnant; the sewage

and impure waters were also constantly flowing from the higher grounds, in

some instances during 18 out of the 24 hours, and thus the thick and heavy

substances were deposited, which had to be afterwards removed by the

costly process of hand labor. During long continued or copious falls of

rain, more particularly when these occurred at the time of high water in

the river, the closed outlets not having sufficient storage capacity to

receive the increased volume of sewage, the houses and premises in the low

lying districts, especially on the south side of the river, became flooded

by the sewage rising through the house drains, and so continued until the

tide had receded sufficiently to afford a vent for the pent-up waters,

when the sewage flowed and deposited itself along the banks of the river,

evolving gases of a foul and offensive character.

"This state of things had a most injurious effect upon the condition of

the Thames; for not only was the sewage carried up the river by the rising

tide, at a time when the volume of pure water was at its minimum, and

quite insufficient to dilute and disinfect it, but it was brought back

again into the heart of the metropolis, there to mix with each day's fresh

supply, until the gradual progress towards the sea of many day's

accumulation could be plainly discerned; the result being that the portion

of the river within the metropolitan district became scarcely less impure

and offensive than the foulest of the sewers themselves. * * * * * *

"The Board, by the system they have adopted, have sought to abolish the

evils which hitherto existed, by constructing new lines of sewers, laid in

a direction at right angles to that of the existing sewers, and a little

below their levels, so as to intercept their contents and convey them to

an outfall, on the north side of the Thames about 11-1/4 miles, and on the

south side about 14 miles, below London Bridge. By this arrangement as

large a proportion of the sewage as practicable is carried away by

gravitation, and a constant discharge for the remainder is provided by

means of pumping. At the outlets, the sewage is delivered into reservoirs

situate on the banks of the Thames, and placed at such levels as enable

them to discharge into the river at or about the time of high water. The

sewage thus becomes not only at once diluted by the large volume of water

in the river at the time of high water, but is also carried by the ebb 26

miles below London Bridge, and its return by the following flood-tide

within the metropolitan area, is effectually prevented."

The details of this stupendous enterprise are of sufficient interest to

justify the introduction here of the "General Statistics of the Works" as

reported by the Board.

"A few statistics relative to the works may not prove uninteresting. The

first portion of the works was commenced in January 1859, being about five

months after the passing of the Act authorising their execution. There are

82 miles of main intercepting sewers in London. In the construction of the

works 318,000,000 of bricks, and 880,000 cubic yards of concrete have been

used, and 3,500,000 cubic yards of earth excavated. The cost, when

completed, will have been about L4,200,000. The total pumping power

employed is 2,300 nominal horse power: and if the engines were at full

work, night and day, 44,000 tons of coals per annum would be used; but the

average consumption is estimated at 20,000 tons. The sewage to be

intercepted by the works on the north side of the river, at present

amounts to 10,000,000 cubic feet, and on the south side 4,000,000 cubic

feet per day; but provision is made for an anticipated increase in these

quantities, in addition to the rainfall, amounting to a total of

63,000,000 cubic feet per day, which is equal to a lake of 482 acres,

three feet deep, or 15 times as large as the Serpentine in Hyde Park."

A very large portion of the sewage has to be lifted thirty-six feet to the

outfall sewer. The works on the north side of the Thames were formally

opened, by the Prince of Wales, in April 1865.

In the hope that the immense amount of sewage, for which an escape has

been thus provided, might be profitably employed in agriculture,

advertisements were inserted in the public journals asking for proposals

for carrying out such a scheme; and arrangements were subsequently made

for an extension of the works, by private enterprise, by the construction

of a culvert nine and a half feet in diameter, and forty miles in length,

capable of carrying 12,000,000 cubic feet of sewage per day to the barren

sands on the coast of Essex; the intention being to dispose of the liquid

to farmers along the line, and to use the surplus for the fertilization of

7000 acres, (to be subsequently increased,) which are to be reclaimed from

the sea by embankments and valve sluice-gates.

The estimated cost of this enterprise is about $10,000,000.

The work which has been done, and which is now in contemplation, in

England, is suggestive of what might, with advantage, be adopted in the

larger cities in America. Especially in New York an improved means of

outlet is desirable, and it is doubtful whether the high rate of mortality

of that city will be materially reduced before effective measures are

devised for removing the vast accumulations of filth, which ebb and flow

in many of the larger sewers, with each change of the tide; and which are

deposited between the piers along the river-sides.

