| Show H M fal U fig M AM P M IL A IPAC guam 1 al 11 17 the farmer should study conditions causing poor drainage on his land jand and find remedy for it then he should drainage system to overcome the trouble 4 by JOHN T STEWART C E agri cultural engineer university of minnesota I 1 IS not an uncommon thing for a landowner to fight a drainage assessment on land which has a market value of from 20 to 30 per acre and 2 at almost the same time buy another tract of wg w g similar land at the market price ills his desire Is to acquire more acres under the fri false ae idea flint tant his prosperity will be denoted by the amount of land annd in his possession he does not realize that on one acre of thoroughly drained land may bring him a greater income with half the labor and expense of cultivation than two acres of the land or that it could be acquired at one third to one half the cost of the newly bought acre this extra land Is purchased with the idea that land values will rise As the real value of land Is regulated by its improvements and productiveness the lan landowner dovner whose only object la Is to more acres acre 1 rather than to io improve the land alrea already dy in his possession Is an undesirable cit citizen cillien lien as he expects to be the gainer through his neighbors improvements prove ments the idea Is popular especially among the owners of wet lands that the removal of surplus water by drainage would be of great benefit to the state or community at large while this Is true to a certain extent and while wet lands belonging to the pub cost of only against per nere paid for tillable land and in the original purchase auf this added value kalua of dois not represent till all the benefits which have come to the farm from tile the introduction tro of the disappearance of the sloughs and of the superfluous caterin water in other places permits the division of the land into regular and therefore more easily cultivated fields such fields having now a uniform soil can be cultivated in less time and crop rotations can be ari ranged to better advantage than where the land Is broken up by uon non cultivable areas A dry loose soil boll can be worked more easily than a wet sticky soil furthermore a field which in some seasons Is productive and in others productive nonproductive non by reason of excessive moisture may be more detrimental to tile the farmers success than swamp land for such lands are often plowed planted cultivated and then the crop Is destroyed by an influx of water whereby not only are they made nonproductive but labor and seed are lost drainage not only removes the risk of such losses but improves the landscape by substituting broad fully cultivated areas for such as are dotted with sloughs breeding frogs and mosquitoes and giving forth odors from dead fish and decaying vegetation it Is a first step in good road building and as a permanent improvement it increases the value of all neighboring lands and benefits the entire community all of these benefits are illustrated 9 w 0 r falt OBTAINING TRUE GRADE LINE BY GRADE LATH METHOD the line of sight Is five feet above the grade line and parallel to it by act sc ting the lath stakes at the sides and lining up the cross laths baths the grade grai may be fixed before the trench Is dug lie may be justly held chargeable with their share in the cost of improvements the facts do not justify the inference that the state should pay it nil all the correct idea in raising funds for drainage works Is that tho the acre more directly benefited Is the acre to pay the expense many landowners will oppose a drainage improvement for the reason that the ditch will in part be located on their land they will do this even 1 in the face of the fact that from one fourth to three fourths of their laud land because it Is too wet produces only about half of what it should in the ordinary year they actually prefer to stand the yearly loss of half a crop or more rather than allow one fiftieth to one eightieth part of this wet land to be occupied by a ditch which would so BO thoroughly drain the whole tract that it could be cultivated up to the banks of the ditch the benefits accruing from drainage are well illustrated in the improvement of a small farm of acres recently purchased by the state of minnesota six hundred and fifteen dollars were spent in draining this farm the rhe land had been bought by the state a A Is map of a tile drainage system used in wisconsin hsin for the specific purpose of cultivation tho a cres acres cost cosi 15 out of this area there was used for Jilg highway hway purposes four acres nonproductive land in ploughs hs five acres ten acres producing halt it a crop equal in non land tr to five acres or n total of 14 non tillable acres this left a tillable area of 59 acres costing the ibe state per acre A sk 51 1 tern tem of under draInIng was introduced by which the five acres of non prodoc tive land in sloughs and the ten acres which produced halt half a crop are made equal in productive qualities to the kainu eaino area of the other tillable land the total cultivable area Is thus in c creased from 50 to 0 ca 09 acres the return tu n to io the farm then Is nt at a 0 cost of 1 or a net gain of tn in other words ten additional acres acnes ive ave been added to the fa farm at a ta in the case of the state farm referred to and the management feels that they fully justify the cost of the improvement pro without considering the value of the land reclaimed the planning of a drainage system should be done with the same carefulness that Is bestowed on other improvements prove ments when a large building Is to be constructed an architect Is consulted plans are carefully drawn all the details are looked into and material Is selected which will be suitable for the location tile the climate and the purpose for which the building should be used during dlaring its construction inspectors spec tors see that the details are carried out and the requirements of the specifications enforced regardless of the fact that the contractor may be losing money and cheaper materials might be used dut but tn in drainage enterprises terp rises the evidences of such care are too often painfully lacking even though the cost be RS as great or greater than that of a large building in many cases an engineer Is employed to stake out a drain on a route which has been selected only because it Is supposed to be the best one no examination Is made for another route or outlet the area of the watershed Is not measured As a result the size of the ditch Is determined by a mere guess time may develop the fact that the best route was not selected and that the ditch was too large or too small and consequently does docs not perform the work satisfactorily