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FARM DRAINAGE.
THE
PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES, AND EFFECTS
OF
DRAINING LAND
WITH STONES, WOOD, PLOWS, AND OPEN DITCHES,
AND ESPECIALLY WITH TILES;
INCLUDING
TABLES OF RAIN-FALL,
EVAPORATION, FILTRATION, EXCAVATION, CAPACITY OF PIPES; COST AND NUMBER
TO THE ACRE, OF TILES, &C., &C.,
AND MORE THAN 100 ILLUSTRATIONS.
BY
HENRY F. FRENCH.
"READ, not to contradict and to confute, nor to believe and take
for granted, but to weigh and consider."--BACON.
"The first Farmer was the first man, and all nobility rests on the
possession and use of land."--EMERSON.
NEW YORK:
C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO.,
AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHERS, No. 25 PARK ROW
1860.
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859,
BY HENRY F. FRENCH,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and
for the Southern District of New York.
TO
The Honorable Simon Brown,
of MASSACHUSETTS,
A LOVER OF AGRICULTURE, AND A PROGRESSIVE FARMER,
WHOSE WORDS AND WORKS ARE SO WELL DEVOTED TO IMPROVE THE CONDITION
OF THOSE WHO CULTIVATE THE EARTH,
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED, AS A TESTIMONIAL OF RESPECT AND PERSONAL ESTEEM,
BY HIS FRIEND AND BROTHER,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
The Agriculture of America has seemed to me to demand some light upon
the subject of Drainage; some work, which, with an exposition of the
various theories, should give the simplest details of the practice, of
draining land. This treatise is an attempt to answer that demand, and to
give to the farmers of our country, at the same time, enough of
scientific principles to satisfy intelligent inquiry, and plain and full
directions for executing work in the field, according to the best known
rules. It has been my endeavor to show what lands in America require
drainage, and how to drain them best, at least expense; to explain how
the theories and the practice of the Old World require modification for
the cheaper lands, the dearer labor, and the various climate of the New;
and, finally, to suggest how, through improved implements and processes,
the inventive genius of our country may make the brain assist and
relieve the labor of the hand.
With some hope that my humble labors, in a field so broad, may not have
entirely failed of their object, this work is offered to the attention
of American farmers.
H. F. F.
THE PINES, EXETER, N. H., March, 1859.
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.
PAGE.
Elkington's Mode 32, 33
Ditch and Bore-hole 35
Keythorpe System 42
Theory of Springs 80-84
Plug Drainage 106, 107
Mole Plow 108
Wedge Drains 111
Shoulder Drains 111
Larch Tube 112
Pole Drain 113
Peat Tiles and Tool 113
Stone Drains 115-117
Draining Bricks 121
Round Pipes 122
Horse-shoe Tile 124
Sole-Tile 125
Pipes and Collar 126
Flat-bottomed Pipe-Tile 129
Drains across Slope 150
Draining Irregular Strata 162
Relief Drains 162
Small Outlet 178
Large Outlet 179, 180
Outlet, with Flap 181
Well, with Silt Basin 186
Peep-hole 188
Spring in Drained Field 189
Main of Two Tiles 194
Main of Several Tiles 194
Plan of Drained Field 195
Junction of Drains 196
Branch Pipe 197
Daines' Tile Machine 209
Pratt's Tile Machine 210
Tiles, laid well and ill 229
Square and Plumb-Level 229
Spirit Level 230
Staff and Target 231
Span, or A Level 232
Grading Trenches by Lines 233
Challoner's Level 235
Drain Spades 235
Spade with Spur 236
Common Shovel and Spade 236
Long-handled Round Shovel 237
Shovel Scoop 237
Irish Spade 238
Birmingham Spades 240
Narrow Spades 242
English Bottoming Tools 243
Drawing and Pushing Scoops 244
Pipe-Layer 244
Pipe-Laying 245
Pick-axes 245
Drain Gauge 246
Elkington's Auger 246
Fowler's Drain Plow 247
Pratt's Ditcher 249
Paul's Ditcher 250
Germination 277, 278
Land before Drainage and After 286
Heat in Wet Land 288
Cracking of Clays 325
Drainage of Cellar 355
Drainage of Barn Cellar 359
Plan of Rand's Drainage 372
" H. F. French's Drainage 376
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Why this Treatise does not contain all Knowledge.--Attention of
Scientific Men attracted to Drainage.--Lieutenant Maury's
Suggestions.--Ralph Waldo Emerson's Views.--Opinions of J. H.