It would be practicable to construct a main receiving sewer under the

river streets, skirting the city, from the vicinity of Bellevue Hospital

on the east side, passing near the outer edge of the Battery, and

continuing to the high land near 60th street on the west side; having its

water level at least twenty feet below the level of the street, and

receiving all of the sewage which now flows into the river. At the

Battery, this receiving sewer might be connected, by a tunnel, with the

Brooklyn shore, its contents being carried to a convenient point south of

Fort Hamilton,--where their discharge, (by lifting steam pumps), into the

waters of the Lower Bay, would be attended with no inconvenience. The

improvement being carried out to this point, it would probably not be long

before the advantages to result from the application of the sewage to the

sandy soil on the south side of Long Island would be manifest.

The effect of such an improvement on the health of the city,--which is now

in constant danger from the putrefying filth of the sewers, (these being

little better than covered cess-pools under the streets,)--would, no doubt,

equal the improvement that has resulted from similar work in London.

The foregoing relates only to the main outlets for town sewage. The

arterial drainage, (the lateral drains of the system,) which receives the

waste of the houses and the wash of the streets, is entirely dependent on

the outlet sewers, and can be effective only when these are so constructed

as to afford a free outfall for the matters that it delivers to them. In

many towns, owing to high situation, or to a rapid inclination of surface,

the outfall is naturally so good as to require but little attention. In

all cases, the manner of constructing the collecting drains is a matter of

great importance, and in this work a radical change has been introduced

within a few years past.

Formerly, immense conduits of porous brick work, in all cases large enough

to be entered to be cleansed, by hand labor, of their accumulated

deposits, were considered necessary for the accommodation of the smallest

discharge. The consequence of this was, that, especially in sewers

carrying but little water, the solid matters contained in the sewage were

deposited by the sluggish flow, frequently causing the entire obstruction

of the passages. Such drains always required frequent and expensive

cleansing by hand, and the decomposition of the filth which they contained

produced a most injurious effect on the health of persons living near

their connections with the street. The foul liquids with which they were

filled, passing through their porous walls, impregnated the earth near

them, and sometimes reached to the cellars of adjacent houses, which were

in consequence rendered extremely unhealthy. Many such sewers are now in

existence, and some such are still being constructed. Not only are they

unsatisfactory, they are much more expensive in construction, and require

much attention and labor for repairs, and cleansing, than do the

stone-ware pipe sewers which are now universally adopted wherever measures

are taken to investigate their comparative merits. An example of the

difference between the old and modern styles of sewers is found in the

drainage of the Westminster School buildings, etc., in London.

The new drainage conveys the house and surface drainage of about two acres

on which are fifteen large houses. The whole length of the drain is about

three thousand feet, and the entire outlet is through two nine inch pipes.

The drainage is perfectly removed, and the pipes are always clean, no foul

matters being deposited at any point. This drainage has been adopted as a

substitute for an old system of sewerage of which the main was from 4 feet

high, by 3 feet 6 inches wide, to 17 feet high and 6 or 7 feet wide. The

houses had cess-pools beneath them, which were filled with the

accumulations of many years, while the sewers themselves were scarcely

less offensive. This condition resulted in a severe epidemic fever of a

very fatal character.

An examination instituted to discover the cause of the epidemic resulted

in the discovery of the facts set forth above, and there were removed from

the drains and cess-pools more than 550 loads of ordure. The evaporating

surface of this filth was more than 2000 square yards.

Since the new drainage, not only has there been no recurrence of epidemic

fever, but "a greater improvement in the general health of the population

has succeeded than might be reasonably expected in a small block of

houses, amidst an ill-conditioned district, from which it cannot be

completely isolated."

The principle which justifies the use of pipe sewers is precisely that

which has been described in recommending small tiles for agricultural

drainage,--_to wit_: that the rapidity of a flow of water, and its power to

remove obstacles, is in proportion to its depth as compared with its

width. It has been found in practice, that a stream which wends its

sluggish way along the bottom of a large brick culvert, when concentrated

within the area of a small pipe of regular form, flows much more rapidly,

and will carry away even whole bricks, and other substances which were an

obstacle to its flow in the larger channel. As an experiment as to the

efficacy of small pipes Mr. Hale, the surveyor, who was directed by the

General Board of Health of London to make the trial, laid a 12-inch pipe

in the bottom of a sewer 5 feet and 6 inches high, and 3 feet and 6 inches

wide. The area drained was about 44 acres. He found the velocity of the

stream in the pipe to be four and a half times greater than that of the

same amount of water in the sewer. The pipe at no time accumulated silt,

and the force of the water issuing from the end of the pipe kept the

bottom of the sewer perfectly clear for the distance of 12 feet, beyond

which point some bricks and stones were deposited, their quantity

increasing with the distance from the pipe. He caused sand, pieces of

bricks, stones, mud, etc., to be put into the head of the pipe. These were

all carried clear through the pipe, but were deposited in the sewer below

it.

