Show A N A 6 it t r E S 0 ON N H ua MI k 1 farmers rs bulletin goes into details concerning work in n emery county on geary farm and the results farmers rs bulletin no fi om e united states depart department ment of at washington and is aed october 0 er 2 1909 deals excle ely Alth the drainage of blands ands the entire bulletin is de le dated ted to experiments in utah and is charles F brown drainage en aneer ineer vv with ith the experiment stations abw h u kien gien the eap exp experiments eri ments at huntington Bunt huntington together with ins which the advocate believes I 1 I 1 be of considerable local interest emery county is in the eastern artof the state in what is known the jl colorado plateau the il is 13 an alluvial sandy loam dundr in in at ia various rious depths by shale mt BIL r anical analyses of the soils on the Lint ington experimental tract show at the proportion of silt ra ranges ages om m 23 to 55 per cent and that of arl r fine sand from 23 to 12 per 1 nt the upper layer of shale ether rether on the surface or below is very t tenacious ena cious clay A foot be 4 the shale becomes looser and at eral 1 feet below is in large pieces en enough to allo allow the free flow A water ater men these lands were first ought under cultivation they were mar nar kably fertile and to all ap ar vices would never need drain within a few years spots of t land began to appear in the aids ids alkali accumulations follow I 1 and the spots spread until whole ms ashad had to be abandoned such I 1 of the valley and contained port portions ions in all the varying stages of deterioration the soil survey also showed that white alkali ranging aiom less than 02 per cent up to 3 per cent existed in the surface foot and to six feet deep for the location of the geary farm with reference to the surrounding fields see figure 11 preliminary examinations of this farm were made including a thorough subsoil survey by means of test pits auger borings and with a steel rod to a depth of fifteen feet fee t the subsoil survey brought out the relation of the shale hardpan to the source of the water and alkali this formation lay in ridges and knolls under an almost uniformly sloping surface the two bogs shown on the farm map figure 12 were directly over t 0 of these shala knolls and it was shown that these carried to the farm from some distant source w water ater highly chang charged ged with alkali some lateral seepage came from neighboring farms but the bulk of the water which kept those these bogs miry for rods around and which kept the soil saturated was undoubtedly from the first source water stood on the surface within a few feet of a deep gully or arroyo on the south of the farm it was 4 as clearly evident from this and other indications that the intercepting method of drainage would be necessary PLANS AND construction for covered drains was ahu stindt i IL fa on I 1 47 del aa ida ca 0 AL apo SCALE FIG G 11 field contour map showing location of geary farm editions irions abounded throughout the ley there waa was some talk of ining but the close proximity of ge e gullies or arroyos to such da k without Nit hout any beneficial effect e it seem impossible to drain so ater logging of farms contin 1 and farms and portions of towns r re abandoned until in 1904 it was mated that 30 per cent of 1 which had been under was at that time abandoned As s trouble was increasing it was ly y a question of a few years bee whole tracts would have to be to boned entirely t aa with these prospects conting the people that they aped to the state station e for help work was begun in 1904 by king soil water eitington it lit ington observations observation 3 at and continued the fol ing year by some construction is office and the state u the operated cooperated co bureau int aty yandEL and E L geary of soils in emery making experimental ex eri atter mental test on the farm of Is tract was typical of the lands out of the question on account of high freight rates and the distance from the railroad lumber was the next best material and as thia could be readily obtained it was chosen boxes were made of two inch by twelve inch plank for the outlet and of one inch by eight inch boards for the laterals literals late rals without bottoms infirm graur ground A and with bottoms for soft ground see figure 13 A and B A line was cut into the bogi bog bogowith with the object of catching the water at a safe depth below the surface and conducting it away from the field the upper drain of the central areas shown on the farm map wa waz the first one constructed the outside lines were laid as a protection against lateral seepage som soma of the trenches trench ej were dug before the lumber arrived and a heavy rain storm did considerable damage by causing the sides to cave in in about half of the digging was in such bad condition that it wis was impossible to get the boxes laid as deeply as planned and in several cases the mud wa pressed into the boxes continually flushing them with w ith water was useless but by cutting the boxes into short sections and keeping them laid and covered to within a few feet of the digging some headway was made the boxes were laid about three feet deep between the bogs maeng mal ing it possible to get into the upper bog six feet deep here considerable water was encountered and from a well nell four feet deep deed see figure 14 A in the bottom of the trench enough water ater u roe and ran into the drain to give a head of one and three eighths inches over a six inch rectangular weir this stream has been constant and the total discharge of the system has been nearly constant except when affected by immediate irrigation rig ion the discharge was measured at the outlet for a year and gave an average head of one inch over a twelve inch rectangular weir air and is still running hobt of this comes from the bog holes and is highly charged with alkali when nearing the bogs every contrivance failed and water ater was turned in the trench to cut out the soft muck which was N as run out over the field below COST OF THE WORK where the ground was dry or firm and the depth not over four and one half feet digging cost forty cents per rod greater depths up to five and one half feet cost afif fifty ty five cents per rod the digging in shale was heavy work N ork and cost as Ps much as two dollars per rod for short sections the average cost for the first central line including shale and very soft mud was approximately ninety cents per rod the cost of making boxes with open bottoms was about ten cents per rod boxes were laid and blinded for twenty cents per rod and filling cost approximately eight cents per rod the total cost of WS 08 67 works u arks out eleven ele en and one fifth cents per linear foot and 2021 per acre for the tract though there re jis is almost half as much m uch more land drained outside of