1861.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIS T. 
297 
Draining—Why—Where—How. 
(Continued from, pages 35, 70, 105, 137, 100, 201, 233, 264.) 
SUNDRY HINTS. 
Depth and Distance Apart op Drains.— 
These two topics are usually discussed separately 
but are closely connected. The deeper the drain, 
the greater the distance that it will draw water 
from the soil upon either side, that is within rea¬ 
sonable limits. It may be so deep as to fail to 
drain the upper soil at all. In compact clay 
soils, 3 feet, or at most 3 2 feet, is deep enough, 
though when filled up for a foot or two from 
the bottom with stones or loose soil, it amounts 
to a double drain, and m% be made deeper. In 
heavy clay soils, drains will not be effective for 
more than 12 to 15 feet on either side, and they 
should therefore be placed only 25 to 30 feet 
apart. In more open, porous, or loamy land, 
water will work through the soil to a great dis¬ 
tance, and drains may be placed further apart, 
generally not more than 3 to 3j rods, if thorough 
effective draining be intended. Where the sur¬ 
face is quite sandy or gravely, for a depth of 
three or four feet, but lies upon a clay bed be¬ 
low which holds water in excess in the surface, 
drains may be 4 or 5 rods apart. The water will 
readily find its way into them. The soil between 
any two drains may be considered as a ridge 
from which the water flows down an inclined 
plane each way into the adjacent drains. Thus, 
in fig. 34, drains a and 6, are, say four rods apart. 
—1st. If the soil be porous, the water from all the 
soil above the lower dotted line, d, will be car¬ 
ried off.-2nd. If the soil be but moderately 
porous, only the water above the middle dotted 
line, e, will flow off readily, and under c there will 
be but imperfect drainage.-3d. If the soil be 
a compact clay, only the water above the upper 
dotted lines, /,/, will readily enter the drains, and 
there will be a wet spot left at c. In the fiist 
case, 4 rods apart will be near enough. In the 
second, the distance apart should be reduced to 
3 rods; and in the third case the drains should 
be only about 2 rods apart.-By placing the 
drains, a and 6, deeper, the upper lines will be 
lowered, but their length will be increased, re¬ 
quiring the water to flow further through the soil. 
It must also be taken into account that the 
deeper the drains, the greater is the cost of dig¬ 
ging, compara¬ 
tively. It re¬ 
quires nearly 
twice the labor 
to dig three 
feet deep, that 
it does to dig 
two feet; and 
a drain four 
feet is nearly twice as costly as three feet. It will 
therefore often be better,on the score of economy 
alone, to dig shallower ditches, nearer together. 
Taking into account all the above considera¬ 
tions, we think, as a general rule, that in com¬ 
pact clay soils, the top of the drains should be 
about 21 to 3 feet deep, and 25 to 30 feet • apart. 
In loams admitting water through them more 
freely, the drains may be 8 to 3 k feet deep, and 
three rods apart. In still more porous surface 
soils, the drains may be four or more rods apart, 
and 3 to 4 feet deep. All drains should be placed 
below the possible reach of the common plow, 
or of the subsoil plow. 
DIGGING DRAINS. 
This has been mainly done with the spade so 
far. • Several machines have been invented for 
this purpose, but we have seen none in opera¬ 
tion which w t c are fully prepared to recommend 
for general use. There is here a good opportu¬ 
nity for ingenious inventors, and we know of no 
more promising field for the exercise of their 
skill. What is needed is a simple cheap imple¬ 
ment that, when worked by oxen or horses, 
will excavate a drain three to four feet deep with 
rapidity and economy. We shall endeavor to 
keep our readers advised of any practical im¬ 
provements in this direction. 
The cost of digging with a spade 
is not so great as many w r ould 
suppose. The work may be done 
at odd spells, when laborers on 
the farm are not otherwise en¬ 
gaged. Cheap men, those who 
are skillful at few kinds of gen¬ 
eral work, can be employed to 
dig drains at a low rate. A great saving will 
be effected, if the digging be let out by the piece. 