It has been found by experiment that in a flat bottomed sewer, four feet

wide, having a fall of eight inches in one hundred feet, a stream of water

one inch depth, runs very sluggishly, while the same water running through

a 12-inch pipe, laid on the same inclination, forms a rapid stream,

carrying away the heavy silt which was deposited in the broad sewer. As a

consequence of this, it has been found, where pipe sewers are used, even

on almost imperceptible inclinations, that silt is very rarely deposited,

and the waste matters of house and street drainage are carried immediately

to the outlet, instead of remaining to ferment and poison the atmosphere

of the streets through which they pass. In the rare cases of obstruction

which occur, the pipes are very readily cleansed by flushing, at a tithe

of the cost of the constant hand-work required in brick sewers.

For the first six or seven hundred feet at the head of a sewer, a six inch

pipe will remove all of the house and street drainage, even during a heavy

rain fall; and if the inclination is rapid, (say 6 inches to 100 feet,)

the acceleration of the flow, caused partly by the constant additions to

the water, pipes of this size may be used for considerably greater

distances. It has been found by actual trial that it is not necessary to

increase the size of the pipe sewer in exact proportion to the amount of

drainage that it has to convey, as each addition to the flow, where

drainage is admitted from street openings or from houses, accelerates the

velocity of the current, pipes discharging even eight times as much when

received at intervals along the line as they would take from a full head

at the upper end of the sewer.

For a district inhabited by 10,000 persons, a 12-inch pipe would afford a

sufficient outlet, unless the amount of road drainage were unusually

large, and for the largest sewers, pipes of more than 18 inches diameter

are rarely used, these doing the work which, under the old system, was

alloted to a sewer 6 feet high and 3 feet broad.

Of course, the connections by which the drainage of roads is admitted to

these sewers, must be provided with ample silt-basins, which require

frequent cleaning out. In the construction of the sewers, man-holes, built

to the surface, are placed at sufficient intervals, and at all points

where the course of the sewer changes, so that a light placed at one of

these may be seen from the next one;--the contractor being required to lay

the sewer so that the light may be thus seen, a straight line both of

inclination and direction is secured.

The rules which regulate the laying of land-drains apply with equal force

in the making of sewers, that is no part of the pipe should be less

perfect, either in material or construction, than that which lies above

it; and where the inclination becomes less, in approaching the outlet,

silt-basins should be employed, unless the decreased fall is still rapid.

The essential point of difference is, that while land drains may be of

porous material, and should have open joints for the admission of water,

sewer pipes should be of impervious glazed earthen-ware, and their joints

should be securely cemented, to prevent the escape of the sewage, which it

is their province to remove, not to distribute. Drains from houses, which

need not be more than 3 or 4 inches in diameter, should be of the same

material, and should discharge with considerable inclination into the

pipes, being connected with a curving branch, directing the fluid towards

the outlet.

In laying a sewer, it is customary to insert a pipe with a branch opposite

each house, or probable site of a house.

It is important that, in towns not supplied with waterworks, measures be

taken to prevent the admission of too much solid matter in the drainage of

houses. Water being the motive power for the removal of the solid parts of

the sewage, unless there be a public supply which can be turned on at

pleasure, no house should deliver more solid matter than can be carried

away by its refuse waters.

The drainage of houses is one of the chief objects of sewerage.

