Normal Institute 15'87 



them run diagonal. This would tend to cut off the springs and 

 give greater efficiency from the tile. It is not so true us it has 

 generally been considered, that the deeper the drain the greater the 

 efficiency. On clay or hardpan lands the tile may be so deep and 

 the water may reach it so slowly that the plants would be dead 

 before the water was removed. Lay as deep as possible in light 

 soils ; in heavy hardpan it may be laid eighteen inches or two 

 feet deep. 



Vitrified tile is the best as a general rule, and can be bought 

 as cheaply or cheaper in the market than the soft tile. Three- 

 inch tile at Ithaca costs $16 per thousand. Do not hesitate to 

 put hard tile within eighteen inches of the surface. 



Machines are the only practical way of digging where large 

 areas are to be drained. Cyclone is the best horse ditcher and 

 Buckeye the best tractor. 



Dynamite is good for cleaning open drains but not economical 

 for tile draining. When used as final drainage medium it is only 

 good where there is a porous strata beneath the topsoil. 



Cement tile can not be made so good as the best vitrified tile and 

 is more expensive, except the large sizes. 



DEEP TILLAGE 



Practically all of our land will respond to deep tillage providing 

 organic matter goes with it. This is a general principle. How- 

 ever, on sandy soils unless special means are used to get organic 

 matter in, we had better not practice it. All of our operations on 

 such soil must be to compact the soil to hold water. 



Experience indicates that we should go gradually — half an 

 inch to one inch per year, and continue this just as long as we can 

 turn it and put organic matter in the soil. Subsoiling as such does 

 not pay. Better to do the deep plowing in the fall ; this is all right 

 in the spring if it can be done without puddling the soil. The 

 Spaulding Deep Tilling machine is the most practical one known. 



SOIL ACIDITY 



A good agricultural soil always contains two classes of com- 

 pounds — basic and acid. The basic compounds are acid neu- 

 tralizing. Acids are formed in the soils in various ways. Every 



