Drains are of two kinds--under-drains and surface-drains. The latter are
simply open ditches to carry off surface-water, that might otherwise
stand long enough to destroy the prospective crop. These are frequently
useful along at the foot of hills, when they should be proportioned to
the extent of the surface above them. They are also very useful on low,
level meadow-lands. Properly constructed, they will reclaim low swamps,
and make them excellent land. Millions of acres of land in the United
States, as good as any we have, are lying useless, and spreading
pestilence around, that by this simple method of ditching might be
turned to most profitable account. The direction of these drains should
be determined by the shape of the land to be drained by them--straight
whenever they will answer the purpose, but crooked when they will do
better. On low and very level land, they should be not more than five
rods apart; they should be three times as wide at the top as they are at
the bottom, and as deep as the width at the top; made so slanting, the
sides will not fall in;--they should be so shaped as to allow only a
very gentle flow of the water: if it flows too rapidly, it will wash
down the sides, and obstruct the ditch, and waste the land. Excavations
for under-draining are made in the same way, only the top need not be so
much wider than the bottom; it would be a waste of labor in excavating a
useless quantity of earth. There are four methods of filling up the
ditch, viz., with brush; with small stones thrown in promiscuously; with
a throat laid in the bottom and filled with small stones; and with a
throat made of tile from the pottery. In all cases, that with which the
ditch is filled must not come so near the surface as to be reached by
the plow. Brush, put in green and covered with straw or leaves, will
answer a good purpose for several years, and may be used where small
stones can not easily be obtained. The tile is more expensive than
either of the others, and not so good as the stones; it is so tight that
the water does not enter it so readily; and if by any chance dirt gets
into the throat, it obstructs it, and there is no other channel through
which the water can pass off. Small stones thrown in promiscuously
serve a good purpose for a long time, if they be covered with straw or
cornstalks before the earth is put in. But the best method is to make a
throat, six inches square, in the bottom of the drain, laying the large
stones over the top of it, and filling in the small stones above, and
covering with straw;--the water will find its way into the throat
through the numerous openings; and if the throat should ever be filled,
the water could still pass off between the small stones above. Such
drains will last many years, and add one half to the products of all wet
springy land. The earth over the new drain should be six inches higher
than the surface of the field, that, when well settled, it may be level.
Leave no places open for surface-water to run in; that would soon fill
up and ruin a drain. Drains made to carry off spring-water are often
useless by being in a wrong location. Springs come out near the foot of
rising ground. Just where they come out should be the location of the
drain, which would then carry off the water and prevent it from
saturating and chilling the soil in the field below. Many persons locate
their ditch down in the centre of the wet level below the rise of
ground; this is of no use to the surface above, to the point where the
water springs. Locate the drain just at the point where the land begins
to be unduly wet. On very wet, level land, a small drain may also be
needed below the first and main one. The cost of a covered drain as
described above will be from fifty to seventy-five cents per rod, and an
uncovered one will cost from twenty to thirty cents. When you have low
swamps to drain, you can realize more than the cost of draining, by
carting the excavations upon other land, or into the barnyard as
material for compost. Perhaps no expenditure, on land needing it, pays
so well as thorough draining. It is important, for all fruit-orchards on
low land, to put a drain through under each row of trees: it is
indispensable to cherries, and highly favorable to all other fruits.