UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Contribution from the Office of Public Roads and Rural 

 Engineering, LOGAN WALLER PAGE, Director. 



Washington. D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 



November 19, 1915 



[Revision of Office of Experiment Stations Bulletin No. 243.] 



LAND DRAINAGE BY MEANS OF PUMPS. 



By S. M. Woodward, Drainage Engineer. 



[Revised with special reference to the Upper Mississippi Valley by C. W. Okey, Senior Drainage 



Engineer.! 



CONTENTS 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Effectiveness of drainage reclamation 2 



Drainage pumping in northern Europe 4 



Past experience in the United States 6 



Drainage by pumping in the Mississippi 



Volley 7 



Sue of pumping districts .. 8 



Levees 9 



Location 9 



Design 10 



Construction 11 



Maintenance 12 



Interior drainage ditches 13 



Gravity sluiceways 19 



Design of pumping plant 20 



Necessary capacity of pumping machin- 

 ery 20 



Drainage by pumping in the Mississippi 

 Valley — Continued. 

 Design of pumping plant — Continued. 



Location of pumping plant 34 



Types of pumping machinery 34 



Sources of power 37 



Kind of engine or motor 38 



Auxiliaries 39 



Calculation of size of pumping plant ■ 39 



Buildings and foundations 42 



Arrangement of suction and discharge 



piping 43 



Amount and cost of pumping 49 



Operation and maintenance 53 



Present status of drainage by pumping 55 



Summary 56 



INTRODUCTION. 



The drainage of low-lying lands by the use of pumping machinery 

 to lift the drainage water over levees into adjacent streams or other 

 drainage channels is a recent development in this country. Along 

 the banks of many of our larger interior rivers considerable areas of 

 bottom land are subject to overflow from the adjacent streams dur- 

 ing the high water occurring usually with great regularity through- 

 out the spring and "early summer months. Such lands in their 

 native state do not become dry enough to be subject to ordinary 

 cultural operations until well toward the middle of the summer, and 



Note.-/] hi i bulletin treat in general of the drainage of land which lies so low that it must ix> protected 

 from o and the drainage water pumped oul of the protected areaowing to lacls of gravity 



outlet. The bulletin hat pedal reference to lo I tagbottom lands along the larger streams oi tin upper 



l& 1 



