1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEK. 



171 



Would it not be better for any farmer who 

 intends to purchase a farm to purchase 

 enough less to save the money to drain what 

 he does purchase ; he will have less fencing, 

 less plowing, less land to travel over, while 

 his crops will be more certain — pay him a 

 better per centage on his labors and capital. 

 For the orchardist we look upon draining as 

 almost absolutely essential; of course, fair 

 crops are and will continue to be grown in 

 favorable locations, but this will not do for 

 the million who need and should have an 

 abundance of good fruit. The peculiar na- 

 ture of the prairie soil is such that it is 

 readily saturated with water in its upper 

 stratas, and therefore needs free outlets to 

 carry it oil through or over the soil. When 

 this is accomplished its depth and friability 

 is at once secured, and trees and plants make 

 a healthy and vigorous growth, but if this 

 water is left in the soil to evaporate, it has 

 a damaging effect upon the roots of both 

 trees and plants. 



The drawback to tile draining has been 

 the want of tile. Hundreds of our farmers 

 would have given this mode of draining a 

 thorough trial, but for this defect/ This 

 difl&eulty will not long be in the way, as we 

 are are assured that plenty of the common 

 sizes will be made in Chicago the present 

 season, and when their manufacture is once 

 established in Chicago the business will soon 

 extene to every part of the State where 

 there is suitable clay. As we propose 

 to discuss different modes of draining we 

 do not wish the reader to lose sight of one 

 great fact, that while other modes are only 

 applicable under certain circumstances, that 

 tile is a sure thing under any and all circum- 

 stances. 



THE MOLE DRAIN. 



The history of mole draining reaches back 

 to the early working of the English Feins, 

 nearly a hundred years, and may be said to 

 have given birth to the idea of burnt tile, 

 which in all heavy, tenacious clays, have 



become the only article considered of value 

 in such soils. 



Within the last ten years the mole drain 

 has been re -invested with more or less of 

 popular value. The Messrs. Marquiss, 

 of Piatt county, Illinois, were the first to 

 bring it into note and test its practical value. 

 Since then a large number of parties have 

 taken out patents for improvements, not only 

 on the form of the mole, but to regulate its 

 depth and other devices to add to its value. 

 From the fact that tile had superceded the 

 use of the mole in England, and from par- 

 tial failures we have imbibed a prejudice 

 against it at the outset, but time has proved 

 that its use to a certain extent in cert dn lo- 

 calities is of real value. We have before 

 said in a previous number that its use in 

 Southern Illinois was of little or no value ; 

 and, from further enquiry, we are satisfied 

 that in all of the liriie mud drift it is of no 

 value. The northern line of this drift is 

 near the T. H. & Alton Railroad. Northern 

 Illinois presents a great variety of soils, and 

 consequently the mole drain has widely va- 

 ried in its value. The soil of Central Illi- 

 nois is more constant in its character and 

 generally consists of a heavy clay loam, 

 which is permeable to moisture by innnmera- 

 ble veins and pores, and it is in such soils 

 that the mole is of the greatest value. Of 

 their permanency we can as yet say but little, 

 as the oldest drains are not over seven or 

 eight years old, yet all of these continue in 

 good repair, and for aught that can be seen 

 to the contrary, will yet last a long time. In 

 the absence of tile they have proved of no 

 small value in furnishing water for stock. 

 A mole run for a mile or two along the bed 

 of a slough has seldom if ever failed to pro- 

 duce an abundant supply of water the year 

 round. 



The main drains are made with a large 

 mole, and the lateral ones with a smaller 

 one. Most of our sloughs branch off fan- 

 shaped, and in these fans or branches a 

 small mole will answer. 