Klippart, Esq.; of Professor Mapes; B. P. Johnson, Esq.; Governor
Wright, Mr. Custis, &c.--Prejudice against what is
English.--Acknowledgements to our Friends at Home and Abroad.--The
Wants of our Farmers.
CHAPTER II.
HISTORY OF THE ART OF DRAINING.
Draining as old as the Deluge.--Roman Authors.--Walter Bligh in
1650.--No thorough drainage till Smith, of Deanston.--No mention of
Tiles in the "Compleat Body of Husbandry," 1758.--Tiles found 100
years old.--Elkington's System.--Johnstone's Puns and
Peripatetics.--Draining Springs.--Bletonism, or the Faculty of
Perceiving Subterranean Water.--Deanston System.--Views of Mr.
Parkes.--Keythorpe System.--Wharncliffe System.--Introduction of
Tiles into America.--John Johnston, and Mr. Delafield, of New York.
CHAPTER III.
RAIN, EVAPORATION AND FILTRATION.
Fertilizing Substances in Rain Water.--Amount of Rain Fall in
United States; in England.--Tables of Rain Fall.--Number of Rainy
Days, and Quantity of Rain each Month.--Snow, how Computed as
Water.--Proportion of Rain Evaporated.--What Quantity of Water Dry
Soil will Hold.--Dew Point.--How Evaporation Cools
Bodies.--Artificial Heat Underground.--Tables of Filtration and
Evaporation.
CHAPTER IV.
DRAINAGE OF HIGH LANDS--WHAT LANDS REQUIRE DRAINAGE.
What is High Land?--Accidents to Crops from Water.--Do Lands need
Drainage in America?--Springs.--Theory of Moisture, with
Illustrations.--Water of Pressure.--Legal Rights as to Draining our
Neighbor's Wells and Land.--What Lands require Drainage?--Horace
Greeley's Opinion.--Drainage more Necessary in America than in
England; Indications of too much Moisture.--Will Drainage Pay?
CHAPTER V.
VARIOUS METHODS OF DRAINAGE.
Open Ditches.--Slope of Banks.--Brush Drains.--Ridge and
Furrow.--Plug-Draining.--Mole-Draining.--Mole-Plow.--Wedge and
Shoulder Drains.--Larch Tubes.--Drains of Fence Rails, and
Poles.--Peat Tiles.--Stone Drains Injured by Moles.--Downing's
Giraffes.--Illustrations of Various Kinds of Stone Drains.
CHAPTER VI.
DRAINAGE WITH TILES.
What are Drain-Tiles?--Forms of Tiles.--Pipes.--Horse-shoe
Tiles.--Sole-Tiles.--Form of Water-Passage.--Collars and their
Use.--Size of Pipes.--Velocity.--Friction.--Discharge of Water
through Pipes.--Tables of Capacity.--How Water enters Tiles.--Deep
Drains run soonest and longest.--Pressure of Water on
Pipes.--Durability of Tile Drains.--Drain-Bricks 100 years old.
CHAPTER VII.
DIRECTION, DISTANCE AND DEPTH OF DRAINS.
DIRECTION OF DRAINS.--Whence comes the Water?--Inclination of
Strata.--Drains across the Slope let Water out as well as Receive
it.--Defence against Water from Higher Land.--Open
Ditches.--Headers.--Silt-basins.
DISTANCE OF DRAINS.--Depends on Soil, Depth, Climate, Prices,
System.--Conclusions as to Distance.
DEPTH OF DRAINS.--Greatly Increases Cost.--Shallow Drains first
tried in England.--10,000 Miles of Shallow Drains laid in Scotland
by way of Education.--Drains must be below Subsoil plow, and
Frost.--Effect of Frost on Tiles and Aqueducts.
CHAPTER VIII.
ARRANGEMENT OF DRAINS.
