274 



Bulletin 254. 



The average list price per one thousand (looo) feet of the different 

 si::es, quoted by dealers in the state, is shozvn in the follozving table. 



There is a wide variation in the prices quoted by different concerns 

 for the same size of tile. It is customary to give a discount from these 

 prices ranging from twenty to forty per cent. In the appendix, page 

 428, is given a list of some of the tile dealers in New York State from 

 whom these prices w^ere obtained. 



The cost of transportation depends entirely upon the location of the 

 land to be drained. 



The cost of digging the ditch depends on several factors. The first 

 of these is the character of the soil and its topography. Very stony 

 soil is more expensive to ditch than soil free from stone. Second, the 

 cost depends on the condition of the soil particularly with reference to 

 moisture. A moist soil is easier to dig than a dry hard one. Third, 

 the cost of labor is an important element in the final cost. Many men 

 have put in their ditches with labor which could not be effectively used 

 in other directions, but for which they were at expense. More frequently, 

 however, it must be a direct and specific expenditure either for day or 

 month labor or by contract. Figures on cost at one time or place are 

 not necessarily applicable to another place or time, hence any figures 

 given must be taken only as a general guide. For one hundred rods in 

 Seneca county the digging, laying and filling cost thirty-five cents per 

 rod. In Oswego county one hundred and thirty rods cost forty cents 

 — tile buried three feet. In Onondaga county on light clay loam, a two 

 and one-half foot ditch cost thirty-five cents per rod. 



The average price reported by a Herkimer county farmer where 

 the draining has been done over a period of years is about seventy cents 

 per rod. From Monroe county on clay soil it is reported to be about 

 fifty cents per rod, ditch three feet deep and one hundred and fifty rods 

 k)ng. On stony loam in Tompkins county, the cost of a ditch from 

 two and one-half to three feet deep is reported as from thirty to thirty- 

 five cents per rod. In the Genesee Valley on a heavy clay loam one 

 hundred acres of land was drained during the season of 1907 at an aver- 

 age contract price for digging the ditch, laying the tile and filling the 

 ditch of from thirty-five to forty cents per rod, but the man employed 



