[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1882, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
the ditches are dug, even though no water may 
appear as each spadeful is thrown up, yet the 
water will slowly ooze up from the bottom 
after the last course is dug out, and when the 
gutter is cut for the tile to rest in, will flow in 
a minute stream in the bottom of it, and 
show all depressions and enable you to cut a 
uniform grade, which is of great importance. 
Another reason why it is best to lay tiles 
when the ground is quite damp is that the 
earth can be packed so much better above the 
tiles. If it is thrown in when dry and crum¬ 
bled it will not pack well, and the water will 
wash down from the surface directly into the 
tiles and carry silt and dirt, and, in time, 
perhaps, choke the drain. But if damp, the 
earth above the tiles can be packed so as to 
prevent this, and this is important. The 
water should be forced into the bottom and 
sides of the tiles by the lateral hydrostatic 
pressure, and should never come directly 
down from surface streams or pools. 
3d. The best time to drain is when labor is 
cheap, work is not pressing and the weather 
is cool. These three conditions meet mainly 
from November till May. It needs no argu¬ 
ment to prove this third proposition. The 
only question is whether there may not be 
obstacles that counterbalance the advantages, 
such as snow frost and rains. True, but these 
hinder nearly all farm work. But in an open 
Winter, anywhere south 
of the latitude of New 
York, Cleveland and Chi¬ 
cago, drainage may be 
profitably carried o n 
nearly all the time from 
November to May, if pro¬ 
perly planned and eon- 
’’iprr " ducted; and the expens 
i 11|| , „ of draining then is reduce 
to the minimum, for not 
J&qU ^ much other profitable farm 
m j work can be done in a soft 
ffif ■”*“* Winter. Last Winter in 
i Ohio and Illinois drainage 
y, 1 could have been carried 
t on nearly all the time 
: from December to March, 
and a farm owner with 
1 ' j one man could havedrain- 
./ jh. ed at least six or eight 
acres of land, with tiles 
laid three feet deep and 
two rods apart. The cost 
..i. to the farmer would be 
thus little more than the 
actual cost of the tiles, and 
^ the work would add solid 
AVSV.v-.s-: " wealth to the land. The 
■ ‘ yt- 1 cost of labor I say would 
y ...be small, for it would 
■ otherwise be unemployed. 
Men can be hired for the 
full year on a farm for 
about the same amount as 
for nine months. 
The necessary prepar 
ation for Winter drainage is simply to lay 
off the field in October or November, with 
a team or plow, as described above, and to 
properly distribute the tiles before the 
grouud is too soft. They can be laid in 
piles of 33 each, at intervals of two rods 
and then distributed by hand as needed for 
laying. A deep, heavy snow interferes con¬ 
siderably with the work, but a light snow 
of three or four inches is little hindrance and 
it keeps the earth from freezing in tt e fur¬ 
rows. Cold weather will not stop the work 
unless the thermometer is about 15 degrees 
below freezing, as the spades are kept warm 
by being constantly thrust their whole length 
into the warm clay. But in Winter all dirt 
thrown out with the spade should be returned 
as soon as the tiles are laid, to prevent freez¬ 
ing; and all work should be neatly finished up 
each night In Winter the drainage must 
easier, it shows the water level better, and it 
makes it possible to pack the dirt better in fill¬ 
ing. It is worth noticing, too, that the subsoil 
is far more likely to be s i turated, or at least 
moist, under a tilled soil than under wheat, 
mead <w or pasture. Nothing seems to suck 
the moisture out of Boil or subsoil like Timothy 
turf. I have often had occasion to run a drain 
out from a plowed field into a meadow or 
pasture, or at least through a sodded fence- 
row, and have always found the ground far 
drier (if it was dry anywhere) and the digging 
far harder under the turf. Hence I say again, 
I never would drain a field while it is in turf 
if it was possible to avoid it. 
To dig easily, clay subsoil must be quite 
moist. If very dry it may be necessary to use 
the pick or mattock to loosen it, and this 
doubles the labor. But almost any clay sub¬ 
soil, if saturated or even very moist, digs 
easily, so that a good ditching spade can be 
“sent home” to the depth of ten or twelve 
inches by the skillful use of very little strength 
and time. But it takes skill to use the ditch¬ 
ing spade rapidly and well, and that must be 
spoken of at another time. 
Another advantage under the second head 
(digging when the soil is saturated) is that it 
shows the water level. This is a great advan¬ 
tage. A practiced eye will easily detect a 
slope of a foot, or even half a foot, to the hun¬ 
depends upon several circumstances connected 
with the condition of the soil and subsoil, the 
season of the year, and the weather. 
1st. As a rule, it is best to drain when the 
field is plowed, and, for the time being, fallow. 