Necessity of System.--What Fall is Necessary.--American
Examples.--Outlets.--Wells and Relief-Pipes.--Peep-holes.--How to
secure Outlets.--Gate to Exclude Back-Water.--Gratings and Screens
to keep out Frogs, Snakes, Moles, &c.--Mains, Submains, and Minors,
how placed.--Capacity of Pipes.--Mains of Two Tiles.--Junction of
Drains.--Effect of Curves and Angles on Currents.--Branch
Pipes.--Draining into Wells or Swallow Holes.--Letter from Mr.
Denton.
CHAPTER IX.
THE COST OF TILES--TILE MACHINES.
Prices far too high; Albany prices.--Length of Tiles.--Cost in
Suffolk Co., England.--Waller's Machine.--Williams' Machine.--Cost
of Tiles compared with Bricks.--Mr. Denton's Estimate of
Cost.--Other Estimates.--Two-inch Tiles can be Made as Cheaply as
Bricks.--Process of Rolling Tiles.--Tile Machines.--Descriptions of
Daines'.--Pratt & Bro.'s.
CHAPTER X.
THE COST OF DRAINAGE.
Draining no more expensive than Fencing.--Engineering.--Guessing
not accurate enough.--Slight Fall sufficient.--Instances.--Two
Inches to One-Thousand Feet.--Cost of Excavation and
Filling.--Narrow Tools required.--Tables of Cubic contents of
Drains.--Cost of Drains on our own Farm.--Cost of Tiles.--Weight
and Freight of Tiles.--Cost of Outlets.--Cost of Collars.--Smaller
Tiles used with Collars.--Number of Tiles to the Acre, with
Tables.--Length of Tiles varies.--Number of Rods to the Acre at
different Distances.--Final Estimate of Cost.--Comparative Cost of
Tile-Drains and Stone-Drains.
CHAPTER XI.
DRAINING IMPLEMENTS.
Unreasonable Expectations about Draining Tools.--Levelling
Instruments.--Guessing not Accurate.--Level by a Square.--Spirit
Level.--Span, or A Level.--Grading by
Lines.--Boning-rod.--Challoner's Drain Level.--Spades and
Shovels.--Long-handled Shovel.--Irish Spade, description and
cut.--Bottoming Tools.--Narrow Spades.--English Bottoming
Tools.--Pipe-layer.--Pipe-laying Illustrated.--Pick-axes.--Drain
Gauge.--Drain Plows, and Ditch-Diggers.--Fowler's Drain
Plow.--Pratt's Ditch-Digger.--McEwan's Drain Plow.--Routt's Drain
Plow.
CHAPTER XII.
PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR OPENING DRAINS AND LAYING TILES.
Begin at the Outlet.--Use of Plows.--Leveling the Bottom.--Where to
begin to lay Pipes.--Mode of Procedure.--Covering Pipes.--Securing
Joints.--Filling.--Securing Outlets.--Plans.
CHAPTER XIII.
EFFECTS OF DRAINAGE UPON THE CONDITION OF THE SOIL.
Drainage deepens the Soil, and gives the roots a larger
pasture.--Cobbett's Lucerne 30 feet deep.--Mechi's Parsnips 13 feet
long!--Drainage promotes Pulverization.--Prevents
Surface-Washing.--Lengthens the Season.--Prevents Freezing
out.--Dispenses with Open Ditches.--Saves 25 per cent. of
Labor.--Promotes absorption of Fertilizing Substances from the
Air.--Supplies Air to the Roots.--Drains run before Rain; so do
some Springs.--Drainage warms the Soil.--Corn sprouts at 55 deg.; Rye
on Ice.--Cold from Evaporation.--Heat will not pass downward in
Water.--Count Rumford's Experiments with Hot Water on
Ice.--Aeration of Soil by Drains.
CHAPTER XIV.
DRAINAGE ADAPTS THE SOIL TO GERMINATION AND VEGETATION.
Process of Germination.--Two Classes of Pores in Soils, illustrated
by cuts.--Too much Water excludes Air, reduces Temperature.--How
much Air the Soil Contains.--Drainage Improves the Quality of
Crops.--Drainage prevents Drought.--Drained Soils hold most
Water.--Allow Roots to go Deep.--Various Facts.