In addition to the cases cited above of the model lodging houses in

Lambeth Square, and of the buildings at Westminster, it may be well to

refer to a remarkable epidemic which broke out in the Maplewood Young

Ladies' Institute in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1864, which was of so violent

and fatal a character as to elicit a special examination by a committee of

physicians. The family consisted, (pupils, servants, and all,) of one

hundred and twelve persons. Of these, fifty-one were attacked with

well-defined typhoid fever during a period of less than three weeks. Of

this number thirteen died. The following is extracted from the report of

the committee:

"Of the 74 resident pupils heard from, 66 are reported as having had

illness of some kind at the close of the school or soon after. This is a

proportion of 33/37 or nearly 90 per cent. Of the same 74, fifty-one had

typhoid fever, or a proportion of nearly 69 per cent. If all the people in

the town, say 8000, had been affected in an equal proportion, more than

7000 would have been ill during these few weeks, and about 5500 of them

would have had typhoid fever, and of these over 1375 would have died. If

it would be a more just comparison to take the whole family at Maplewood

into the account, estimating the number at 112, fifty-six had typhoid

fever, or 50 per cent., and of these fifty-six, sixteen died, or over 28.5

per cent. These proportions applied to the whole population of 8000, would

give 4000 of typhoid fever in the same time; and of these 1140 would have

died. According to the testimony of the practising physicians of

Pittsfield, the number of cases of typhoid fever, during this period,

aside from those affected by the influences at Maplewood, was small, some

physicians not having had any, others had two or three." These cases

amounted to but eight, none of which terminated fatally.

The whole secret of this case was proven to have been the retention of the

ordure and waste matter from the kitchens and dormitories in privies and

vaults, underneath or immediately adjoining the buildings, the odor from

these having been offensively perceptible, and under certain atmospheric

conditions, having pervaded the whole house.

The committee say "it would be impossible to bring this report within

reasonable limits, were we to discuss the various questions connected with

the origin and propagation of typhoid fever, although various theoretical

views are held as to whether the poison producing the disease is generated

in the bodies of the sick, and communicated from them to the well, or

whether it is generated in sources exterior to the bodies of fever

patients, yet all authorities maintain that a peculiar poison is concerned

in its production.

"Those who hold to the doctrine of contagion admit that, to give such

contagion efficacy in the production of wide spread results, filth or

decaying organic matter is essential; while those who sustain the theory

of non-contagion--the production of the poison from sources without the

bodies of the sick--contend that it has its entire origin in such filth--in

decomposing matter, especially in fermenting sewage, and decaying human

excreta.

"The injurious influence of decomposing azotised matter, in either

predisposing to or exciting severe disease, and particularly typhoid

fever, is universally admitted among high medical authorities."

The committee were of the opinion "that the disease at Maplewood

essentially originated in the state of the privies and drainage of the

place; the high temperature, and other peculiar atmospheric conditions

developing, in the organic material thus exposed, a peculiar poison, which

accumulated in sufficient quantity to pervade the whole premises, and

operated a sufficient length of time to produce disease in young and

susceptible persons. * * * * * * To prevent the poison of typhoid fever

when taken into the system, from producing its legitimate effects, except

by natural agencies, would require as positive a miracle as to restore a

severed head, or arrest the course of the heavenly bodies in their

spheres. * * * The lesson for all, for the future, is too obvious to need

further pointing out; and the committee cannot doubt that they would

hazard little in predicting that the wisdom obtained by this sad

experience, will be of value in the future management of this institution,

and secure precautions which will forever prevent the recurrence of such a

calamity."

The results of all sanitary investigation indicate clearly the vital

necessity for the complete and speedy removal from human habitations of

all matters which, by their decomposition, may tend to the production of

disease, and early measures should be taken by the authorities of all

towns, especially those which are at all compactly built, to secure this

removal. The means by which this is to be effected are to be found in such

a combination of water-supply and sewerage, as will furnish a constant and

copious supply of water to dissolve or hold in suspension the whole of the

waste matters, and will provide a channel through which they may be

carried away from the vicinity of residences. If means for the application

of the sewage water to agricultural lands can be provided, a part if not

the whole of the cost of the works will be thus returned.

Concerning the details of house drainage, it would be impossible to say

much within the limits of this book. The construction of water-closets,

soil-pipes, sinks, etc., are too will be understood to need a special

description here.

