1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



197 



For the New England Farmer. 

 DRAINAGE. 

 COMPARATIVE COST OF TILES AND STONES. 



Mr. Brown : — It is not possible to answer, 

 with precision, the question so often asked, as to 

 the comparative cost of drainage with tiles and 

 stones. The actual cost of making two inch 

 pipe drain tiles, in England, is about the same 

 as that of making common bricks. When they 

 shall be made in this country, as they soon will 

 be, in large quantities, and with proper machinery, 

 they will be sold at about the price of bricks, say 

 five dollars per thousand, at the kiln. Now, they 

 are sold at the works in Albany, N. Y., at Whately 

 and other places in Mass., and at Exeter, N. H., 

 at about twelve dollars per thousand. Tiles will 

 lay about one foot each, that is to say, if you 

 get a thousand, you may, after breaking and re- 

 jecting, have enough to lay a thousand feet of 

 drain. Tiles are usually moulded fourteen inches 

 long. They shrink in burning, from one to two 

 inches, according to the hardness of the burn. 



Under-drains should be four feet deep, as a 

 general rule. They may be opened with proper 

 draining tools, and usually are in England eigh- 

 teen inches wide only at top, and three inches 

 wide at bottom, but we will say, twenty-four inch- 

 es at top and four at the bottom. The excavated 

 earth will then measure not quite three cubic 

 yards to the rod (exactly 2.85.) On my own 

 farm, where we use a pick to loosen the lower tAvo 

 feet of earth, the cost of opening such drains 

 and laying and covering tiles, is about one day's 

 labor to three rods. The tiles at twelve dollars 

 per thousand cost about twenty-three cents per 

 rod. Call the labor one dollar per day, and we 

 have the cost, about fifty-six cents per rod. 



My estimate is upon hand labor entirely. If 

 the fii'st foot of the ditch be plowed out, the cost 

 would be lessened. I have laid on my farm 

 nearly a mile of tile drains, at a cost of about 

 fifty cents a rod, calling the tiles twelve dollars 

 per thousand. 



Stone drains cost more or less, according to 

 the mode of laying, and the convenience of the 

 stones. To lay a regular water-course, of the 

 smallest size, the excavation must be twenty-one 

 inches wide, at least, from top to bottom, just fifty 

 per cent, more than I have estimated for tiles, 

 say fifty cents a rod in all. It will require, 

 at the least, two ox-cart loads of stones to the 

 rod, to construct any sort of a stone drain, cost- 

 ing say twenty-five cents a load for picking up 

 and hauling. Generally it will cost twice that. 

 I hardly know what to add for the cost of laying 

 the stones, but will say twenty-five cents a rod 

 though it is probably too little. We have then 

 fifty cents for opening and filling up, fifty cents 

 for hauling stone, and twenty-five cents for lay 



ing, making one dollar and twenty-five cents a 

 rod for a stone drain, or twice the cost of tile 

 drains at the above estimate. 



Then we have a large surplus of earth, two 

 cart loads to the rod, to be disposed of, displaced 

 by the stones, and in case of the tiles, we have just 

 earth enough. There are many other considera- 

 tions, such as the cutting up of the ground, if it 

 be mowing, by teaming heavy loads of stones, 

 the greater permanency of tile drains, and the 

 fact that they furnish no harbor for mice and 

 moles, all in favor of the tiles, but of those I will 

 not now speak. 



My conclusion is that the cost of tile drainage 

 as compared with stone drainage, is less than 

 one-half, even at the present price of tiles, which 

 is double what they will be sold for within five 

 years. 



I make no estimate for laying the tiles, because 

 a man can lay 100 rods a day, after the ditches 

 are ready. 



I am preparing careful estimates on all these 

 points, and putting in form such information as 

 I have collected, on the whole subject of Drain- 

 age, and hope at some future day to give the 

 public the benefit of my researches. 



Yours truly, Henry F. Erench, 



Exeter, N. II., Feb. 15, 1858, 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 IOWA-~"WEATHER~.MONEY— CHOPS. 



"The month of winds and drifting snows" has 

 come in Iowa. Up to the 1st of February (except 

 a few days in November) we had most delight- 

 fully mild and pleasant weather. Since February 

 came in, we have been having regular old-fash- 

 ioned winter weather. 



"The times," considering the almost entire ab- 

 sence of money, are only moderately "hard" with 

 us ; and now, we have a little gold and silver, 

 plenty of shin-plasters, and a r/reat plenty of corn 

 and wheat, at 20 and 40 cents per bushel, with 

 but few cash customers at that. But nobody 

 goes hungry, and but few have suff'ered from cold, 

 till winter is nearly gone and spring at the door. 



We note that better times are returning at the 

 East ; and Hope bids us 



"Wait a little longer," 



when we too shall again rejoice in the same. 



I have but one fault to find with your other- 

 wise always welcome Montlihj. It is this : my 

 little boy cannot wait patiently, for me to cut the 

 leaves open. Now, if you would be so kind, in 

 addition to other improvements, as to trim it fo^ 

 us, as our best magazines are now generally 

 served, and as yours certainly deserves to be, I 

 think the New England Farmer would be just 

 about perfect. M. R. C. 



Tipton, Iowa, Feb., 1858. 



Remarks. — The Monthly Farmer is of suffi- 

 cient value to be preserved and bound into volumes 

 — if the numbers Aveie trimmed, the corners Avould 



