Drainage in New York. 



239 



*• ~f? 



addition to the inconvenience to tillage and harvesting operations and to 

 the general inefficiency of such methods of drainage as practiced. 



On the other hand, the use of tile drains under these circumstances is a 

 distinctly different proposition from what it is on coarser textured and 

 loose soils of silt, sand and gravel. The most obvious advantages of the 

 tile are that they will be well laid and will afford a clean, smooth channel 

 for the flow of the water. With such a smooth channel, the water moved 

 by a small fall will be much greater than in the average surface ditch. 

 Further, the average surface drain is a shallow channel made by a single 

 shovel plow of some sort and takes no account of the variations in elevation 

 of the land further than to follow the visable water course, which is often 

 entirely inadequate. Tile drains, on the other hand, are laid to grade with 

 a fairly uniform fall on any course. 



As stated 

 above, the 

 methods of 

 tiling coarse 

 textured soil 

 do not apply to 

 fine textured 

 soil. I n the 

 former case, 

 they are laid 

 fairly deep to 

 lower the 

 water table be- 

 low the root 

 zone. Here is 

 the first indi- 

 cation that a 

 sub - drainage 

 system should 

 always be adapted to 

 general drainage. Xo 





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■fa. 



A thorough system of surface drains in a ncialy 

 seeded grain Held. 



the local conditions of soil, slope and 

 fixed rules can be given. But in the 

 matter of depth this principle applies on clay soil. The tile should be laid 

 as shallow as is consistent with the climatic conditions and the fall. The 

 aim is to remove the surface water as quickly as possible and before it 

 does injury to the crop if one occupies the land. To do this, there must 

 be easy access of the water to the tile. For this reason, they should be 

 shallow — two feet or less — and should be connected with the surface 

 by means of stone filters and other porous media which will be described 

 further along in this bulletin. The water enters the tile through the joints 

 and in clay soil it reaches these through the cracks, decayed root passages 



