DRAIN TILE IN THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD. 143 



THE USE OF DRAIN TILE IN THE GARDEN AND 

 ORCHARD. 



R. A. WRIGHT, EXCELSIOR, 



Perhaps I can best present to you my ideas about drain tile by 

 stating my experience with it. 



When I located on my farm eight years ago, I found it badly 

 cut up with open ditches — one nearly seventy rods long and three 

 cross ditches varying in length from ten to twenty rods each. These 

 ditches were from a foot and a half to three feet deep, and about two 

 feet wide, and were lined the entire length with weeds and bushes, 

 making a very unsightly picture. As will readily be seen, there was 

 much waste land as a result of this system of draining. Besides the 

 actual width of the ditch, there was the usual allowance on either side 

 necessary for turning when plowing and cultivating. My farm was 

 divided and sub-divided, making it very inconvenient to work. 



These ditches carried off the surface water but did not drain the 

 soil sufficiently in fiat places. I concluded to try tiling, hoping to 

 find a more satisfactory system of draining. Beginning at the lower 

 end of the field, I laid six inch tile, four feet deep, a certain distance, 

 then five inch tile a certain distance, and the remaining thirty rods 

 used four inch tile. I then laid four branches with three inch tile. 



All of this tile is three feet or more beneath the surface of the 

 ground except the ends of the branches, or cross tiling, which are 

 from one and a half to two feet deep where they tap the low plac:es. 



These low, flat places bothered me for three or four years dur- 

 ing wet seasons with heavy rains. The tile did not carry off the 

 water quickly enough to prevent the ground from souring, for in 

 extreme wet weather water stood on the surface of the ground for 

 days at a time. As a result of this imperfect draining, I harvested 

 very little fruit in these localities. Plants would do fairly well until 

 a wet season came, when they would die, so there was no reasonable 

 assurance that fruit would be harvested, and it seldom was. 



I tried digging quite a large hole at the end of the tile, filling 

 it with small stones and broken brick. This plan worked nicely for a 

 time, but every spring the mud would cover the stones, preventing 

 the water from seeping through quickly, so that it would stand for 

 days at a time on the surface of the ground. 



Four years ago, following a neighbor's suggestion, I sunk a 

 kerosene barrel at the end of each branch, setting the bottom of the 

 barrel about one foot below the tile, and making a hole in the side of 

 the barrel in which to place the end of the tile. I bored a half dozen 

 inch holes near the top of the barrel — at the surface of the ground. 

 Over the barrel, I placed a cover which I weighted down with a 