CHAPTER XV.
TEMPERATURE AS AFFECTED BY DRAINAGE.
Drainage Warms the Soil in Spring.--Heat cannot go down in Wet
Land.--Drainage causes greater Deposit of Dew in Summer.--Dew warms
Plants in Night, Cools them in the Morning Sun.--Drainage varies
Temperature by Lessening Evaporation.--What is Evaporation.--How it
produces Cold.--Drained Land Freezes Deepest, but Thaws Soonest,
and the Reasons.
CHAPTER XVI.
POWER OF SOILS TO ABSORB AND RETAIN MOISTURE.
Why does not Drainage make the Land too Dry?--Adhesive
Attraction.--The Finest Soils exert most Attraction.--How much
Water different Soils hold by Attraction.--Capillary Attraction,
illustrated.--Power to Imbibe Moisture from the Air.--Weight
Absorbed by 1,000 lbs. in 12 Hours.--Dew, Cause of.--Dew
Point.--Cause of Frost.--Why Covering Plants Protects from
Frost.--Dew Imparts Warmth.--Idea that the Moon Promotes
Putrefaction.--Quantity of Dew.
CHAPTER XVII.
INJURY OF LAND BY DRAINAGE.
Most Land cannot be Over-drained.--Nature a Deep
drainer.--Over-draining of Peaty Soils.--Lincolnshire Fens. Visit
to them in 1857.--56 Bushels of Wheat to the Acre.--Wet Meadows
Subside by Drainage.--Conclusions.
CHAPTER XVIII.
OBSTRUCTION OF DRAINS.
Tiles will fill up, unless well laid.--Obstruction by Sand or
Silt.--Obstructions at the Outlet from Frogs, Moles, Action of
Frost, and Cattle.--Obstruction by Roots.--Willow, Ash, &c., Trees
capricious.--Roots enter Perennial Streams.--Obstruction by
Mangold Wurtzel.--Obstruction by Per-Oxide of Iron.--How
Prevented.--Obstructions by the Joints Filling.--No Danger with
Two-Inch Pipes.--Water through the Pores.--Collars.--How to Detect
Obstructions.
CHAPTER XIX.
DRAINAGE OF STIFF CLAYS.
Clay not impervious, or it could not be wet and dried.--Puddling,
what is.--Water will stand over Drains on Puddled Soil.--Cracking
of Clays by Drying.--Drained Clays improve by time.--Passage of
Water through Clay makes it permeable.--Experiment by Mr.
Pettibone, of Vermont.--Pressure of Water in Saturated Soil.
CHAPTER XX.
EFFECTS OF DRAINAGE ON STREAMS AND RIVERS.
Drainage Hastens the Supply to the Streams, and thus creates
Freshets.--Effect of Drainage on Meadows below; on Water
Privileges.--Conflict of Manufacturing and Agricultural
Interests.--English Opinions and Facts.--Uses of Drainage
Water.--Irrigation.--Drainage Water for Stock.--How used by Mr.
Mechi.
CHAPTER XXI.
LEGISLATION--DRAINAGE COMPANIES.
England protects her Farmers.--Meadows ruined by Corporation
dams.--Old Mills often Nuisances.--Factory Reservoirs.--Flowage
extends above level of Dam.--Rye and Derwent Drainage.--Give Steam
for Water-Power.--Right to Drain through land of others.--Right to
natural flow of Water.--Laws of Mass.--Right to Flow; why not to
Drain?--Land-drainage Companies in England.--Lincolnshire
Fens.--Government Loans for Drainage.
CHAPTER XXII.
DRAINAGE OF CELLARS.
Wet Cellars Unhealthful.--Importance of Cellars in New England.--A
Glance at the Garret, by way of Contrast.--Necessity of
Drains.--Sketch of an Inundated Cellar.--Tiles best for
Drains.--Best Plan of Cellar Drain; Illustration.--Cementing will
not do.--Drainage of Barn Cellars.--Uses of them.--Actual Drainage
of a very Bad Cellar described.--Drains Outside and Inside;
Illustration.
CHAPTER XXIII.
DRAINAGE OF SWAMPS.