The principal point, (aside from the use of pipes instead of brick-sewers

and brick house-drains,) is what is called in London the system of Back

Drainage, where only principal main lines of sewers are laid under the

streets, all collecting sewers passing through the centres of the blocks

in the rear of the houses. Pipes for water supply are disposed in the same

manner, as it is chiefly at the rears of houses that water is required,

and that drainage is most necessary; and this adjustment saves the cost,

the annoyance and the loss of fall, which accompany the use of pipes

running under the entire length of each house. Much tearing up of

pavements, expensive ditching in hard road-ways, and interference with

traffic is avoided, while very much less ditching and piping is necessary,

and repairs are made with very little annoyance to the occupants of

houses. The accompanying diagrams, (Figs. 48-49,) illustrate the

difference between the old system of drainage with brick sewers under the

streets, and brick drains under the houses, and pipe sewers under main

streets and through the back yards of premises. A measurement of these two

methods will show that the lengths of the drains in the new system, are to

those of the old, as 1 to 2-1/4;--the fall of the house drains, (these

having much less length,) would be 10 times more in the one case than in

the other;--the main sewers would have twice the fall, their area would be

only 1/30], and their cubic contents only 1/73.

[Fig. 48 - OLD STYLE HOUSE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.]

Fig. 48 - OLD STYLE HOUSE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.

Experience in England has shown that if the whole cost of water supply and

pipe sewers is, with its interest, divided over a period of thirty

years,--so that at the end of that time it should all be repaid,--the annual

charge would not be greater than the cost of keeping house-drains and

cess-pools pools clean. The General Board of Health state that "the

expense of cleansing the brick house-drains and cess-pools for four or

five years, would pay the expense of properly constructed water-closets

and pipe-drains, for the greater number of old premises."

[Fig. 49 - MODERN HOUSE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.]

Fig. 49 - MODERN HOUSE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.

One of the reports of this body, which has added more than any other

organization to the world's knowledge on these subjects, closes with the

following:

"Conclusions obtained as to house drainage, and the sewerage and cleansing

of the sites of towns."

"That no population living amidst impurities, arising from the putrid

emanations from cess-pools, drains and sewers of deposit, can be healthy

or free from the attacks of devastating epidemics.

"That as a primary condition of salubrity, no ordure and town refuse can

be permitted to remain beneath or near habitations.

"That by no means can remedial operations be so conveniently,

economically, inoffensively, and quickly effected as by the removal of all

such refuse dissolved or suspended in water.

"That it has been subsequently proved by the operation of draining houses

with tubular drains, in upwards of 19,000 cases, and by the trial of more

than 200 miles of pipe sewers, that the practice of constructing large

brick or stone sewers for general town drainage, which detain matters

passing into them in suspension in water, which accumulate deposit, and

which are made large enough for men to enter them, and remove the deposit

by hand labor, without reference to the area to be drained, has been in

ignorance, neglect or perversion of the above recited principles.

"That while sewers so constructed are productive of great injury to the

public health, by the diffusion into houses and streets of the noxious

products of the decomposing matters contained in them, they are wasteful

from the increased expense of their construction and repair, and from the

cost of ineffectual efforts to keep them free from deposit.

"That the house-drains, made as they have heretofore been, of absorbent

brick or stone, besides detaining substances in suspension, accumulating

foul deposit, and being so permeable as to permit the escape of the liquid

and gaseous matters, are also false in principle and wasteful in the

expense of construction, cleansing and repair.

"That it results from the experience developed in these inquiries, that

improved tubular house-drains and sewers of the proper sizes,

inclinations, and material, detain and accumulate no deposit, emit no

offensive smells, and require no additional supplies of water to keep them

clear.

"That the offensive smells proceeding from any works intended for house or

town drainage, indicate the fact of the detention and decomposition of

ordure, and afford decisive evidence of mal-construction or of ignorant or

defective arrangement.

"That the method of removing refuse in suspension in water by properly

combined works, is much better than that of collecting it in pits or

cess-pools near or underneath houses, emptying it by hand labor, and

removing it by carts.

"That it is important for the sake of economy, as well as for the health

of the population, that the practice of the removal of refuse in

suspension in water, and by combined works, should be applied to all

houses, especially those occupied by the poorer classes."

Later investigations of the subject have established two general

conclusions applicable to the subject, namely, that:

"_In towns all offensive smells from the decomposition of animal and

vegetable matter, indicate the generation and presence of the causes of

insalubrity and of preventable disease, at the same time that they prove

defective local administration;_ and correlatively, that:

"_In rural districts all continuous offensive smells from animal and

vegetable decomposition, indicate preventable loss of fertilizing matter,

loss of money, and bad husbandry._"

The principles herein set forth, whether relating to sanitary improvement,

to convenience and decency of living, or to the use of waste matters of

houses in agricultural improvement, are no less applicable in America than

elsewhere; and the more general adoption of improved house drainage and

sewerage, and of the use of sewage matters in agriculture, would add to

the health and prosperity of its people, and would indicate a great

advance in civilization.

