218 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



so far as drainage was concerned, as I had hoped it would. My exper- 

 ience has not given me any confidence in dynamite as an agency for 

 drainage where there is no strata of gravel or sand under the hardpan. 



Turning to the accompanying map, you will see that this eighty lies 

 in the Lightning creek bottom, and the land all slopes toward a small 

 draw shown and marked on the map. Most of the tile run to the draw 

 parallel with the natural slope of the land. In the field west of the 

 draw the natural slope of the land is about thirty-two inches in sixty 

 rods, and the fall of the tile as laid is one inch in two rods. The little 

 field west of the creek is practically flat. East of the draw the surfa.ce 

 is also practically flat, there being about seven inches surface fall in 

 fifty rods, from where the eight-inch main turns east from the draw, 

 and the fall of the main tile is one-half inch to two rods. The fall of 

 the laterals joining the east branches of the main tile is nowhere less 

 than one inch to two rods, and where possible we gave more, as the east 

 end of the eighty is from five to eight feet higher than where the main 

 tile branches at its eastern or upper end. So much for the topography. 



The hardpan or tough clay subsoil of this eighty lies in undulations 

 or ridges of varying width and closeness to the surface. The general 

 course of these ridges lies across the natural slope of the land, and the 

 pockets or valleys between them hold water. Until we tile through these 

 ridges the land between them remains wet and sour. The surface soil 

 varies as does the subsoil deep subsoil, deep surface soil; shallow sub- 

 soil, shallow surface soil. Some places we reached no subsoil at three 

 and one-half to four feet black muck all the way down. At others, in 

 the same ditch, we found the subsoil at twelve to fifteen inches, where it 

 had raised up just like a horseback of sulphur rock in a coal pit. 



The soil particles of the land here are very fine, and one must be 

 careful to lay the joints of the tile closely to prevent them from taking 

 dirt. When tile takes dirt it is usually caused by a crawfish hole. These 

 holes generally are in some low spot, as a dead furrow. The water dur- 

 ing a heavy rain gathers in the dead furrow and runs down the hole 

 made by the crawfish, to the tile, and bores it out bigger. Some say to 

 plow the field across the tile. I have tried this, and do not like the plan. 

 I am breaking the field west of the draw now, and aim to leave my dead 

 furrow not right over the tile, but, at most, not more than a rod from it. 

 This puts the ridge or backfurrow about midway between the laterals, and 

 should shed the water toward the tile gradually and not all at once, as it 

 does when collected in a dead furrow and allowed to run across the tile 

 drain in a stream, to bore out the crawfish holes. 



When I got ready to drain this place I first bought a farm level. It 

 is a very useful little instrument, and, considering its cost $15 has a 

 very good telescope on it. Were I to get a new instrument I would get 

 a $30 instrument, as it has a stronger telescope and enables one to be 

 more accurate at long range. My instrument is good up to sixty or 

 eighty rods. 



As to spades, I first got solid-backed spades, but owing to the sticky 

 nature of the soil I got three of the Iowa King or muck spades, or, as 

 some call them, skeleton spades. They can be procured by any retailer 