It makes the digging easier, and permits more 
of the work to be done wilh teams. Fore¬ 
thought should be exercised in getting the 
field in proper condition. Wherever a field 
is to be thoroughly and systematically drained 
and it can be done by a system of laterals 
parallel to each other and to the size of the 
field, as in Fig. 890, page 714, a great saving 
in digging cun be effected by plowing so that 
the dead furrows shall come just where the 
drains are to be. If the dead furrows are 
made to coma in the same place for two suc¬ 
cessive plowings, we really have a trench two 
feet wide and a foot deep, dug at no cost at 
all. Then if another furrow is plowed, with 
a stroug team, in the bottom of this wide dead 
furrow we have nearly or quite IS inches in 
depth, at almost no expense. Then two moder¬ 
ate courses with the spade put the ditch down 
3(5 inches, which is enough under all ordinary 
circumstances. Then, too, only the first foot, 
or 18 iuches, need to be filled by hand and 
tamped, and the other 18 inches or two feet, 
may be plowed in. Then by turning the fur¬ 
rows towards the drain at the next one or two 
plowing*, the field will be made level again. 
BLANKETED DUTCH CATTLE, 
BREED of 
, ate-sized, 
profit able, 
r * 1 £> and hi shiy 
A Hr/] valued cattle 
known as 
sheeted, belt- 
jjfSa keted cattle 
been kept in 
R ~~ the country 
where dairying is a leading pursuit. This stock 
*8 of Dutch extraction, and indeed the pair 
of which we give [or:i aits from photo¬ 
graphs, belong to a herd of imported cattle 
now kept in Delaware for dairy purposes. A 
large number of these cattle are kept in 
Orange Co., N. Y. for tho production of milk 
and considerable care has been taken there to 
Jceep up and Improve the character of the 
herds. The stock kept by General Grant upon 
his farm near St. Louis, 
was of this breed, although ^ 
from a casual view oi 
his had some years ago it 
was clear that that distin- ; c V 
guisbed man might never 
have made a great reputa- 
tion had he been confined ' s ’• 
to the command of a dairy. . aBBi 
Thete cattle are of medium ^ 
size, not nearly so large at 
the spotted Dutch cattli , 5 
from North Holland whicl " , v 
by many are called, bul 
wrongly, Holstein; and tVfcjSfc.- 
perhaps on the whole are 1 1HB 
not such copious milker?, a 
unkss comparative size be -1 
considered, in which case smusam 
we believe these sheeted ri 7 ji 
cattle would not lose by fll oS 
the comparison. They are J® yJK 
fine-boned, well-built, 
and compact, good feed- IwPHijS 
era and put tbeir feed to £ fpjwi; Xgj 
good use. They are rarely "SttV • SrlrlSS 
out of good condition and 4 - iJm'h|b 
are therefore well adapted S?'- 
to the dairy as they are a? s’’ 
readily fatted for beef W t 
when past profitable milk- 1 
ing. They are active JSS?” 
and easily kept, and are ^ > 
therefore at home on the 
rough and usually hilly 
localities, which, by a 
peculiar fitness of things, 
are generally given over to dairying. The in¬ 
terest in this breed, however, d. pends chit tty on 
their peculiar marking, and as all with varia¬ 
tions from the broad baud of white ai e rejected 
as breeders, the markings have become fixed. 
BLANKETED DUTCH BULL.— Pig. 424 
dred, but will not always detect the smaller 
inequalities. If uow the field is plowed in 
October, and the dead furrows left where the 
lat-ral and maiu drains are to be, then the 
heavy Autumn raius will show all minor ine¬ 
qualities of surface, too small to be detected 
by the eye, and will thus save much expensive 
work of surveyor or engineer with the theod¬ 
olite, or transit and level; for after a heavy 
rain the water will stand iu long puddles in 
all the depressions of the furrows, and by 
going over the whole field again with a good 
single horse and plow, the high portions can 
be plowed anil shoveled out and the bottoms 
of all the furrows be reduced to a uniform 
grade. Theu, if two spades’ length are dug 
down uniformly from this grade all the way, 
the bottom of the last digging will be a uniform 
grade for the tiles to rest upon. Not only 
that, if the ground is fairly saturated when 
But if the work is done in a field that is turf, 
and to remain turf, or that is occupied by a 
growing crop*, then the first course must be 
removed with spade and line and the whole 
work of digging and filling must be done by 
band. Old Country ditchers usually scout the 
idea that any of the digging or filling can be 
advantageously done with team power (except 
with a regular ditching machine); but many 
years’ experience iu laying tile amounting to 
nearly 15 miles, mostly on my own land, have 
convinced me that we cannot afford ,o use 
man-power except when horse power cannot 
be used to advantage. Hence, I say we should 
drain when the field is or can be plowed, so 
that we can use horse-power to best advantage. 
2 d. We should drain, if possible, when the 
ground is saturated with water. 
The advantages of this are many. The more 
xaxm 
co no mij 
TILE DR AIN AGE-No. 4. 
W. I. CHAMBERLAIN, 
When to Drain. 
The natural order wuuld be to write on 
“Where to Druiu,” before writing on “ When 
to Drain.” But the best season for drainage 
is almost upon us, and any words in regard to 
the time to drain must come at once, to be 
timely for this year. The best time to drain 
*. UV UU * W* «»»»»' V UAMAJ J « M. UW UlVk V/ 
important cues are that it makes the digging 
1 