INDEX

Absorption and Filtration, 26-39

Angles to be, as far as possible, avoided, 99

Baking of clay soils by evaporation, 30

Barley, 168

Bartlett, Dr., quotation from, 211

Base-line, 145

Boning-rods, (with illustrations), 125-126

Central Park, 74-86

Cess-pools, cause of epidemics, 237

Chadwick, Dr., quotation from, 213

Clay Soils, 75

Clay Soils, Baking of by Evaporation, 30

Clay Soils, Made mellow by draining, 29-30

Clay Soils, Shrinkage of, 28

Clinometer, (illustration), 56

Collars, 84

Connections, 132

Connections (illustrations), 134

Corn, Indian, 162

Cost of draining, 150-153-158

Cotton, 169

Covering and filling, cost of, 157

Covering for the joints of tiles, 132

Covering tiles, 136

Datum-line, 52-104

Denton, J. Bailey, quotation from, 115

Distance between drains, 73

Diseases, malarial, 208

Ditches, cost of digging, 154

Draining, amateur, 47

Draining, indications of the need of, 9

Draining, its effect on farming, 171

Draining, tiles, how made, 174

Draining, tiles, materials for, 174

Draining, tools, (illustration), 114

Draining, what it costs, 150

Draining, will it pay? 161

Draining, when necessary, 7

Drains, Cubic yards of excavation in, 155

Drains, and drained land, care of, 144

Drains, lateral, should be parallel, 99

Drains, how they act, 21

Drains, obstructed, how cleared, 146

Drains, old, how formed, 146

Drains, rate of fall, 90

Drains, their action in the Central Park, 86

Drained Soil, capacity for receiving water of rains, 23

Drainage of dwelling houses, 232

Drought, 37-40

Economy versus cheapness, 152

Engineering and Superintendence, cost of, 153

Engineers, draining, 47

Epidemic at Maplewood Young Ladies' Institute, 232

Epidemics caused by cess-pools, 237

Epidemics caused by ordure beneath houses, 238

Evaporation, 33

Evaporation, amount of, 34

Evaporation, effect on temperature, 33-35

Evaporation, heat lost during, 34

Fall, rate of in drains, 77

Fallacies in draining, 62

Fen-lands of England, 193

Fever and Ague, 208

Fever and Ague, exact cause unknown, 210

Filtration and absorption, 26-39

Filling, illustration of--ditch with, furrows, 141

Filling, maul for ramming, (illustration), 138

Filling, scraper for, (illustration), 140

Filling, the ditches, 136

Finishing tools, (illustration), 123

Finishing scoop, 123

Finishing scoop, how used, 126

Foot-pick, (illustration), 156

Four-foot drains, 70

Germination of seeds, 13

Gisborne, Thos., quotations from, 28-31-35-47-66-78-84-93-127

Grading, 124

Grading, cost of, 156

Grade stakes, 103

Grades, computation for, 109

Grades, how to establish, 107

Gratings in Silt-basins, 148

Hackensack meadows, 203

Hay, 168

Heat, amount of lost during evaporation, 34

House drainage, 220

House drainage, back drain system, 235

House drainage bad, indicated by offensive smells, 239

Indications of the need of draining, 9

Injury from standing water in the subsoil, 15

Impervious soil, 31

John Johnson, 164

Land requiring draining, 7

Lateral drains, 61-97

Lateral drains, direction of, 75

Lateral drains, shallow, how connected with deep main, 111

La Roche, quotations from, 213

Levels, how to take for drains, 104

Levelling instrument, (illustration), 52

Levelling rod, (illustration), 53

Location of main drains, 58

Madden, Dr., quotation from, 12

Main drain, 96

Main drain, location of, 58

Malaria 211

Malaria borne by winds, 212-214-219

Malaria conclusions of the General Board of Health of England, 220

Malaria facts concerning, 212

Malaria spread of, prevented by hills, 218

Malarial diseases, evidence of the effect of drainage in removing,

216

Malarial diseases, reports to the British Parliament concerning, 216

Malarial diseases, rheumatism and tic-douloureux, 219

Malarious localities, effects of residence in, 214

Maps, amending the, 142

Maps, description of, (illustrations), 49-50-51-54-98

Maps, importance of, 48

Marking the lines, 116

