Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1876 — Land Drainage. [ARTICLE]

Land Drainage.

The day and tnorough cultivation ofjthe soil here in the West may be a good way off, and most of the older farmers of to-day will never engage in such a great improvement oven common culture. But the time must come when all . heavy soils and all which have a hard-pqn bottom will be broken up eighteen ana twenty inches in depth because that kind of farming will be found profitable. The farmers on clays lose a month or more of every season on account of a surplus oi water which prevents field operations. Plants grow’ slowly or not at all when the soil is filled with w'ater, which must be evaporated at the surface chiefly to get rid ot it. When flat, heavy land is underarained and worked deeply the rains do not remain upon the surface but sink at once into the loose soil and down into the drains. Mr. Mechi writes on Nov. 9: “ Drenching rains but no appearance of water on the sloping surfaces of the steamplowed fields.” And again on the 10th of the same month he says: “ Again torrents of rain, and at last the drains discharge, the first time this season from the steam-plowed land, but no water is visible even in the furrows or water-furrows.” Some persons think that water will never find its way through a stiff soil into drains two to four feet deep, and hence they treat this system of drainage as an absurdity. persons must see for themselves, and M they have the spirit of the true improver Un them they will visit some more enterprising farmer who has already put.down drains, or they may try the experiment at a\trifling cost themselves. In either case qhey will come to change their views on a very Important subject of farm economy and ofle ,in which, their prosperity as farniers is immbdiately concerned. The success ofthe Messrs. Ilgenfritz, at Monroe, demonstrates that fotrf feet under-drains will take off surface water with ordinary culture on heavy’ float, almost flat, lands.' A soil well drained and deeply worked is dry-within a few hours after the heaviest storm, and instead of a week’s hindrance of field work there is reajly no stoppage to amount to anything in the year’s count. Deep working serves the purpose of draining to a certain extent, but after continuous rains there is need of an outlet, and a surface furrow or ditch is not sufficient. The water must find a ready passage. Surface drains are too far apart usually. The water naturally seeks an outlet downward, and will only flow laterally when it cannot get down. Surface drains are the greatest obstacles to cultivation, and no really progressive farmer can endure them.— Detroit Tribune.