146 Tile-Draining. 



N. B. — While this subject is up for discussion, let the Osage orange come 

 in for a share of our attention. During the approaching summer, I wish to 

 lay a tile-drain four feet deep, through which there will be a perennial flow 

 of water, within eight feet of an osage-hedge. That drain must also have 

 an outlet directly under and across a hedge-row. Under these circum- 

 stances, will the roots of the hedge ultimately obstruct the tile-drain ? 



Onango, III. W, P. P. 



[Our correspondent has evidently a pretty correct! understanding of the 

 principles that relate to thorough drainage and to the habits of plants ; and 

 he will readily appreciate the importance of discriminating between general 

 rules and their exceptions. Mangel-wurzels have been known to grow from 

 the seed into four-feet tile-drains, so as to obstruct them in a single season; 

 but this is an instance so rare, that thousands of acres of mangels are annu- 

 ally grown in Great Britain upon tile-drained land, with no trouble from 

 this cause. 



Even water-loving roots, like those of the willow, enter into tiles so as 

 to obstruct them, only under peculiar circumstances. A moment's reflec- 

 tion will determine that this must be true. 



The usual operation of drainage is this : Water falling upon the surface 

 descends till it meets some obstruction like clay or hard-pan, when it is 

 forced laterally toward the lowest outlet, which in drained land is the tile- 

 drain ; and through that it escapes. The water nearest the drain escapes 

 most readily, having the least distance to traverse ; so that the dryest part 

 of the field is over the drains, and the wettest part is midway between them. 

 Again : in nine-tenths of drains, as ordinarily used, water runs only in the 

 wet season, or for a few days following a rain-fall. It will be seen, there- 

 fore, that roots which seek water will find it, under such conditions, any- 

 where else better than in the drains. 



Occasionally, however, in draining, we tap a spring copious enough to 

 send a small stream through the tiles during most or all of the dry season. 

 Now, the drain and the soil about it is wetter than other parts of the field : 

 and, in a drought, almost all roots seek for moisture ; and the willows and 

 the elms, which even descend many feet into wells, make long strides, and 

 creep into the crevices of the tiles, and fill and obstruct them. 