Mechi, Alderman, quotations from, 29-71

Mellowness or Porosity, 41

Measuring staff (illustration), 124

Metcalf, Dr., quotation from, 211

Movement of water in the ground, 32-64-65

Mortality, rate of reduced by improved house drainage, 222

Neuralgia, 208

New York, suggestions for sewer outlets, 227

Oats, 168

Obstructions, 90

Opening ditches, 122

Outlet, 95

Outlet, how made (with illustrations), 118

Outlet, location of, 58

Parkes, Josiah, quotations from, 36-71-88-178

Porosity, 41

Profile of a drain, (illustration), 106

Profit, instances of, 167-170

Production, amount of increase of, necessary to make draining

profitable, 162

Puddling, 8-31-148

Pumping, 206

Pumping, London sewage, 226

Rock, sounding for, 55

Rock, how to collect water from, 60

Roots, depth to which they reach, 40-67

Roots, as a cause of obstruction, 93-148

Rye, 168

Salisbury's, Dr., theory concerning malarious fever, 214

Salt marshes, catch water drains, 201

Salt marshes, construction of embankment, 196

Salt marshes, dyke and ditch, (illustration), 197

Salt marshes, exclusion of the sea, 195

Salt marshes, how formed, 194

Salt marshes, inundations from upland , 201

Salt marshes, location and size of embankment, 195

Salt marshes, management of creeks, 198-200

Salt marshes, management of rivers, 201

Salt marshes, muskrats, 199

Salt marshes, outlet for under drainage, 204-205

Salt marshes, pumping, 206

Salt marshes, rain-fall and filtration, 204

Salt marshes, valve-gates and sluices, 204

Scraper for filling ditches, (illustration), 140

Seeds, germination of, 13

Sewage, use of in agriculture, 226

Sewers, defects of large, 228-238

Sewers, description of the London outfall, 225

Sewers, efficacy of glazed earthern pipes, 229-230-238

Sewers, experiments of Hale on pipe sewers, 230

Sewers, imperfect, 224

Sewers, of brick, defective, 228-235-238

Sewerage, conclusions of General Board of Health, 237

Sewerage, of New York, 227

Shrinkage of clay soils, 28

Sides of ditches in soft land, how braced, (illustration), 124

Silt, 90

Silt, basins, (illustrations), 121-135-136

Silt, basins, how made, 120

Silt, basins, 91-96-134

Silt, in tiles, 144

Sources of the water in the soil, 10

Springs, how to collect the water of, 59-60-141

Staking out the lines, 102

Staten Island, 209

Steam pumps, 206

Stone and tile drains, 142

Sub-mains, 59

Teams used in opening ditches, 122

Temperature, 35-66

Temperature, affected by draining, 36

Tile laying, 127

Tile-pick, (illustration), 131

Tiles, and tile laying, cost of, 157

Tiles, capacity for discharging water, 84-86

Tiles, double-style, 80

Tiles, drain--essential characteristics, 22

Tiles, how made, 174

Tiles, horse-shoe, 78

Tiles, kinds and sizes, 77

Tiles, ordering, 82-101

Tiles, objections to large sizes, 147

Tiles, pipes and collars, 81

Tiles, rapidity with which they receive water, 78

Tiles, sizes of, 81

Tiles, sizes required for different areas, 88

Tiles, should be well formed, 83

Tiles, sole, 80

Tiles, trimming and perforating, 131

Tile making, material for, 174

Tile preparation of earths, 176

Tile rolling and drying, 182

Tile washing the clay, 177

Tobacco, 169

Tools required, 113

Town drainage, conclusions of General Board of Health, 237

Undrained land not reliable for cultivation, 18

Vermin as a cause of obstruction, 93

Water, depth of, 66-70

Water, in the sub-soil, injurious effects of, 15

Water, movement of in the ground, 32-64-65

Water, objections to excess of, 11

Water, the best vehicle for removing ordure, 238

Water, when beneficial and when injurious, 24

Water-courses and brooks, how treated during draining operations,

117

Water-table, 22

Wind-mills, 206

Wheat, 164-167

DRAINING ENGINEERING.

The undersigned is prepared to assume the personal direction of works of

Agricultural and Town Drainage, and Water Supply, in any part of the

country; or to send advice and information, by letter, for the guidance of

others.