A ditch being improperly located either does not drain all the land it should or it Is expensive to construct and maintain one that Is too large will not cle clean an itself properly while one that Is too small will not carrye carry ra required volume of water A drainage system open or underground works by gravity and that it may remove the water there must be a sufficient cieni fall thai Is a sufficient ands and continuous descent from a ae level vel somewhat lower loer th than anthe the lowest point on the land to be drained to io tho the pot point nt where the water Is discharged from the outlet it Is a common practice to start a drainage ditch a slough at practically the same depth ii as the bottom of 0 tho the slough blough such drainage will not give satisfaction as the groundwater ground water will not hot he be lowered anil and tho the bed of the slough b will continue to be hampy for satisfactory drainage the water channel must be deep enough iu in the lowest land and of sufficient breadth and depth to io carry the water rater without an 0 overflow efflow er flow ditch construction like carpentry or masonry ie a bustness in itself and for satisfactory results cont contracts mets should be let in similar manner tho the bidders competence as shown jn in his record in connection with similar undertakings der takings should be taken into con as well as the size of his bis bid ditches are usually dug in soil the wettest and most difficult t to handle and it Is necessary that construction be carried on during the wettest seasons consequently the contractor should base his calculations ns to time and methods on tho the worst conditions to let a contract to tile the IoN lowest vest bidder regardless of his experience or equipment Is often to invite serious disappointment and loss delays especially are expensive to landowners for not only Is money invested in incomplete work but oftentimes a failure to have the ditch completo complete at the time fixed means the loss of a crop in the drainage of swamp land which cannot be plowed until after the work Is completed it means a delay of one or more years before the cultivation will be a paying investment with scarcely an exception where losses have accrued to agricultural interests through the delay of a year in the construction of proposed drainage works these losses have been greater than the cost of the improvements the attempt to r save ave one or two cents on the cubic yard for ditching angor or on the rod for tile trenches by giving the job to a poorly equipped man often becomes an expensive proceeding ce better pay more to a competent man and be sure of a good job completed on time the kind size and completeness of the drainage works needed ina in a given locality the methods of doing the work and adjusting the costs must be determined ter mined by the local conditions what Is good practice in one place may not be practical in another the character of the ground surface slopes crops raised and value of land all lave have a hearing bearing on the subject in any locality the first consideration Is i an outlet or channel by which the water may be carried away in some localities nature has provided such an outlet in others other sit it may be necessary for several landowners to band together ar and construct a channel of sufficient size and depth to serve as the main outlet of a network of ditches which will give relief during wet years in many parts of the state where such outlets naturi naturally llly exist or are already completed crops have suffered from an excess of water in the immediate vicinity for the reason that the water from the cultivated fields could not readily escape consequently tor for complete drainage it Is necessary to have on the individual form farm a thorough system for collecting the water as it falls aud and carrying it to the m main aln outlet unless the ground Is very flat the location of proposed drains can be best determined when the ground Is free from vegetable growths A heavy growth of crops or weeds may cause low places to look high and high places low A field freshly plowed or sown Is in the best condition for locating lines of drainage if such a field Is examined immediately after a heavy rain there will be little danger of making a mistake in locating the lines if these are at once onca marked out by a furrow or stakes n iu anc mu time when it Is desired to begin lay 7 ing tiles any drainage system should bo planned with reference both to the work it Is to perform and to I 1 its ts future maintenance expense should not bo 66 spared in securing accurate data on which to base the plan it Is well to maintain the shallow open ditch system in use before the tile adelaid are laid these surface drains assist in quickly clearing the land of water from heavy rains in amounts tor for which it would not be economical to provide tile of sufficient clent size to do tho work so quickly in minnesota spring floods are often carried off by br the surface drains before the frost Is out sufficiently to permit tile drains to work time spent in opening sura a FARM profitably TILED on this 80 acre field three systems of tile drainage were necessary necess ari this shows the advantage with which two neighbors can operate cooperate co in putting in a line of tile an obstacle so trivial as a line fence should not be permitted to prevent economical drainage the owner of this land says that tile pays for itself every year and that expended on tile has raised the value of the 80 acres 1000 face drains Is not therefore lost even when it Is intended to later introduce introduce an 1113 system the individual farmer with small means should first select the area the tiling of which will drain the most land at the least expense in a rolling country where sufficient fall can be had for outlets near the surface or without expensive open ditches small tiles can be used around the sides of drainage areas out letting on a hillside or at the edge of a slough this method often lm improves proves largo tracts at small cost lind and as the improved lands increase in productiveness funds will be supplied by which the tile lines can be extended connected and the expensive mains finally put in this method has been used in many of the best tiled countries in some soine instances it has been twenty years from the laying of the first arst laterals literals late rals to the completion of the last main immediately after construction pro vision should be made for annual maintenance A drainage improvement properly carried out tind and maintained will fidd add its initial cost to the value of the land and pay a dividend on the original investment vaal R a 0 11 R 06 brov 0 leval LINC elevation sabo 80 rats DIAGRAM OF A LINE OF LEVELS |
