76 TRUCK FARMING 



allel ditches eighteen inches deep, with a fall of not less than one 

 inch to the hundred feet. The distance between the rows of tile 

 varies according to quality of soil ; in our sandy loam twenty-five 

 feet affords effective drainage, as well as irrigation. The more 

 clay and the stiffer the soil, the nearer they should be placed. At 

 the upper end of the tile, beginning at the water supply (with us 

 flowing or artesian wells), and running by the end of each row of 

 tile, is a water main, the cheapest being small sewer pipe cemented 

 at the joints. Between the tile and this water main a joint of 

 6-inch sewer pipe is used as a stand pipe, connected by a short 

 iron pipe on one side with the main, while on the other is the con- 

 nection with the tile. It will readily be seen that water turned into 

 the water main, and running by each of the stand pipes, can be 

 turned into as few or as many as desired, in this way irrigating all 

 or any portion of the field. Of course the tile is in short joints, 

 with us one foot in length, and the water finds ingress or egress 

 at the joints, porous tile being largely a myth. At the lower side 

 of the field the tile discharges into a waste ditch, and when the 

 ground is level and the flow of water not too rapid, it will be 

 found that capillary attraction supplies all the moisture needed, 

 even for setting plants, but most fields are equipped with stop 

 boxes at the lower end of tile, and when ground is much broken, 

 these boxes are placed at intervals, as required, and the illustra- 

 tion shows how the water is dammed up to any level required, even 

 to flooding the ground. 



"This much for irrigation. It is quite as effective for drainage, 

 being laid on an incline, and water applied by gravity. In case of 

 rain the excess is taken off very quickly, and on our soil if it rains 

 three inches today we can plow tomorrow. This we find is of 

 inestimable value, for with the soil saturated with water, as the 

 small boy would say, there is nothing doing, or as one of you 

 Western farmers put it, 'You can't get no action out of the 

 ground.' The reason of this inertia, as you all know, is that the 

 water excludes the air from the ground. Now, with surface irri- 

 gation, and without this sub-drainage, you have to wait for the 

 water to evaporate, which slowly drying from the surface, inch by 