Persons sending maps of their land, with contour lines, (see Fig. 8, page

54,) accompanied by such information as can be given in writing, will be

furnished with explicit instructions concerning the arrangement and depth

of the drains required; kinds and sizes of tiles to be used; management of

the work, etc., etc.

The lines of drains will be laid down, on the maps, for the direction of

local engineers,--and, when required, the grades will be calculated and

noted at the positions of the stakes.

For particulars, address

GEO. E. WARING, JR.,

P. O. Box 290,

NEWPORT, R. I.

THE SMALL FRUIT CULTURIST.

BY

ANDREW S. FULLER.

_Beautifully Illustrated._

We have heretofore had no work especially devoted to small fruits, and

certainly no treatises anywhere that give the information contained in

this. It is to the advantage of special works that the author can say all

that he has to say on any subject, and not be restricted as to space, as

he must be in those works that cover the culture of all fruits--great and

small.

This book covers the whole ground of Propagating Small Fruits, their

Culture, Varieties, Packing for Market, etc. While very full on the other

fruits, the Currants and Raspberries have been more carefully elaborated

than ever before, and in this important part of his book, the author has

had the invaluable counsel of Charles Downing. The chapter on gathering

and packing the fruit is a valuable one, and in it are figured all the

baskets and boxes now in common use. The book is very finely and

thoroughly illustrated, and makes an admirable companion to the Grape

Culturist, by the same author.

CONTENTS:

CHAP. I. BARBERRY.

CHAP. II. STRAWBERRY.

CHAP. III. RASPBERRY.

CHAP. IV. BLACKBERRY.

CHAP. V. DWARF CHERRY.

CHAP. VI. CURRANT.

CHAP. VII. GOOSEBERRY.

CHAP. VIII. CORNELIAN CHERRY.

CHAP. IX. CRANBERRY.

CHAP. X. HUCKLEBERRY.

CHAP. XI. SHEPERDIA.

CHAP. XII. PREPARATION FOR GATHERING FRUIT.

Sent post-paid. Price $1.50.

ORANGE JUDD & CO., 245 Broadway, New-York.

THE GRAPE CULTURIST

BY

ANDREW S. FULLER.

NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION.

THE STANDARD WORK

ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE HARDY GRAPE, AS IT NOT ONLY DISCUSSES

PRINCIPLES, BUT

*ILLUSTRATES PRACTICE*.

Every thing is made perfectly plain, and its teachings may be followed

upon.

ONE VINE OR A VINEYARD

_The following are some of the topics that are treated:_

GROWING NEW VARIETIES FROM SEED.

PROPAGATION BY SINGLE BUDS OR EYES.

PROPAGATING HOUSES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT FULLY DESCRIBED.

HOW TO GROW.

CUTTINGS IN OPEN AIR, AND HOW TO MAKE LAYERS.

GRAFTING THE GRAPE--A SIMPLE AND SUCCESSFUL METHOD.

HYBRIDIZING AND CROSSING--MODE OF OPERATION.

SOIL AND SITUATION--PLANTING AND CULTIVATION.

PRUNING, TRAINING, AND TRELLISES--ALL THE SYSTEMS EXPLAINED.

GARDEN CULTURE--HOW TO GROW VINES IN A DOOR-YARD.

INSECTS, MILDEW, SUN-SCALD, AND OTHER TROUBLES.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VALUABLE AND THE DISCARDED VARIETIES.

Sent post-paid. Price $1.50.

Orange Judd & Co., 245 Broadway.

AMERICAN POMOLOGY

APPLES.

By Doct. JOHN A. WARDER,

PRESIDENT OHIO POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY; VICE-PRESIDENT AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL

SOCIETY.

293 ILLUSTRATIONS.

This volume has about 750 pages, the first 375 of which are devoted to the

discussion of the general subjects of propagation, nursery culture,

selection and planting, cultivation of orchards, care of fruit, insects,

and the like; the remainder is occupied with descriptions of apples. With

the richness of material at hand, the trouble was to decide what to leave

out. It will be found that while the old and standard varieties are not

neglected, the new and promising sorts, especially those of the South and

West, have prominence. A list of selections for different localities by

eminent orchardists is a valuable portion of the volume, while the

Analytical Index or _Catalogue Raisonne_, as the French would say, is the

most extended American fruit list ever published, and gives evidence of a

fearful amount of labor.

CONTENTS.

Chapter I.--INTRODUCTORY.