Vast Extent of Swamp Lands in the United States.--Their
Soil.--Sources of their Moisture.--How to Drain them.--The Soil
Subsides by Draining.--Catch-water Drains.--Springs.--Mr. Ruffin's
Drainage in Virginia.--Is there Danger of Over-draining?
CHAPTER XXIV.
AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS IN DRAINAGE--DRAINAGE IN IRELAND.
Statement of B. F. Nourse, of Maine.--Statement of Shedd and Edson,
of Mass.--Statement of H. F. French, of New Hampshire.--Letter of
Wm. Boyle, Albert Model Farm, Glasnevin, Ireland.
INDEX.
FARM DRAINAGE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Why this Treatise does not contain all Knowledge.--Attention of
Scientific Men attracted to Drainage.--Lieutenant Maury's
Suggestions.--Ralph Waldo Emerson's Views.--Opinions of J. H.
Klippart, Esq.; of Professor Mapes; B. P. Johnston, Esq.; Governor
Wright, Mr. Custis, &c.--Prejudice against what is
English.--Acknowledgements to our Friends at Home and Abroad.--The
Wants of our Farmers.
A Book upon Farm Drainage! What can a person find on such a subject to
write a book about? A friend suggests, that in order to treat any one
subject fully, it is necessary to know everything and speak of
everything, because all knowledge is in some measure connected.
With an earnest endeavor to clip the wings of imagination, and to keep
not only on the earth, but to burrow, like a mole or a sub-soiler, _in_
it, with a painful apprehension lest some technical term in Chemistry or
Philosophy should falsely indicate that we make pretensions to the
character of a scientific farmer, or some old phrase of law-Latin should
betray that we know something besides agriculture, and so, are not
worthy of the confidence of practical men, we have, nevertheless, by
some means, got together more than a bookfull of matter upon our
subject.
Our publisher says our book must be so large, and no larger--and we all
know that an author is but as a grasshopper in the hands of his
publisher, and ought to be very thankful to be allowed to publish his
book at all. So we have only to say, that if there is any chapter in
this book not sufficiently elaborate, or any subject akin to that of
drainage, that ought to have been embraced in our plan and is not, it is
because we have not space for further expansion. The reader has our
heartfelt sympathy, if it should happen that the very topic which most
interests him, is entirely omitted, or imperfectly treated; and we can
only advise him to write a book himself, by way of showing proper
resentment, and put into it everything that everybody desires most to
know.
A book that shall contain all that we do _not_ know on the subject of
drainage, would be a valuable acquisition to agricultural literature,
and we bespeak an early copy of it when published.
IRRIGATION is a subject closely connected with drainage, and, although
it would require a volume of equal size with this to lay it properly
before the American public, who know so little of water-meadows and
liquid-manuring, and even of the artificial application of water to land
in any way, we feel called upon for an apology for its omission.
Lieutenant Maury, whose name does honor to his nation over all the
civilized world, and on whom the blessings of every navigator upon the
great waters, are constantly showered, in a letter which we had the
honor recently to receive from him, thus speaks of this subject:
"I was writing to a friend some months ago upon the subject of drainage
in this country, and I am pleased to infer from your letter, that our
opinions are somewhat similar. The climate of England is much more moist
than this, though the amount of rain in many parts of this country, is
much greater than the amount of rain there. It drizzles there more than
it does here. Owing to the high dew point in England, but a small
portion only--that is, comparatively small--of the rain that falls can
be evaporated again; consequently, it remains in the soil until it is
drained off. Here, on the other hand, the clouds pour it down, and the
sun sucks it up right away, so that the perfection of drainage for this
country would be the very reverse, almost, of the drainage in England.
If, instead of leading the water off into the water-veins and streams of
the country, as is there done, we could collect it in pools on the farm,
so as to be used in time of drought for irrigation, then your system of
drainage would be worth untold wealth. Of course, in low grounds, and
all places where the atmosphere does not afford sufficient drainage by
evaporation, the English plan will do very well, and much good may be
done by a treatise which shall enable owners to reclaim or improve such
places."
Indeed, the importance of this subject of drainage, seems all at once to
have found universal acknowledgement throughout our country, not only
from agriculturists, but from philosophers and men of general science.
