858 
JUNE © 
apply the lex talionis. Stockmen ought to 
begin a row at once, if they can spare time 
from their ranch speculations. 
farm (LVononuj. 
TILE DRAINAGE-No. 7. 
SEC. W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
How to Drain. 
In a former article I tried to show what 
circumstances, what soils, prices of land, con¬ 
dition of markets, etc-, would justify thorough 
drainage. Suppose now it is decided to drain 
thoroughly a field or a considerable portion 
of a farm having clayey subsoil. We must 
consider, first, 
The Materials.—I raise no question 
whether we shall use tiles or something else: 
for universal experience now declares that 
tiles are not only better and more durable 
than other forms of drain, but even cheaper 
if cost of digging and laying be considered. 
Even where stones are abundant, the flitch 
must be dug so much wider, and laying 
the stones will take so much longer than laying 
the tiles that the latter will be found cheaper. 
The Kind op Tiles. —Shall they be porous 
or not? Nearly all the water, at any rate, 
enters at the joints. There is, therefore, no 
need that the tiles should be porous. If any 
one doubts that the water can enter at the 
joints fast enough, let him set even the truest- 
cut tile on end on a level floor and try to fill it 
with water. He will find it will run out about 
as fast as he can pour it in. In a former ar¬ 
ticle i spoke of root obstruction where water 
from a spring on higher land flowed in tiles 
through a wheat or clover field in dry Sum¬ 
mer weather. Then the tiles should t>e porous 
to admit the water, and the ends bedded in 
cement to exclude the roots. Except under 
such circumstances I do not think the tiles 
need be porous. If porous they will crumble 
in time, especially near the outlet. I would 
never buy tiles unless they were quite hard- 
burned, so as to give a clear metallic or bell¬ 
like ring when struck with a small hammer or 
against each other, Then they will last, and 
permanence should be sought in drainage. 1 
have myself for some years used tiles made of 
potters’ clay (not mere brick clay) and glazed. 
They will not soak any more than a glazed 
jug or crumble by freezing. I am sure a drain 
made of them will last very long if properly 
laid. 
The Shape of the Tiles. -The inside of 
the tiles should be circular. Sole tiles are 
faulty even if circular inside, for the follow¬ 
ing reason: tiles will warp L or bend more or 
less. If, now, a sole tile warps siileirise, it is 
all right, [f the ends waip downward it will 
do. But if the ends warp upward then the 
tile will rock and get out of place. If a flat 
surface is desired so as not to have to cut a 
groove to lay the tile in, then tiles circular in¬ 
side and hexagonal outside are just the thing. 
You have six flat sides to choose from in case 
the tile is waiped. But it is better to cut a 
groove in the bottom of the ditch at any rate. 
It makes a truer level and a better job and 
holds each tile in exact line, and then round 
tiles can be laid as well as any. 
The Sizes of Tiles. —Where the laud is 
somewhat rolling so that it will have an av¬ 
erage fall of six inches or a foot to the 100 
feet (one in 100 or one in 200) two-inch tiles 
may be used for all laterals. Waring and 
some other authors speak of inch and ineh- 
and-a-half sizes; but they are now entirely 
discarded, and justly. They are too small and 
fill too easily. On very level prairie and 
swamp laud even the two-ineh, aud sometimes 
the three-inch are discarded. It is better to 
have the tiles too large than too small. They 
should be large enough to free the land rap¬ 
id! ij of surplus moisture; to remove the heav¬ 
iest probable rainfall within 12 or at least 24 
hours of the close of the downpour; otherwise 
crops will be destroyed. The size of the tiles 
will, of course,depend largely upon the leugth, 
and especially 
The Distance of the Drains— The dis¬ 
tance apart will depend, again, on the char¬ 
acter of the soil. In the compact drift clay 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
soils of Ohio, Indiana and New York, origin¬ 
ally covered with Elm, Beech, Maple, Hick¬ 
ory and similar timber, the laterals should 
not be more than 83 to 40 feet apart. They 
will not “draw” or properly drain the land 
further than that. But in the deep, black, 
prairie soils of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa the 
‘suction range” is much greater. The black, 
soil is often three feet deep, and then shades 
ofT downward gradually into the yellow clay, 
and does not entirely disappear till a depth of 
five or six feet is readied. This black soil is 
quite porous, and a tile drain will “draw” to 
a distance of 50 feet or more on each side. 
