Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1877 — Underdrainage. [ARTICLE]

Underdrainage.

This is principally needed on land that floods in the spring and then bakes hard and dry in the summer, and the object of underdraining in this case is more to moisten the soil in case of drought than to remove the surplus water in spring. It is a fact, well established by experience, that underdrained lands suffer more readily from drought than those thoroughly drained. The former, in a dry time, do not absorb the moisture from the atmosphere; owing to their baked and compact state, while a well-pulverized soil receives and absorbs the dew and vapor in the air. Thus deep or subsoil plowing is employed in connection with underdraining with great advantage. The hardness of the soil, which will not allow water to penetrate, also keeps near the surface all fertilizing substances, and these waste by exposure to sun and rain. Crops are sometimes spoken of as “ water-killed;” this can happen only on wet ground, which has frozen while saturated, and when the frost eomes

out of the ground the soil is so broken up that the roots of the grass and winter grain are thrown out and the plants destroyed. Draining and subsoiling allow the moisture to sink below the reach of frost, and the soil is left too dry to be injured by the thaws of spring. Wet lands not only fail to produce large crops, but such as are grown on them are of poorer quality and more subject to disease than those raised upon drier soil. Actual experiment has proved that by giving water a free passage through a cold soil its temperature may be raised ten degrees above underdrained land of the same quality in an adjoining field. This produces the effect of a warmer climate, not only because of the warmth extended for a longer period, but by preparing the soil for cultivation earlier in the spring. Cattle and sheep pastured upon wet lands are subject to many diseases from which those in dry fields are free, beside being annoyed and worried by the swarms of gnats and mosquitoes common to wet soils. It is not only the farmer’s stock that suffers from a marshy field. Many a one is hampered all his life by the ill-health of his family, the cause of which is perhaps lying at his very dooryard. Fever and ague and consumption are engendered by marshy lands and stagnant pools. Mere surface draining is insufficient. Open ditches will convey away the surface water, but cannot reach the cold stagnating repositories beneath the soil; they are useful on the lowest grounds as brooks to carry off the water emptied into them by underground drains coming down a hillside. Tiles are now used extensively for drains, having been found to answer the purpose much better than any sort of ditching. There must be sufficient slope to prevent sediment accumulating. They * Should" Jrt laid at least three feet below the surface, and, in many instances, four feet will be found better, ‘as they must be out of reach of the frost as well as ( the subsoil plow. The cost of laying tiles may be greatly lessened by doing as much work as possible with horse plows and subsoil ditchers. Spring is the most economical season in which to undertake this work, when the subsoil is moist. The distance apart of the tiles must depend upon the nature of the land. In compact soil they may be set within twenty feet of each other. If the subsoil is very porous they may be placed forty feet apart. A.Jail of one in 200 is advisable, and one in 500 is the least fall admitted by the,best authorities. The least expense per acre for Siroper drains properly constructed, is rom $35 to $45. *

A free use of cloverenftbleathe fanner to dispense with many of the under drains that would otherwise be necessary. The deep roots of the clover penetrate so far in the subsoil as to make a sort of natural under drainage through the crevices of their roots. Farmers need not be frightened when they read of the costly work necessary in market gardening. A few under drains will be sufficient to make the soil dry enough in ordinary fields for most farm crops. In stiff clay soils the operation which appears so difficult is greatly facilitated by the very nature of the soil, which causes it to shrink and open in cracks when passing from a wet to a drv state. — N. Y. Herald. . , -+ ++- Queen Victoria’s crown is composed of 1,363 brilliant diamonds, 1,273 rose diamonds and 147 table diamonds, one large ruby, seventeen sapphires, eleven emeralds, four small rubies and 227 pearls, all set in silver and gold.