Emerson, whose eagle glance, piercing beyond the sight of other men,
recognizes in so-called accidental heroes the "Representative men" of
the ages, and in what to others seem but caprices and conventionalisms,
the "Traits" of a nation, yet never overlooks the practical and
every-day wants of man, in a recent address at Concord, Mass., the place
of his residence, thus characteristically alludes to our subject:
"Concord is one of the oldest towns in the country--far on now in its
third century. The Select-men have once in five years perambulated its
bounds, and yet, in this year, a very large quantity of land has been
discovered and added to the agricultural land, and without a murmur of
complaint from any neighbor. By drainage, we have gone to the subsoil,
and we have a Concord under Concord, a Middlesex under Middlesex, and a
basement-story of Massachusetts more valuable than all the
superstructure. Tiles are political economists. They are so many
Young-Americans announcing a better era, and a day of fat things."
John H. Klippart, Esq., the learned Secretary of the Ohio Board of
Agriculture, expresses his opinion upon the importance of our subject in
his own State, in this emphatic language:
"The agriculture of Ohio can make no farther marked progress until a
good system of under-drainage has been adopted."
A writer in the _Country Gentleman_, from Ashtabula County, Ohio,
says:--"One of two things must be done by us here. Clay predominates in
our soil, and we must under-drain our land, or sell and move west."
Professor Mapes, of New York, under date of January 17, 1859, says of
under-draining:
"I do not believe that farming can be pursued with full profit without
it. It would seem to be no longer a question. The experience of England,
in the absence of all other proof, would be sufficient to show that
capital may be invested more safely in under-draining, than in any other
way; for, after the expenditure of many millions by English farmers in
this way, it has been clearly proved that their increased profit,
arising from this cause alone, is sufficient to pay the total expense in
full, with interest, within twenty years, thus leaving their farms
increased permanently to the amount of the total cost, while the income
is augmented in a still greater ratio. It is quite doubtful whether
England could at this time sustain her increased population, if it were
not for her system of thorough-drainage. In my own practice, the result
has been such as to convince me of its advantages, and I should be
unwilling to enter into any new cultivation without thorough drainage."
B. P. Johnson, Secretary of the New York Board of Agriculture, in answer
to some inquiries upon the subject of drainage with tiles, writes us,
under date of December, 1858, as follows:
"I have given much time and attention to the subject of drainage, having
deemed it all-important to the improvement of the farms of our State. I
am well satisfied, from a careful examination in England, as well as
from my observation in this country, that tiles are far preferable to
any other material that I know of for drains, and this is the opinion of
all those who have engaged extensively in the work in this State, so far
as I have information. It is gratifying to be assured, that during the
year past, there has been probably more land-draining than during any
previous year, showing the deep interest which is taken in this
all-important work, so indispensable to the success of the farmer."
It is ascertained, by inquiry at the Land Office, that more than
52,000,000 acres of swamp and overflowed lands have been selected under
the Acts of March 2d, 1849, and September 28th, 1850, from the dates of
those grants to September, 1856; and it is estimated that, when the
grants shall have been entirely adjusted, they will amount to 60,000,000
acres.
Grants of these lands have been made by Congress, from the public
domain, gratuitously, to the States in which they lie, upon the idea
that they were not only worthless to the Government, but dangerous to
the health of the neighboring inhabitants, with the hope that the State
governments might take measures to reclaim them for cultivation, or, at
least, render them harmless, by the removal of their surplus water.
Governor Wright, of Indiana, in a public address, estimated the marshy
lands of that State at 3,000,000 acres. "These lands," he says, "were
generally avoided by early settlers, as being comparatively worthless;
but, when drained, they become eminently fertile." He further says: "I
know a farm of 160 acres, which was sold five years ago for $500, that
by an expenditure of less than $200, in draining and ditching, has been
so improved, that the owner has refused for it an offer of $3,000."
