284 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



done with a team and scraper very cheaply. Use a long chain and keep 

 the scraper on one side and the team on the other. Fig. 13 shows a good 

 form of a filling scraper. After trying about every way, I feel safe in saying 

 that this is the only satisfactory way. 



WILL IT PAY TO DRAIN ? 



This is a question put very frequently, but yet one that is difl&cult to answer 

 in a general way. There are circumstances to be taken into account that 

 may make special cases very different from ordinary ones. I could fill the 

 whole time with examples showing that worthless laud of little or no value 

 had been converted by drainage into land whose selling value was 850 or more 

 per acre. I could give repeated examples showing that the productiveness of 

 land had been increased 100 or 200 per cent — by such a comparatively trifling 

 expenditure — but I will trouble you with only one or two cases. You need 

 only look around you to see them. 



It will never pay to underdrain, unless you are prepared to do it properly. Every 

 case of failure to reap benefit by drainage can be traced to some fatal error 

 in the plan or construction of the drain — The proper construction of a line of 

 tile drain in order to obtain its maximum efficiency, requires as much or more 

 accuracy than the finest cabinet work. Every deviation side wise from a straight 

 line detracts from its carrying capacity; every deviation up or down from its 

 grade line is more or less fatal to its efficiency. The country is full of ditchers 

 who, according to their own story, have laid miles of tile in England or Ire- 

 land, who pretend to have the skill to determine the proper inclination of the 

 grade line entirely by the eye. I have tested the work of some of the best 

 men of this class (one, especially, Mr. Wheeler, who was the best ditcher I 

 ever saw) by running a level over the bottom of the ditch after they supposed 

 it was fitted to receive the tile, and I have found variations from the grade 

 line within forty rods equal to one foot in depth, and sufficient to nearly 

 destroy the value of the drain. 



My own opinion is that ninety per cent of the class of work done by these 

 men is more or less of a failure, and that there are miles of drains in opera- 

 tion not running to one-half or one-quarter their full capacity. This of 

 course means that for the benefits received, too great an expenditure has been 

 made for tile. Now it will never pay to lay tile unless they are laid in such a 

 way that their full capacity is utilized. It does not pay to give twenty-six 

 dollars per thousand, forty-four cents per rod, for four-inch tile, and have 

 them laid so that they will only do the work of two-inch tile, worth ten dol- 

 lars per thousand (sixteen and a half cents per rod) ; yet this is done more 

 frequently than many men suppose. It is often done for men who feel fully 

 satisfied that they have had a good job done, simply because they do not 

 know what a good job is. 



In all ordinary cases it will pay to drain, and in any case it will pay to 

 take such precautions as will insure you that your tile will work to full 

 capacity. 



