Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health | Page 7

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,