At the meeting of the United States Agricultural Society, at Washington,
in January, 1857, Mr. G. W. P. Custis spoke in connection with the great
importance of this subject, of the vast quantity of soil--the richest
conceivable--now lying waste, to the extent of 100,000 acres, along the
banks of the Lower Potomac, and which he denominates by the old Virginia
title of _pocoson_. The fertility of this reclaimable swamp he reports
to be astonishing; and he has corroborated the opinion by experiments
which confounded every beholder. "These lands on our time-honored
river," he says, "if brought into use, would supply provisions at half
the present cost, and would in other respects prove of the greatest
advantage."
The drainage of highways and walks, was noted as a topic kindred to our
subject, although belonging more properly perhaps, to the drainage of
towns and to landscape-gardening, than to farm drainage. This, too, was
found to be beyond the scope of our proposed treatise, and has been left
to some abler hand.
So, too, the whole subject of reclaiming lands from the sea, and from
rivers, by embankment, and the drainage of lakes and ponds, which at a
future day must attract great attention in this country, has proved
quite too extensive to be treated here. The day will soon come, when on
our Atlantic coast, the ocean waves will be stayed, and all along our
great rivers, the Spring floods, and the Summer freshets, will be held
within artificial barriers, and the enclosed lands be kept dry by
engines propelled by steam, or some more efficient or economical agent.
The half million acres of fen-land in Lincolnshire, producing the
heaviest wheat crops in England; and Harlaem Lake, in Holland, with its
40,000 acres of fertile land, far below the tides, and once covered with
many feet of water, are examples of what science and well-directed labor
may accomplish. But this department of drainage demands the skill of
scientific engineers, and the employment of combined capital and effort,
beyond the means of American farmers; and had we ability to treat it
properly, would afford matter rather of pleasing speculation, than of
practical utility to agricultural readers.
With a reckless expenditure of paper and ink, we had already prepared
chapters upon several topics, which, though not essential to
farm-drainage, were as near to our subject as the minister usually is
limited in preaching, or the lawyer in argument; but conformity to the
Procrustean bed, in whose sheets we had in advance stipulated to
_sleep_, cost us the amputation of a few of our least important heads.
"Don't be too English," suggests a very wise and politic friend. We are
fully aware of the prejudice which still exists in many minds in our
country, against what is peculiarly English. Because, forsooth, our good
Mother England, towards a century ago, like most fond mothers, thought
her transatlantic daughter quite too young and inexperienced to set up
an establishment and manage it for herself, and drove her into wasteful
experiments of wholesale tea-making in Boston harbor, by way of
illustrating her capacity of entertaining company from beyond seas; and
because, near half a century ago, we had some sharp words, spoken not
through the mouths of prophets and sages, but through the mouths of
great guns, touching the right of our venerated parent to examine the
internal economy of our merchant-ships on the sea--because of
reminiscences like these, we are to forswear all that is English! And so
we may claim no kindred in literature with Shakspeare and Milton, in
jurisprudence, with Bacon and Mansfield, in statesmanship, with Pitt and
Fox!
Whence came the spirit of independence, the fearless love of liberty of
which we boast, but from our English blood? Whence came our love of
territorial extension, our national ambition, exhibited under the
affectionate name of annexation? Does not this velvet paw with which we
softly play with our neighbors' heads, conceal some long, crooked
talons, which tell of the ancestral blood of the British Lion?
The legislature of a New England State, not many years ago, appointed a
committee to revise its statutes. This committee had a pious horror of
all dead languages, and a patriotic fear of paying too high a compliment
to England, and so reported that all proceedings in courts of law should
be in the American language! An inquiry by a waggish member, whether the
committee intended to allow proceedings to be in any one of the three
hundred Indian dialects, restored to the English language its
appropriate name.
Though from some of our national traits, we might possibly be supposed
to have sprung from the sowing of the dragon's teeth by Cadmus, yet the
uniform record of all American families which goes back to the "three
brothers who came over from England," contradicts this theory, and
connects us by blood and lineage with that country.
Indeed, we can hardly consent to sell our birthright for so poor a mess
of pottage as this petty jealousy offers. A teachable spirit in matters
of which we are ignorant, is usually as profitable and respectable as
abundant self-conceit, and rendering to Caesar the things that are
Caesar's, quite as honest as to pocket the coin as our own,
notwithstanding the "image and superscription."
