1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



183 



is probab le that most farmers live as near a 

 brick yard, or clay pit, as they do to a rail- 

 road station, — so that the hauling by team 

 ■would be only about the same as from rail- 

 road stations. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 DRAINAGE. 



LETTER FKOM NORTH CAROLINA. 



Hon. Henry F. French: — Sir, — If the Greeks 

 ■would always bring us such gifts as you present- 

 ed in your treatise on Farm Drainage, our coun- 

 try would be the happiest and most prosperous 

 in the world. I do not intend to write you a po- 

 litical essay ; being an old Federalist, I am of 

 course but a "looker-on in Vienna." For your 

 comfort, I will venture the assertion, that, from 

 my standpoint, I plainly see that after crimination 

 and recrimination, there will be mutual conces- 

 sions, and all will wheel into line, excepting the 

 State of South Carolina, in which the delusion is 

 so morbid as to require some two or more years 

 of suffering to effect a cure. 



But to the purpose of my letter. I have read 

 and re-read your treatise, and at rather an ad- 

 vanced period of life have inaugurated a system 

 of underground drainage, which I cannot in the 

 course of nature expect to complete, but which I 

 hope to leave in such a condition as to induce 

 those who follow me to perfect ; and thinking 

 that your position justifies me, I venture to ask a 

 few questions, which I hope will not be consid- 

 ered an intrusion. 



1. I cannot without a very heavy outlay of cash 

 procure tiles, unless I can manufacture them my- 

 self. I have substituted pitch pine lumber ; sawed 

 2, 3, 4 and 5 inches wide by one thick ; by put- 

 ting the 2 and 3 inch pieces together, I procure 

 a vent (for side drains) of 2 square inches ; 3 and 

 4 gives me 4^ inches, and 4 and 5 of 8 square 

 inches. I put the plank together at right angles, 

 thus /\, using no bottom plank, unless (which is 

 rarely the case) the bottom is miry ; the angle is 

 at the top, and generally the bottom being a 

 hard clay, with the slight fall I am obliged to 

 give the drain there is no wearing of it ; the 

 cost of the materials, exclusive of carting, is, re- 

 spectively, 2^,3.^ and 4^ cents per lineal yard ; this 

 is exclusive of the cost of nails ; the labor of put- 

 ting them together, excavating and filling is done 

 by my "African fellow-creatures," who excavate 

 4 feet deep, 22 lineal yards a day. The obvious 

 objection to this plan is the liability of the plank 

 to decay. If I could be certain the plank -would 

 never get dry, I should be also certain that they 

 would be indestructible. I should like to know 

 your opinion on this subject. I have inaugurated 

 some extensive experiments to ascertain that fact, 

 but it will take some years to obtain accurate re- 

 sults. 



2. My farms are generally what we call river 

 land, viz. : either alluvion proper, and more sub- 

 ject to inundation, or lands which Avere, to all ap- 

 pearance, in years long gone by, formed by the 

 river. Generally it lies in ridges with intervals, 

 the inclination being with the course of the riv- 

 er ; these ridges are in places very obvious ; in 

 others it requires a nicer observation to detect 



them ; in places the fall is considerable, but the 

 general inclination is something like two feet to 

 the mile ; with small exceptions the soil, after some 

 two feet, is a very firm and tenacious clay. I 

 have excavated large, open ditches, the whole 

 length of the farm, which I dare not cover, as at 

 times they are absolutely necessary to carry off 

 the water of inundation. I carry the covered 

 drains into these ditches, or some branch of them, 

 which I think safe to leave open ; the covered 

 drains are four feet deep. I always run the main 

 covered drain in the interval between the ridgea 

 above mentioned. 



3. I cannot procure either small stones or grav- 

 el to commence filling up with ; I have generally 

 to use cornstalks, and principally what we call 

 shucks, and you call husks ; to a limited extent I 

 have used the leaf of the pitch pine, and to a 

 moi'e limited extent, pitch pine saw-dust. I could 

 very easily use corn cobs, either just clean or in 

 various stages of decomposition ; they rot rapidly. 



4. The country being so flat, a rapid fall can- 

 not be given to the drains ; if it should be tried 

 they would soon run out to the surface. I have 

 adopted the rule of giving one inch in everjf 

 thirty-two yards, and if I cannot maintain a depth 

 of four feet at that rate, I cut at right angles to 

 an open ditch in a lower level, cover the cut, and 

 go on again. 



Now, my dear sir, having given you the prin- 

 ciples which, in adherence to your treatise, I have 

 adopted, and the general character of my land, 

 there arise a number of questions which I may 

 now venture to address to you, viz. : How far 

 in a close clay soil will a four foot drain proba- 

 bly affect that soil ? In putting down lateral drains 

 from the main drain, (vide No. 3 above,) how far 

 is it best to run them on, and into the ridges 

 above mentioned ? What distances should the 

 lateral drains be apart, so as to insure upon such 

 land a discharge of the entire fall of rain with- 

 out the aid of open ditches ? I have thus far put 

 them 60 feet apart. Is a fall of one inch in thir- 

 ty-two yards sufficient without a great many lat- 

 eral drains ? Supposing two open ditches, 100 

 yards apart, without any perceptible falls between 

 them, would a perfectly level covered drain con- 

 necting them, maintain itself open, so as to be 

 valuable, or would it be best to drain from the 

 bottom of one to say within six inches of the 

 bottom of the other, (alternately,) giving each 

 all the fall that can be obtained ? 



I wish very much to manufacture my own tiles, 

 preferring tiles to lumber. Have you any addi- 

 tional information as to tile machines ? and is 

 clay which will make a good brick suitable for 

 tiles ? There are other matters which may rise 

 from the points above mentioned, which may 

 strike you, and pass unnoticed by me ; any in- 

 formation will be most thankfully received. The 

 main doubt in my mind as to my system is wheth- 

 er I am not wrong in using lumber rather than 

 tiles. I find the cash cost of tiles to be about 

 double that of plank ; there is less carting, and 

 the tile are put down more rapidly. 



There is one peculiarity of my position which 

 renders me rather anxious. I live at or near the 

 extreme northern limit of the cotton culture. By 

 rendering my land dry, and of course warm, I 

 give length to the season, and make the crops 

 more certain. I have a kind of land, which I 



