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Show DRAINAGE DESTINED I TO RECLAIM RICH ' TERRITORY IN CACHE What Drainage is Accomplishing In Cache Valley. For years the question of draining drain-ing the low lands of Cache Valley has beep under discussion. Some few attempts have been made by individual individ-ual farmers to drain their waterlog-1 gcd fields by laying tile throughout their land; and in this effort they have been richly rewarded in most cases. Notably successful were those few men around Hyde Park whotile drained their lands and made them into very productive farms, paying them many time over for their efforts. The year 1916, however, has seen a very great stride toward the redemption re-demption of these alkaline and waterlogged water-logged areas. The Logan Land and Drainage Company, a company promoted pro-moted by men reared in cache Valley Val-ley alid whojiavc the progress of t'n Valley at heart, has nearly completed the drainage of about 2800 acres lying between Logan and Mention. This large area is mostly adapted to sugar beets and dairying and will add hundreds of thousands of dollars dol-lars worth of produce to the output out-put of this already rich valley. The step, however, toward reclaiming such .lands will be the greatest good in the long run; because there arc more than thirty thousand acres of land in this vallci' which can be similarly reclaimed and which will undoubtedly be done in the near future. The total good, then, to the valley will be almost beyond com putation. i The tidca of drainage is to take off the surplus irrigation water and to rid the soil of harmful salts. Too much water is used on the irrigated fields of this valley, as a rule; and the result is that the low lands get much of this water to their distinct harm. If the water doesn't harm the low lauds, it usually sinks into the field where it is applied, only to rise and fill the pores of the soil until irreparable dammage results if tile drainage is not installed. As a usual us-ual tiling the soil of the arid west contains much harmful salt, along with some very desirable ones. When the water sinks to a leve. where these salts abound, it dissolves dissol-ves them. As the water is applied to-the to-the land the land fills with this saltv water until eventually the surface soil is reached. Then excessive evaporation evap-oration takes place, freeing the water and leaving the harmful salts to tlo damage to cropi. Drainage then be I comes necessary to take off the water .and the salts. Tile drainage is the only solution to the reclamation of such land. The drains are laid from five to seven feet under ground so as to reduce the level of the ground water. Then as water percolates through the soil i dissolves the salts and carries them I down from the surface to lower lev-I lev-I els, at least as low as the tile. Wlicr this is accomplished the land is re-. re-. deemed, except for the cultivation I which all land demands to be put in to proper condition. It is to be particularly par-ticularly noted that tile drains do not have to carry off the salts; they carry off a great deal of them, but a great deal remains in the soils at a level below the drains. In this way the good salts, such as phosphorus, nitrates ni-trates and potash, remain in reach of plant life to act as food for growth. The results of drainage in the area where the Logan Land and Drainage Company is working can be seen in the large amount of water being drained off. This water, although al-though it has been running for months, still shows salt to be present, pres-ent, thereby demonstrating conclusively conclus-ively that the system is working. As the water applied to the land docs not contain salt, and the water com-ling com-ling out of the tile docs contain it, then it shows that the water is dissolving dis-solving those salts and in time must redeem tiie Intnl. Hut the good coming from drainage drain-age is not alone in freeing the laud of salt and water, but in many, many other ways. Not least of these ways isMic improvement in sanitation. Instead In-stead of having swamps in the low ground where the excessive irrigation irriga-tion water gathers, nnd where the I mosquitoes breed in myriads, th" I land is dried out and sweetened, i thereby doing away with disease I hatcheries. As sewers act in the city, so in a way tlo the tile drains act .in the land. Heavy rains arc quick-ly quick-ly taken care of; early thaws arc carried off to leave the land to drv faster; earlier plowing is possible; I the ground contains more air, and therefore is warmer; the soil is more crumbly and has a greater number of atoms which hold the moisture by capillary attraction, iniuring a moiit condition beneficial to-crop growth; larger and better cropi are grown; the roadi tfarevgaont tae arte, are in better condition. In fact, there are many other good results from - I drainage which cannot be mentioned I here. I The cost of drainage is usually A J more than what many bulletins in- S1 dicatc. It usually depends upon how Vr far one must go for a reliable outlet, how deep the drains must be laid and ' the nature of the soil through which U the tile runs. But although the average av-erage price may be $20.00 per acre. the results amply justify the cost ' In many cases the increase in yields the first year will pay the cost. Certainly Cer-tainly this should be true where sugar beets arc raised. If a piece of ground ' is sodden, it would be an easy matter ' to scald three tons of beets by poor drainage. With tile drainage such ? scalding would be very difficult, and would save three tons just as pre- f ventives. But in the fact that tile (, helps to retain the ground in a moist e condition is to be found a benefit 5 that could very easily increase the t! yield by three or four tons. What is t'rue of beets is also true of alfalfa, corn, peas, garden truck and other ' farm crops. That drainage will pay c well on almost any farm is the ex- pcricncc of farmers throughout the ,, United States. ' This article is written to boost a drainage, not to sell RICHLAND ti Acres. While Richland Acres is the tl first large area to be drained in Cache 1 Valley it will not be the last, by any means. Already many farmers arc j inquiring for tile to drain their own c farms. The movement will grow. Tiie results which arc bound to be shown in Richland Acres will serve ' to send many farmers to their own o farms to plan for tile drainage that . will benefit their farms and will make j, intensive farming jus that much , more valuable and certain. c ' mm c |