For example, we once hired a man at a dollar 
a day (boarding himself), and set him to digging 
a drain averaging 3j feet deep, and as narrow as 
he found it convenient to work in, which was 
20 inches at the top and 12 inches at the bottom. 
For some time he opened only 3 to 4 rods a day. 
We then dismissed him, but offered him a dollar 
for every five rods, or 20 cents a rod. He de¬ 
murred at this and left, but not finding other 
Fig. 35. 
work he came back and dug 2,000 teet at the 
rate of 8 )■ rods a day, thus earning §1.07 each 
day ! He afterwards took another job at 1GJ 
cents a rod, for 3&- feet in depth. The labor of 
digging can be much lessened, generally, by run¬ 
ning a plow backward and forward several 
times. A good plow will throw out the soil to 
a depth of nearly a foot. Below this the soil 
can be loosened with a plow, and then thrown 
out with shovels. A single horse will walk in 
the drain, when three feet deep, and loosen a 
few inches at every passage of the plow. If the 
soil be very hard, two or more horses may be 
used in the ditch tandem —one before the other, 
(fig. 35)—and thus nearly all of the ground 
can be plowed. Or, a long double-tree, or even- 
Fig. 36. 
er, may be adopted, and one horse or a pair of 
them, or a yoke of oxen, be driven along on each 
side of the ditch. Or, still again, a pair of wheels 
and axle may be used, (Fig. 36.) For wide, 
deep stone ditches, a considerable portion of 
the digging may be done with a plow and a 
common road scraper. We have seen 2% feet 
deep thus removed rapidly and economically, 
the top being six feet or more wide. The re¬ 
maining depth, 2 feet, was loosened with the 
plow, and thrown out with shovel. The whole 
cost of digging 4£ feet deep was not quite 20 
cents a rod. The earth was returned in the 
same way—the lower 2 feet with shovels, and 
the upper two with the scraper. For ordinary 
draining, perhaps the digging can be done at pre ¬ 
sent with the spade, by contract, quite as cheap¬ 
ly as in any other way, especially w'hcre there are 
plenty of unskilled laborers at hand. For con¬ 
venience of filling, it is best to throw the good 
surface soil on one side, and the poorer subsoil 
on the other, to be returned in the same order. 
TRAPS AND OBSERVING HOLES. 
In continuous drains of 400 feet or more in 
length, and especially if main drains, it is desi¬ 
rable to provide traps for catching clay and 
sand that may find their way into the drains. 
The trap may also answer for an “ observ¬ 
ing hole ” to see how a drain is working at 
that point. It may also serve as a reservoir ot 
water for animals, when needed for this pur¬ 
pose. A trap may be made in several ways. 
The simplest form is shown in fig. 37, where a 
hogshead is sunk in the soil. The water com¬ 
ing in through e, deposites its sand and clay at 
the bottom, while the clear water flows off at 
the right through 0 . By removing the cover c, 
the sand accumulated at the bottom can be 
taken out 
whenever 
needed. The 
amount a n d 
regularity o f 
the flow of wa¬ 
ter at that point 
can also be ob¬ 
served, and the 
supply at the 
bottom can be 
used for drink¬ 
ing, or for wa¬ 
ter i n g ani¬ 
mals. In per¬ 
manent drains it is better to construct these 
traps of more durable material than wood. A 
small cistern of stone or brick work, (fig. 38,) 
two or three feet square, plastered inside with 
hydraulic mortar, answers all the ends desired. 
The cover may be of plank, or a flag stone may 
be laid on. If to be used for obtaining water, 
the cover should be movable, and perhaps hung 
on hinges. Where only required for catching 
sand, and to be examined only once or twice a 
year, the cover may be sunk a foot or two below 
the surface, and covered with soil, which can be 
shoveled off when necessary. 
Such traps are sometimes made of cast iron, 
and only a few inches in diameter. These may 
answer when not too expensive, and where 
there is a considerable fall, and a good outlet to 
the drain. If it is desirable to render the water 
nearly pure as it passes through, the trap 
should be made 3 or 4 feet in diameter, and 2 or 3 
feet in depth below the entrance and exit pipes. 
