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Show DRAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS. unhid ir.Tti otPOTMixr or aenieuLTuxt. orICf o U'Mirt ITAf'Owa v - V LOCKLAHO FAHM TV fbinrLoorror. Urtu J J 1 " & ' r-) --4 v'K- - -r- ' - - - fjVv" 1 v . snt7 re: or Cost V! MOOrrr77LEtS.7SOSes- f7' ' " 3900 4"'u -.40 562 c.. -s.r. ' 306.es lcoehd - es'-23 TIL DRAINS M 1 OPCN ' .PROPEXmiNC TEST PITS o CONTOURS r LACKLAND FARM DRAINAGE PLANS POINT LOOKOUT. UTAH. , (Continued from last weuit.) When tho subRoll has been sufflclen-1 tly supplIoJ with water or through 1 eomo hard substratum tho water la brought to the surfaco or within a few foot of the surfaco excessive ova ; poratlon takes place with tho result that tho load of salt gathered by tho water In its travels through tho soil Is left at tho surfaco and tho puro water escapes as vopor. Another property thnt enters into this ques-1 tlon is thnt of tho Inherent ability of wnter to riso a certain height a-bovo a-bovo its lovel In tho fine soils grains. This characteristic Is called capillary capil-lary attraction and enables water to riso in tho soil from a foot or two in snnd to flvo or six fcot In clny. Excessive Ex-cessive evaporation may bo prevented prevent-ed by a proper atlrrlng and mulching of tho surface. But as very few crops will admit of a propor mulch during tho onttro season, wo must keep tho ground water nt a level sufficiently suf-ficiently deep to ovorcomo tho cnpll-Inry cnpll-Inry nttractlou. Experience has shown thnt this depth should bo at least four feot. Tho formation of a hard cruBt such ns is observed on nl-kail nl-kail soils where they have beon n-bnndoned n-bnndoned nnd left undisturbed increases in-creases tho amount of evaporation very materially. This fact will explain ex-plain tho dlfforcnco botwoen two Holds wheroln ono grows a good crop and the other, only divided by a fenco produces nothing, tho one which produces pro-duces nothing having been abandoned abandon-ed and remained in wnstp for several years. Expcrlonco has shown that tho Intercepting In-tercepting mothod of locating drains Is tho ono most successful in tho irrigated ir-rigated lands. This means that the water must bo intercepted In Its flow to tho soil, no matter whnt source In tho case of lateral secpago, that Is, whero the secpago flows through tho soil from hlghe. lands, tho drains should bu locnted on tho upper slopo of tho wet ground. Conditions are soldom found whoro such a drain Is sufficient so thnt in almost every case, besides tho Intercepting drain, an outlot should bo run through tho lower parts of the effected land. Sometimes It Is possible for tho wnter wnt-er to enter tho soil from a considerable consider-able depth, being forced up thru tho soil under pressure. Interception Intercept-ion in thnt case would mean the relieving re-lieving of tho prcssuro from the pressure pre-ssure from the bottom so that the wnter would not bo forced up thru tho Mil from below. A discussion of the methods nnd plans of drnlnngo will naturally bring up the question as to how these different things would bo found out or determined. It Is neither nei-ther safe nor reasonable to plan n systom of dralnngo without tho proper pro-per oxnlorliiK of tho subsoil of tho farm to be darlned. These oxaml-nntlons oxaml-nntlons may be made by soil nugern or tests pits. Unless the source of wator Is determined with tho other necessary information by digging nt n less dopth, tho exploration ihould bo continued to a dopth of from twelve to fifteen foot. Returning to tho discussion of tho methods nnd plans, the next question which will probably ariwi will bo which or the two kluds of drains is to bo used, an open or closed. There Is no reason why an open drain ditch will not accomplish the drainage of any tract of land if it Is maintained at tho proper dopth. Where coverad drains such nn tllo, stone or lumber boxes cannot bo had, open drains should bo put In rather than let the land stand ldlo nnd abandoned. The principal objection to the open ditch Is that the cost of maintenance Boon amounts to tho cost of putting in a rovored tllo drain. Bomo of tho difficulties dif-ficulties attending the drnlnnge of Irrigated lands havo been found in tho construction problems following attempts to dig and properly lny drains. Somo of tho most serious of these problems are thoso of digging dig-ging nnd laying tllo through land that will not stand up. Flno sand and mud often gets Into tho tllo during dur-ing construction, obstructing them completely, unless great caro Is taken. tak-en. As a general rulo theso difficulties diffi-culties do not occur in tho Bear River Valley. Wo shall now attempt to apply somo of theso general principals to tho planning of a system of drainage for tho Lackland farm. At the tlmo of making theso investigations, in-vestigations, tho ground water over the offected area ranged from 3.7G to l.'-T) fcot beneath tho surface. Tho accumulation of alkali shown on this farm could hardly havo resulted with tho water, surfaco so deep. With the ground wutor at this depth, though, oven local applications of wutor would fill up tho poro space in thnt body of soil now tree from water and oxccsslvo ovnporntion would result. There Is no question but that tho ground water in thlB tract rises almost to tho surfaco in the spring time. As stated before, this land was vory fertile in tho beginning, but now shows a good crop of salt weed and alkali. Tho alkali has beon accumulated ac-cumulated from too much seepage land lack of an outlot for tho seepage water. Flvo test pits, six to seven feet deep, and 11 vo auger holes, 12 feet dcop, woro mado on tho south eighty of this field In determining subsoil conditions. All of tho test pits and auger holes show but llt-tlo llt-tlo variation from the Jointed clay found from twelvo to eighteen inches in-ches bolow tho surface nnd oxtond ling to tho depth of tho borings. The top soil Is a clny loam and about 12 I inches deep. A somewhat soft strata stra-ta of just a few Inches In thickness 1 wns found renorully from flvo to seven feot in dopth. Tho subsoil examination of this farm shows thnt the water comes through tho soli uniformly nil over without any special spe-cial woll defined source. This situation sit-uation requires ,tho location of a number of drains through thoso portions por-tions effected most by the seepage wnter. Three lines of tile, about throo hundred feet apart, as shown on tho accompanying sketch, wero planned, running parallel to the fenco on tho west sldo, and the nearest one one hundred feot east of the fence. A single line for tho center swalo . was planned. Theso laterals to be 1 laid with four and flvo Inch tile, nt inn nvorage depth of flvo feet. Two outlets were figured on. tho first running along the road east and emptying into Salt Creek; the outlot out-lot to bo covorod drain of eight Inch tile and on a grade of 1-10 foot per ono hundred foot. Tho estimated I cost of draining fifty ncrcs of wot: land by this plan was $814.50, which manes nn nvorage cost or fic.zu. Messrs. Louis GeU and John Som-mers Som-mers each offered to givo tho privilege privil-ege of discharging into tholr drainage drain-age on tho south and southwest, providing pro-viding that no damage resulted. In nccordanco with this, nnothor plnn for an outlot wns formulated with the west drains discharging through a six Inch tile about eight hundred fcot long Into tho aetji system, which by tho way, Is our Point Lookout co-oporntlvo co-oporntlvo drainage demonstration. Tho swalo was planned to connect with tho Sommcr's six inch line Just opposlto on tho south side. Summary Sum-mary of tho cost of this plan shows $681. as tho total cost, with $13.62 per acre: showing n difference of nearly $3 In favor of tho Inst plan. In both of these estimates, the cost bf labor wns placed nt $1 por rod. Cpntjnupd Nejct Week, |