THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



mL^wim^mm^ miM(^mmmmm as^^^ 



VOL,. I. 



NO. 7. 



EDSIUIVD RUFFIIS', BJOITOR AND PROPRIETOR. — T. W. WHITE, PRINTER. 



&i = , ^ - - . = : 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 ON DRAINING. 



j^ddressed to Young Farmers, 



There is no one branch of practical farming 

 which is more generally misunderstood or neglect- 

 ed in Virginia, than draining. The dryness of our 

 climate, and the small proportion of our soils tliat 

 are both level and of a retentive nature, cause this 

 evil to be limited in its injurious effects, and to at- 

 tract but little notice, comjiared to other defects in 

 our husbandry. It may, and jjrobably is the case, 

 that many of our good farmers understand correct- 

 ly the principles of draining wet lands, and exe- 

 cute the different requisite processes in an efficient 

 and economical manner. But such cases are very 

 rare in comparison to the many who are deficient 

 both in theory and practice. It therefore seems to 

 me, though not claiming to possess much know- 

 ledge on this subject, that even my imperfect views 

 and experience may be serviceable to young far- 

 mers, and bad farmers — and let it be understood 

 that my observations are designed for no others. 

 Good farmers are requested to pass over the pages 

 of the Farmers' Register, which my desultory re- 

 marks may occupy, and to pardon the writer for 

 so occupying them to their loss. Another apology 

 may be due to my readers, for the unpolislied form 

 and manner of my writing: if so, I will make it 

 now, and then be done with apologizing. In the 

 first place, I have barely time to write even hasti- 

 ly and carelessly ; secondly, my matter will not be 

 of a kind to deserve much labor in embellishing; 

 and lastly, perhaps with all the pains and care 1 

 could bestow, I should not make it appear much 

 better. 



Drains or ditches are required for three different 

 purposes, as follows : 1st. For collecting and dis- 

 charging surplus rain water on land which is ge- 

 nerally dry. 2d. For conveying streams. 3d. For 

 collecting springs oozing from the hills, and divert- 

 ing their course from the land below. 



Ditches of the first kind, of which I shall now 

 speak, are the easiest to make and keep in order, 

 and are generally either omitted altogether, or made 

 at double expense, to serve but half their purpose. 

 A drain is required wherever there is a narrow de- 

 pression of the surface of any land nearly level, in 

 which the water of heavy rains collects and re- 

 mains until it slowly passes off at the lower ex- 

 tremity, or soaks into the earth. Unless the loss 

 of crop from such a cause is almost certain, and the. 

 space of an extent tco great to lose, it is general- 

 Ij"- left to take its chance tor a dry season, or gen- 

 tle rains — by favor of which, the sink may some- 

 times remain dry enough through the summer. 

 But usually, from excessive wetness, it costs dou- 

 ble labor to till, and produces either a scanty crop, 

 or none. When a ditch cannot be dispensed with, 

 it is commonly cut by the spade through the* mid- 

 dle of the sink to its outlet, and the earth thrown 

 on one or both sides of the ditch, in little separate 

 hillocks, to let the water pass between them into 

 the ditch. Every cleaning out of the ditch helps 



Vol. 1—49 



to convert these separate hillocks into a continued 

 bank on both sides — and that end is still faster 

 reached by the soil being turned towards the ditch 

 by every ploughing, as horses do not (and cannot 

 safely) cross such ditches with the plough. The 

 trouble of stopping and turning the ploughs on 

 reaching the ditch, and the margin thus lost or da- 

 maged on each side, amount to a serious disadvan- 

 tage, even while the ditch serves properly as a 

 drain to the adjacent ground : but in a few years 

 that good is nearly or quite forfeited, by the mar- 

 gins of the ditch being so raised as to bank out the 

 water, unless other means are used to prevent. 



Nearly all the trouble and loss caused by this 

 slovenly mode of ditching, may be avoided by 

 using the plough in a proper manner to make and 

 repair such drains. Mark off the middle of the 

 sink, through its whole length, and with whatever 

 crook its course may have. Then plough a " land," 

 the sides of which shall be parallel to and equidis- 

 tant from the middle of the sink, and of course on 

 that line will fall the water furrow made by the 

 finishing of the ploughing. The width of the 

 "land" so ploughed may be from 10 to 30 yards 

 wide as a shallow or deeper drain is wanting — and 

 very often, a single deep ploughing, with a careful 

 running of the last furrows, will serve to drain the 

 sink as effectually as a new ditch cut by the spade. 

 In this case, the work costs almost nothing — as the 

 ploughing should be given when the field is in the 

 course of being broken up for a crop. If the mode 

 of cultivation is in ridges crossing this drain, an 

 additional ploughing of the same land should be 

 given immediately, which will doubly deepen the 

 water furrow for the drain. But if the field is 

 kept under flat cultivation, or in wide beds, that 

 additional ploughing will scarcely be needed, as 

 the drain may be easily and conveniently kept 

 open, by ploughing out a similar " land" where- 

 ever the field is broken up. Whatever may be the 

 mode of cultivation, the ploughs will cross this 

 drain without the least difficulty, and there will be 

 no land lost to cultivation. The ditch will scarcely 

 be observed (being merely a water furrow,) but 

 in fact, the land on each side after a few years, 

 slopes gently towards it for 10 yards perhaps, so 

 that it is actually a drain of 20 yards width. The 

 earth carried into the furrow by ploughs running 

 across will scarcely fill it too much in the tillage of 

 a crop of corn : but if necessary, the earth so car- 

 ried in, is easily thrown out by shovels, and may 

 be scattered over the widely slo2>ed margins, with- 

 out fear of raising a bank. 



The poor level ridge lands, below the falls of our 

 rivers, are full of shallow basins, which though of- 

 ten dry in summer, are ponds of rain water all the 

 winter and spring. These ponds are usually in 

 aline along a wide shallow depression, descending 

 towards one of its extremities. As the wetness of 

 the earth, and the roots of trees (when the land is 

 first cleared,) would forbid the effectual use of the 

 plough in such places, a narrow ditch must be cut 

 with spades, and brought from the lower outlet, 

 through the middle of the line of ponds, so as to 



