Farm drainage: The Principles, Processes, and Effects of Draining Land with Stones, Wood, Plows, and Open Ditches, and Especially with TilesFrench, Henry F. (Henry Flagg)
Science
Farm drainage: The Principles, Processes, and Effects of Draining Land with Stones, Wood, Plows, and Open Ditches, and Especially with Tiles
French, Henry F. (Henry Flagg)
Drainage
Mr. Yeomans, of New York, in a published statement of his experience in
draining, says, that on his drained lands, "the ground becomes almost as
dry in two or three days after the frost comes out in Spring, or after a
heavy rain, as it would do in as many weeks, before draining." But the
gain of time for labor is not all. We gain time also for vegetation, by
thorough-drainage. Ten days, frequently, in New England, may be the
security of our corn-crop against frost. In less than that time, a whole
field passes from the milky stage, when a slight frost would ruin it, to
the glazed stage, when it is safe from cold; and twice ten days of warm
season are added by this removal of surplus water.
_Drainage prevents freezing out._ Mr. John Johnston, of Seneca County,
New York, in 1851, had already made sixteen miles of tile drains. He had
been experimenting with tiles from 1835, and had, on four acres of his
drained clayey land, raised the largest crop of Indian corn ever
produced in that county--eighty-three bushels of shelled corn to the
acre.
He states, that on this clayey soil, when laid down to grass, "not one
square foot of the clover froze out." Again he says, "Heretofore, many
acres of wheat were lost on the upland by freezing out, and none would
grow on the lowlands. Now there is no loss from that cause."
The growing of Winter wheat has been entirely abandoned in some
localities on account of freezing out, or Winter-killing; and one of the
worst obstacles in the way of getting our lands into grass, and keeping
them so, is this very difficulty of freezing out. The operation seems to
be merely this: The soil is pulverized only to the depth of the plow,
some six or eight inches. Below this is a stratum of clay, nearly
impervious to water. The Autumn rains saturate the surface soil, which
absorbs water like a sponge. The ground is suddenly frozen; the water
contained in it crystallizes into ice; and the soil is thrown up into
spicules, or honey-combs; and the poor clover roots, or wheat plants,
are drawn from their beds, and, by a few repetitions of the process,
left dead on the field in Spring. Draining, followed by subsoiling, lets
down the falling water at once through the soil, leaving the root bed of
the plants so free from moisture, that the earth is not "heaved," as the
term is, and the plants retain their natural position, and awaken
refreshed in the Spring by their Winter's repose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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