the field extensions portions of the west side drain protecting the northwest corilla became obstructed during luring the winter of 1905 6 and attempts to remo remove e the obstruction proved unsuccessful this section of the drain been provided with ith bokes boxes open on the bottom straw stra as thrown in the bottoms of the benches enches ti before lay 0 N G 3 iq L 4 5 10 I 1 40 ES L OP 25 LEGEND PROPERTY LINE SCALE DRAINS 0 11 K ua BOG Is 95 CONTOUR LINE 0 0 WELLS observation f r r OPEN DRAIN extensions CHANGES 1306 1906 0 FIG 12 plan of draining geary farm huntington utah ing the boxes for the purpose of Te preventing venting the soft mud fro from in squeezing into them it seems that the weight of the soil caused it to flow into the boxes in spite of the precaution ken As it i t was impracticable to remove these boxes geary decided to cut an open ditch paralleling this section between it and the fence this ditch was washed ash to about five feet in depth and plans were made for laying boxes in the same providing bottoms for the bo boxes boes es and filling in the sides with gravel see figure 14 B the laying of boxes in this section has not been finished owing to other troubles during the same season 1906 a change in the central line for conducting the water ater away from ri bogs was planned and late in the same ear was partly finished the nee necessity etsity of putting another line through here was wai due to the shallowness of the first central drain when this first line was laid it was impossible to get the boxes to a greater 9 reater depth between the bogs than three feet this depth was not riot sufficient to prevent excessive evaporation along the line but the drainage of the bog had dried out the land below so that digging five feet deep waa was now possible it was decided to put in this line as shown on the map figure 12 in about the continued on page 7 b FIG 13 a box drain for firm ground b box drain for soft ground DRAI NAfiE experiments ON huntington HUNTI NOTON LANDS concluded from page three center of the farm ith the object of provi provida dit g a better outlet and diverting the water from the upper bog into this drain this line was completed out atit to the bend immediately below the bog no further work on these extensions blons was done during luring the year 1906 and cropping operations were carried on during the summer of 1907 A greater part of the farm was planted to oats and care was taken in irrigating to prevent any wash ing by surface water irrigation was carried on immediately o over cr the drains on the south side the surface water was as kept out of the drains during irrigation but the soil continued to run into the boxes for several das after the application of water resulting in the complete obstruction of the drains these obstructions caused the drainage water vater which was coming from the two bogs to rise to the surface and to seep awty inan int the boil during the balance of the summer there was no other outlet for this water so repairs were undertaken in may 1908 1909 subsequently all boxes were provided with bottom boards leaving openings of one fourth inch aa as in figure 13 and packed with ith sand and gravel along the sides As it was impracticable to dig a new line anywhere near those these portions on ac count of the excess of water an attempt was made to uncover the boxes on the south side of the farm by y using surface water N ater and washing the earth carth through the outlet ditch to protect the land belo belon and to furnish f ur an outlet through tho the reconstructed ted drain for water ater coming from the northwest est side the line extending noi chest into the tile bog with a branch for cutting the auer ater of the upper drain oer into the lower deain was as next taken up all of the work done during the eaon reason ea on of 1908 haq under very ery difficult and discouraging conditions the expense has been unusually high and the complete reclamation of the tract is not yet attained three fourths of the farm as planted to oats and a fair chop grown on possibly half of the farm the barrenness of this field is slowly ly but sur surl y giving way nay to improved conditions conditi onh the total cost of making these extensions and repairs including the work in 1906 was as this gives gi es a cost per acre of 13 hibb added to the original cost of 2021 makes per acre up to date in conclusion it may be safely said that unless special precautions arc are taken in limiting the opening and protecting the same by gravel and sand the use of covered drains in these boils will not prove verv ver satisfactory in addition to these precautions pie cautions irrigation must not be carried on directly over the drains and where irrigation ditches ditche must cross the drainage dr ain line flumes should be provided there is no na question that this farm has been greatly improved as evi danced by its appearance and the crops now growing the obstructing of the drains and consequent A F I 1 wa 1 0 I 1 MG IG 14 4 a relief well on geary farm huntington utah b method of la lain inar pox bo drain with gravel filling and plank sheathing through soft ground into the large arroo arroyo below this attempt resulted in obstructions forming in the outlet drain which made it necessary to uncover thebe boxes and remove them af after ter washing out the soft mud and providing an outlet for the drainage water work on relaying the boxes was resumed boards one bv tiela twelve inches nailed onto tha the bottoms of the outlet boxes and hey would have been in the original outlet line had not the owners on the south proposed to cut an open dicta running cast from the tile southeast corner of the geary field to the county road an outlet for the drainage of this system was offered and two w 0 hundred feet of boxes was nas laid along that line as a precaution against erosion of the ditch into the geary farm the balance of the closed boxes from the tile outlet line were ere laid on the south side A new drain was a s constructed pd between the tile south side and the new central line work laid in 1906 ilie A he necessity for this change was caused by an obstruction in the tile short diagonal section after finishing the south side repairs the completion of the central line was taken up this line was nas extended through to the north side rise of ground water on the south side of the farm also injured the tile johnson tract on the south the cost has been higher tl tr in m land an I 1 values would warrant arrant in this parti particular C case but there is every reason for beli believing eing that success the proper economical limits ill bo be attained cultivation and irrigation ill be carried on in the tile same way as it has been cind and the will continue to watch the operation of the drains drain carefully until the tile peri pediment ment is completed ted |