56 MUCK CROPS 



The bottoms of the finished trenches in the 

 muck and peat were so soft that two narrow 

 strips of boards had to be placed on the 

 bottom with a groove between them to hold 

 the tile in place. Sometimes the tile had to 

 be carried 20 rods by hand. This might 

 have been avoided if the laying of the tile 

 had been postponed until the open trenches 

 had made the marsh firm enough to support 

 the weight of horses. 



There was a fall of 3 feet in the creek 

 below the outlet of the 10 inch main. The 

 creek was deepened so that 2 of the 3 feet 

 were used to give the tile a better outlet. 



Cost. An itemized statement of the cost 

 of the drainage system is as follows: 



Surveying and preliminary work $ 36 



Tile and freight 286 



Cull lumber strips 41 



Labor (including hauling by teams one mile) 362 



Total $725 



About 30 acres are made tillable by the 

 system, making the average cost about $25 

 dollars an acre. The neighboring land ad- 

 joining this on the north paid a third of the 

 cost of the main. 