We make frequent reference to English writers and to English opinions
upon our subject, because drainage is understood and practiced better in
England than anywhere else in the world, and because by personal
inspection of drainage-works there, and personal acquaintance and
correspondence with some of the most successful drainers in that
country, we feel some confidence of ability to apply English principles
to American soil and climate.
To J. Bailey Denton, Engineer of the General Land Drainage Company, and
one of the most distinguished practical and scientific drainers in
England, we wish publicly to acknowledge our obligations for personal
favors shown us in the preparation of our work.
We claim no great praise of originality in what is here offered to the
public. Wherever we have found a person of whom we could learn anything,
in this or other countries, we have endeavored to profit by his
teachings, and whenever the language of another, in book or journal, has
been found to express forcibly an idea which we deemed worthy of
adoption, we have given full credit for both thought and words.
Our friends, Messrs. Shedd and Edson, of Boston, whose experience as
draining engineers entitles them to a high rank among American
authorities, have been in constant communication with us, throughout our
labors. The chapter upon Evaporation, Rain fall, &c., which we deem of
great value as a contribution to science in general, will be seen to be
in part credited to them, as are also the tables showing the discharge
of water through pipes of various capacity.
Drainage is a new subject in America, not well understood, and we have
no man, it is believed, peculiarly fitted to teach its theory and
practice; yet the farmers everywhere are awake to its importance, and
are eagerly seeking for information on the subject. Many are already
engaged in the endeavor to drain their lands, conscious of their want of
the requisite knowledge to effect their object in a profitable manner,
while others are going resolutely forward, in violation of all correct
principles, wasting their labor, unconscious even of their ignorance.
In New England, we have determined to dry the springy hill sides, and so
lengthen our seasons for labor; we have found, too, in the valleys and
swamps, the soil which has been washed from our mountains, and intend to
avail ourselves of its fertility in the best manner practicable. On the
prairies of the great West, large tracts are found just a little too wet
for the best crops of corn and wheat, and the inquiry is anxiously made,
how can we be rid of this surplus water.
There is no treatise, English or American, which meets the wants of our
people. In England, it is true, land drainage is already reduced to a
science; but their system has grown up by degrees, the first principles
being now too familiar to be at all discussed, and the points now in
controversy there, quite beyond the comprehension of beginners. America
wants a treatise which shall be elementary, as well as thorough--that
shall teach the alphabet, as well as the transcendentalism, of draining
land--that shall tell the man who never saw a drain-tile what thorough
drainage is, and shall also suggest to those who have studied the
subject in English books only, the differences in climate and soil, in
the prices of labor and of products, which must modify our operations.
With some practical experience on his own land, with careful observation
in Europe and in America of the details of drainage operations, with a
somewhat critical examination of published books and papers on all
topics connected with the general subject, the author has endeavored to
turn the leisure hours of a laborious professional life to some account
for the farmer. Although, as the lawyers say, the "presumptions" are,
perhaps, strongly against the idea, yet a professional man _may_
understand practical farming. The profession of the law has made some
valuable contributions to agricultural literature. Sir Anthony
Fitzherbert, author of the "Boke of Husbandrie," published in 1523, was
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and, as he says, an "_experyenced
farmer_ of more than 40 years." The author of that charming little book,
"Talpa," it is said, is also a lawyer, and there is such wisdom in the
idea, so well expressed by Emerson as a fact, that we commend it by way
of consolation to men of all the learned professions: "All of us keep
the farm in reserve, as an asylum where to hide our poverty and our
solitude, if we do not succeed in society."
Besides the prejudice against what is foreign, we meet everywhere the
prejudice against what is new, though far less in this country than in
England. "No longer ago than 1835," says the _Quarterly Review_, "Sir
Robert Peel presented a Farmers' Club, at Tamworth, with two iron plows
of the best construction. On his next visit, the old plows, with the
wooden mould-boards, were again at work. 'Sir,' said a member of the
club, 'we tried the iron, and we be all of one mind, that they make the
weeds grow!'"
American farmers have no such ignorant prejudice as this. They err
rather by having too much faith in themselves, than by having too little
in the idea of progress, and will be more likely to "go ahead" in the
wrong direction, than to remain quiet in their old position.