680 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



APPERTAININ' TO DRAINS. 



Mister Editer: 



My ole friend Dave Miller said some things in that 

 'ere article of his on planning a garden which kinder 

 riled me first when I read it. Then I kinder smiled, 

 and says I to meself, "I'll sail into Mr. Dave and make 

 him sit up" — and so here goes. But first let me say I gen- 

 erally admire Dave's sayings and doings perty much; 

 but when he harps on the depth of those drains he gets 

 my goat. Dave says, "And now just a word on drain- 

 age," and then goes and shoots off about seven hun- 

 dred words about drainage, of which about six hundred 

 are wrong. Yes, sir, I said zvrong — misleading to those 

 poor, uninformed young fellers that Dave with his gen- 

 eral good nature is so anxious to set straight. 



Here's a starter from Dave's drainage word : "There 

 can never be any given average or depth to a thorough 

 practical drainage system." Just ponder that a leetle ; 

 what's he getting at with his average or depth? 

 Shouldn't the Editer have changed that or to of? Then 

 it would have read better. 



Dave means there never can be any hard and fast 

 rule regarding depth, and he is right when he means 

 that ; but there can be — and is — an average depth, which 

 is four feet, and in 95 per cent, of the drainage prob- 

 lems this depth can be adhered to within reasonable 

 limits. That "shallow brook, stream or river," which 

 Dave thinks is going to govern us, can be generallv 

 overcome, like a great many other obstacles in life, by a 

 little careful thought, and without any great engineer- 

 ing ability. Why, Mister Editer, every "shallow brook, 

 stream or river'' has a grade, and to find an outlet for 

 our main drain we may have to follow it for a few 

 hundred feet, and this will cost a little ; but it is infinitely 

 better than to "lose the ship for a ha'poth o' tar," and 

 any drainage system put in at depths below thirty inches 

 is as good as lost. 



Dave says it is "conceded that no water can possibly 

 pass downwards through this substance," meaning what 

 he describes as the hard-pan. Well, it ain't conceded ! 

 for unless hard-pan or clay is puddled it won't hold 

 water, as Dave will find out if he tries to make the 

 bottom of a lake or tank with it without puddling it 

 first. Dave would have us put our drains down to six 

 inches below this hard-pan, which he says is found in 

 most soils from eighteen inches to two feet, and goes 

 on to say, "Why then go down to an average depth 

 of four feet, which the leading engineers advise, as bv 

 doing so you only put your drain further away from 

 its work?" This would imply that he thought the hard 

 pan was only a few inches thick, whereas it is almost 

 invariably at least a few feet thick. And, Dave ! Oh, 

 Dave ! why advise us to put our drains just six inches be- 

 low this terrible hard-pan, when it is "conceded that no 

 water can possibly pass downwards through this hard 

 substance ?" 



Here's another: "And with a sufficient fall you will 

 never be troubled with frost. Frost only follows 

 moisture, and there can be no water lying in, say, a 

 four-inch agricultural tile with a proper fall." No, Dave, 

 no water, but surely moisture, both in the tile and in the 

 soil, and moisture enough for frost to follow. Your 

 idea appears to be that we are afraid the tile will freeze 

 and burst like an iron pipe. The reason for putting a 

 drain below the frost line is, first, that in the expansion 

 of freezing the alignment of the tile will be destroyed, 

 for when soil settles back after freezing it never settles 

 just evenly over any great lengths, and objects like tile 

 would be sure to get slightly out of line, and this would 

 ruin the drain, as it would enable soil to enter the joints. 



A second reason for keeping below frost is that any tile 

 that is not very hard-backed is likely to disintegrate with 

 freezing and this, too, would be disastrous. These things 

 do not apply to dry stone walls. 



Dave says : "Frost only follows moisture." This may 

 be true, but it is an established fact that the drier the 

 soil, the deeper frost reaches. Frost will go down four 

 to five feet in this climate in a sandy or gravelly soil, 

 whereas in heavy, moist-retentive soils, about three feet 

 is the limit. And in wet and swampy places it only 

 just freezes the surface, hardly ever going more than a 

 foot deep, the reason being that v.-ater is one of the 

 slowest substances to give up its heat. 



We never heard anyone advocate that the small boards 

 of tar paper would keep out tree roots. The purpose 

 of the bands of tar paper put about three-quarters 

 around each joint is to keep out silt, and the only method 

 of keeping out tree roots, as far as I know, is to lay six 

 inches of concrete all around the drain at such points 

 where it goes near any trees whose roots would be 

 likely to cause trouble. Of course this does away with 

 the drain's action at those particular points. Amhurst 

 College has shown that e.xcelsior (w-ood shavings) 

 soaked in creosote or other poisons acted as a repel- 

 lant to roots when packed thoroughly round the tile, and 

 kept the drains clear for years. 



The idea of getting the manufacturers to make the 

 tile with collars like Akron pipes and cementing the 

 joints tight when laid would never do, as if you did 

 a good job of cementing the drain would no longer ac- 

 complish its purpose, for the porosity of land tile is not 

 a factor of any importance. Land tile would be just 

 as good if made in the same lengths of glass, iron, 

 or any other non-porous material. 



And then the unkindest cut of all is to say that the 

 "old-fashioned stone drain has never been surpassed for 

 the thorough draining of wet land." The stone drain 

 was — and is — a z'ery poor substitute for the round tile 

 drain — there is absolutely no comparison in efficiency, 

 durability and cost. Before tiles were made there w'as 

 an excuse for its use ; there is none now, as the soil par- 

 ticles will filter down between all the interstices and 

 fill them completely in a shorter or longer period, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the soil, whereas a well laid tile 

 drain, set four feet or more below the surface, will, to 

 all intents and purposes, last forever. 



Much more might be written as to the reasons for 

 establishing four feet as a standard depth for drains, 

 but for the present — " 'Nuff sed." 



Edwix Jenkins. 



Lenox, Mass. 



APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP 



National Association of Gardeners 



I hereby apply for Membership ia your Association: — 



Name in full 



Occapaiion 



A ddr ess 



Dale . . 



Reference . 



For'wa.rd Applicaiion to M. C. EBEL. Secretary, Madison, 

 N, /., 'with dues, <which are $2.00 unnuilly, including subscrip- 

 tion to the official organ of the Association. 



