"i^Tyye^-TT^f^v;^^^ 



172 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMER. 



June 



Figure 1* 

 Shows how tl^ese small water courses ra- 

 diate; (I is the outlet, which must be an 

 open drain or stream into which the water 

 can be diHcharged on a level with the mole 

 drain, so that no back-water will occur, h 

 shows the lar^e mole or drain, and e the 

 small ones or laterals. 



Fig. 2.* 



a, mol'' ; b, cutler, the lower part of which is 

 closed by the ear h forced up by the mole ; c, the 

 arable land : <l, wet land ; ce, strata of clay that 

 holds ihe water. 



In Fig. 2 we have a representation of the 

 upland deprcsssions and showing how they 

 are drained. On every farm these are more 

 or less numerous, and in the time of heavy 

 rains, and fur some time after, are so wet 

 that they are not tillable. By taking 

 off the water through the mole these are at 

 once ready fur working. 



We bad a main drain made of some one 

 hundred rods, and some three to six rods 

 distant from the open ditch before mention- 

 ed, and a lateral one of some fifty rods run- 

 ning through a depression of the upland, in 

 the corn field, for some days the lower end of 

 the drain could not discharge all the water 

 pressing into it, and the land for forty or 

 fifty rods at the lower end was not drained 

 at all until the water began to subside, when 

 it was quickly drained. This mole now dis- 

 charges nearly twice as much water as the 

 open ditch a mile in length, being over 

 twice the distance, and heading in a large 

 pond. We are now satisfied that we have as 

 long a drain as we need to do efficient work 

 and to fully drain the slough at its lateral 

 branches we shall run up several main drains 

 from the oittlct as shown in Fig. 1. We 

 think one great error committed in mole 

 draining has been in making the drains too 

 long, in such eases draining only the upper 

 portion of the land. To remedy this we 

 would recommend that no drains be over 

 two hundred rods in length ; if more length 

 is needed better begin back to the outlet and 

 run up another parallel drain so as to give 



* Tht^ o'lera- i' g l!iistr:<tirg tliese figures vere not re- 

 cmved in time for publication in this number; they will a^-- 

 piar in cur iiext. 



ample room for the water to pass out freely. 

 The number of these will depend upon the 

 amount of water and the fall of the slough. 

 Another error of no small magnitude has 

 been the shallow moles. Ours are three and 

 a half feet deep, and we would not consent 

 to have them any shallower. These were 

 made by the old machine used for several 

 years by Mr. Marquiss, of Piatt. He says 

 that shallow drains, as a general thing, are 

 worthless, and that no drain should be less 

 than three feet. The reason of this is plain, 

 as the soil, becoming arreated in these shal- 

 low drains, it soon crumbles down and fills 

 up the mole. To use these moles the ground 

 must at the time be completely saturated 

 with water, and it is useless to try to use the 

 machine where the land is dry, for in that 

 case none but an imperfect shallow drain 

 can be made. In making tile drain great 

 care is always exercised in having the bot- 

 tom of a gradual descent, as a depression of 

 a few inches will allow sediment to fill in 

 and continually fill up the drain. This may 

 be the work of years, but one that is sure in 

 its results ; but in the use of these moles 

 little aitention has been paid to this very 

 important point. It is true that several ma- 

 chines have been constructed to raise and 

 lower the mole at pleasure, but, practically, 

 we do not think they have accomplished 

 much. We need a better engineering skill 

 in this direction, and careful levels taken 

 before we begin the work ; in no other way 

 can we avoid this difliculty In one of our 

 upland drains, through a depression, as 

 shown in Fig. 2, is a depression of over a 

 foot, which will in time ruin the drain above 

 that point. On the machine used there was 

 no apparatus for raising or lowering of the 

 mole, consequently so soon as the soft mud 

 like soil of the basin was reached the ma- 

 chine buried itself nearly a foot deep, 

 making the drain at this point over four 

 feet deep. Though the Messrs. Marquiss 

 were the first to set the ball in motion, yet 

 they have not availed themselves of the new 

 improvements, and their machine is almost 



