THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



131 



DRAINING THROUGH THE LANDS OF ANOTHER. 



D. W. STOOKEY, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA. 



Owners of adjoining lands that need draining have 

 often experienced difficulty in coming to an agreement 

 as to the method of procedure, division of the expene-e 

 and time of making the contemplated improvement. 



Sometimes the man owning the higher land wants 

 to drain his wet land, but his neighbor next below 

 and through whose land the water must run is not 

 ready, wants the man above to bear an unreasonable 

 share of the expense or even goes so far as to say that 

 he don't want to drain his land. 



Such conditions as these create ill feeling between 

 neighbors and retard improvement of the lands. 



The Iowa Legislature took this matter up last 

 winter and passed a bill providing for draining through 

 the lands of another. Herewith are appended extracts 

 giving the essential features of the law: 



"When any person who is the owner of any swamp, 

 marsh or wet land which, on account of its condition, 

 may endanger the public health, or is not for that rea- 

 son in a proper condition for cultivation, shall desire 

 to construct any open ditch, tile or other underground 

 drain for the purpose of draining such swamp land 

 through the land of another and shall be unable to 

 agree in regard thereto with the owner of such land 

 through whose land he desires to construct the same, 

 he may file with the clerk of the township in which such 

 land is situated an application therefor, giving a de- 

 scription of the land through which it is desired to con- 

 struct said drain, and the general course, character, 

 size and depth of the same. The township clerk shall 

 forthwith notify the trustees of the township of such 

 application, who shall fix a time for the hearing of the 

 same not more than forty nor less than ten days dis- 

 tant." The clerk shall then notify the parties of the 

 time and place of such hearing. At the time set for 

 such hearing, the trustees shall "hear and determine the 

 merits of said application, objections thereto, and claims 

 for damages that may be occasioned by the improve- 

 ment contemplated. * * The trustees shall make 

 a decision in said matter. * * * They shall reduce 

 their decision to writing which shall be filed with the 

 clerk of said township, who shall record it in his book 

 of records and cause it to be recorded in the office of 

 the recorder of deeds of the county in which said land 

 is situated, and said decision shall be final unless ap- 

 pealed from." 



The law also contains clauses governing appeals, 

 costs and damages, repairs, penalty for obstructing, 

 connecting drains, along highways, across highways and 

 railways, and provision for construction of said drain. 



DRAINING FLAT CLAY LAND. 



J. H. Lay, Warsaw, Mo., writes in substance as 

 follows: "Your reply to the 0. S. U. student about 

 keeping plowed ground freshly harrowed to save mois- 

 ture is all right for dry weather. But I have found 

 that in a wet time the unharrowed plowed ground, 

 full of open places, holds more water. For the last 

 ten years I have been engaged in draining several tracts 

 of very level land underlaid with tight clay and too wet 

 to cultivate in its natural condition. Tiling would 

 cost too much, and I did not believe water would get 

 through the clay into the tiles anyway; so I put in 



open ditches, a main one with necessary side ditches 

 and furrows. Having graded the surface smooth the 

 water now runs off nicely into these open furrows and 

 ditches, draining the land well and fine crops are pro- 

 duced." Loose plowed furrows on a water-tight subsoil 

 would certainly hold more water when it rained hard 

 than would a surface well harrowed down. The hard 

 rain would pack the fine surface and then run off, 

 on clay land, where there was good surface drainage. 

 But such a condition as this is not the best for agri- 

 culture. I am sure you agree with the spirit of my 

 article. The student said, you know, that "we should 

 not harrow and roll or drag the ground in the spring 

 when preparing for a corn crop. The way to retain 

 moisture was to leave the ground as plowed until 

 time to plant." This was the general rule laid down 

 as reported, with no exceptions, a rule that all good, 

 practical farmers know to be wrong. 



But now I have seen this level clay land in Mis- 

 souri frequently, and understand the condition it is in 

 nautrally, and I have seen many farms on similar soil 

 that has been tile drained successfully. So kindly al- 

 low me, Friend Lay, to give a little advice to yourself 

 and those similarly situated. It is easy to see that 

 this surface drainage, with ditches and furrows and 

 smoothly graded surface, will help matters consider- 

 ably. There are thousands and thousands of acres thus 

 treated in various parts of the country. The surface 

 water can be rapidly taken off. But with it goes some 

 fertility that comes down in the rain water. Some is 

 washed from the surface of the soil. The air can not 

 penetrate the ground to any great extent. Fair crops 

 can be grown for a time, some seasons, but not as 



treat ones as the soil is capable of producing. These 

 at clay soils are full of fertility, but they want tile 

 drainage to take the water out from below and draw 

 the air in. This with proper tillage and handling will 

 bring enormous crops. Much of the section I wrote 

 about two weeks ago, along the southern shore of 

 Lake Erie, is about the same kind of land. There are 

 large areas of it in various States. There is much of it 

 in Ontario, where plowing in narrow lands, surface 

 drainage, is so commonly practiced. In a very wet 

 season, like the present one with us, farmers suffer 

 terribly from the stagnant water and the excess of 

 water in the soil. Now, my good friends, the water 

 will get into the tiles. I write after many years ex- 

 perience with drains in the tightest kind of clay. I 

 have never known of a field being drained where the 

 water failed to get into the drains in due time, where 

 rotation was practiced, clover grown, or vegetable mat- 

 ter got into the soil in some other way, and stock was 

 not allowed to tramp on the land when wet. Water will 

 not go down at first, particularly if the land is tramped 

 by animals, but in time it does, very nearly to the 

 level of the drains, if they are not more than two 

 rods apart. In such level sections tiles should be made 

 near where they are wanted, to save freight. There are 

 scores of level counties, or have been, where the tile 

 factories are but a few miles apart, in some parts of 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, etc. The productiveness of the 

 land has been greatly increased by using these tiles. 

 The farmers in other level sections where there is not 

 natural drainage, are making a great mistake, finan- 

 cially, in not tile draining their land in the same way. 

 The work may be thoroughly done, once for all, for 

 from $25 to $30 an acre. The increased crops in one 

 or two wet seasons would pay the entire cost. If one 



