88 Our Farming. 



comes down. If there did the barrel would need to be larger 

 a well, in some cases, of large size. But rest assured it will do the 

 work and never make a blunder. G is the open ditch that brings 

 the water from the swamp. The dam is across just to the left of 

 F. I forgot once, who doesn't? and this barrel got full of mud 

 and I went down at high water and little was coming out below ; 

 and to pay me for not attending to things, I had to clean that 

 barrel with a long handled shovel, through five or six feet of 

 water, standing on a raft. But as soon as I got a hole through, 

 away it went all right at once. This will do the business when- 

 ever you want to let surface water directly into a tile drain. In 

 any ordinary way the sediment will soon fill the tiles. A sewer 

 pipe, or a bricked up well, w r ould be more substantial, but I used 

 just what I tell you, a salt barrel, and there it is yet. 



Now, while considering this drain, I can tell you what I 

 know about roots in drains. Some, spring water comes from this 

 swamp, so the drain is seldom dry. One year, when the field had 

 wheat on it, along towards harvest time it became very dry. 

 Suddenly we had a shower, and the drain failed to give out much 

 water at the outlet. I examined the barrel end, and it was all 

 right. Soon it stopped flowing altogether. I was in a quandary. 

 I put every tile in myself, and knew they were all right. I dug 

 down and took up a tile, and the mystery was solved. It was 

 full of wheat roots. I pulled out great strings of them at this and 

 other points where I dug down. This alarmed me. I feared the 

 drain would have to come up. Well, the wheat soon got ripe. 

 Then the water began to run a little again, first I knew, and soon 

 the drain was all right. The wheat roots died and washed out. 

 Whether they would have done this in an ordinary drain, or 

 whether the sediment resulting would have stopped the drain, I 

 cannot tell. Water came through the drain with a good deal of 

 force, all the tiles could hold, and with a head of some feet at the 

 upper end. No other crop has ever troubled me. The wheat 

 roots went down during that dry time into the tiles for w r ater. 

 If there had not been spring water flowing there would have been 

 none there, and they would not have gone in. 



You have, doubtless, often heard it said that it was impor- 

 tant to keep the outlet to drains free and open. It is, and, still, I 

 have some drains without any outlets that are doing satisfactory 

 work. At the outlet of a large system of drains, where miles of 

 tiles empty, much sediment will wash out, and the outlet should 

 be entirely open and clear, so this can wash out of the tiles 

 entirely. But when you have only a little short drain, with little 

 water running, the accumulation of sediment is slight. It is better to 

 work your drains into a single main, and have but one outlet, but 

 sometimes this is not possible. For example, near the southeast 

 corner of Lot i (plan of farm) w r as a little wet spot along the fence 

 at the bottom of hill. Over the fence in hpn?e pasture is muck 