And so, if a whole field were to be thoroughly 
drained there, the laterals could be laid 100 
feet apart, or at least .50 to 00. Thou, of 
coui-se, they must lie larger, because they have 
more surface to drain, as well as because the 
land is more nearly level and, therefore, the 
flow will not lie so rapid. On the Illiuois 
prairies, and the similar lauds in Northwest¬ 
ern Ohio, the laterals are usually three inch¬ 
es, or even four inches (in inside diameter) 
and the mains from six to twelve inches. In 
the rolling, heavy day soils of Ohio and New 
York the laterals are usually two inches and 
the maius four to six inches in diameter. Two 
things determine the necessary size of a given 
tile or drain—the rapidity of the fall auil the 
area drained. The old rule Used to be: square 
the diameter and it gives the area in acres. 
Thus a three-inch tile (main) should drain nine 
acres, and a four-inch main should drain 15 
acres; but my own experience shows that this 
rule is far too small for the sizes. That is, the 
sizes giveu by this rule will be far too small 
to do the work. Some seven years ago I pub¬ 
lished the following rule as the result of my ex¬ 
perience. It has just been republished with 
indorsement and due credit by Flint in his 
new- Cyclopaedia, “ The American Farmer, 
Vol. I. 
“For sizes from three to six inches and 
grades less than three feet to the 100, square 
the diameter and divide by 4. Thus: 
A s-lueh main will drain.2M acres 
A 4- *....4 “ 
a 5 -. “ . ex “ 
^ g. «« ii •* . ...,.!) “ 
For larger sizes or heavier grade it may do 
to divide by 3 instead of 4.” 
On my own farm I have drains of all sizes 
from two to six inches, and graded in size by 
the first rule, and during and after heavy 
rains they sometimes How full for several 
hours. But they do the work, and prevent 
damage to the soil and crops. 
Other numbers will speak of the tools and 
the plan and methods of work, and will en¬ 
deavor to show how to lay out systems of 
drainage for varied circumstances and how to 
save expense in the work. 
SOMETHING ABOUT COW STABLES. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
A subscriber to the Rural, from Henry 
Co., Ind., writes, asking a number of ques¬ 
tions about the arrangement of cow stables* 
Ho first refers to my recommendation, in a 
former article, that no feed boxes be used, aud 
asks, ** Would you not want a strip six inches 
wide to separate the mangers when ground 
feed is used I have always used feed boxes 
in a manger, but have found them such a 
nuisauce that when I reconstruct my stables 1 
shall leave them out and toy it. I want the 
manger so that I can sweep it out from end to 
end without obstruction, and I think if the 
floor were made perfectly tight of planed 
boards, the cattle would eat up all the meal 
without waste, if poured in a }«iil in front of 
them. Possibly I should not find this plan as 
good as I think, but I shall give it a trial when 
I have the opportunity. 
In answer to the next question, “ How deep 
should the manger be ?” 1 would raise the floor 
of the manger 12 or 15 inches above the floor 
the cattle stand on, and above the floor 1 would 
have a board 10 inches wide set up edgewise to 
keep the cattle from getting the hay or fodder 
under their feet. My stable is in a basement, 
and in order to be able to walk through the 
manger, 1 have its floor on a level with that 
the cows stand on, and to reach the hack part 
of it the cows often drop down on their knees, 
which is very annoying when we are milking. 
By raising the floor of the manger this trouble 
is avoided. 
“ How long should the floor be on which the 
cows stand when stanchions air used and how 
long when ties ?” I answer that I would 
never let the cattle .sleep with their heads in 
stanchions, for no argument can convince me 
tliat. they caji be comfortable in an unnatural 
position, and so I would make the floor long 
enough for ties and unless one expects al ways 
to keep small cows the floor should not be less 
than feet long. The floor in my stable 
lacks but one inch of six feet, and 1 have never 
had a cow get tags from what little manure 
lodged on it. We keep a hoe hanging behind 
the cows, and the first thing we do morning, 
noon or night, on entering the stable, is to 
scrape down any manure or wet bedding into 
the manure ditch. I think 1 mentioned in a 
former article that we always use sawdust for 
bedding when wo can get it. Nothing I ever 
tried will keep the cows so clean, and if the 
ditch is supplied with it, it will swell and take 
up all the liquid. 
In answer to the question, “ What kind of 
ties do you prefer I have already said I 
would uot leave cattle fastened over-night in 
stanchions. The best arranged stables I have 
ever seen had both stanchions aud ties, the 
former arranged so that one could stand at 
the end of the manger and fasten all the cattle 
in the row at once; then the ties were fastened 
and the stanchions thrown open. The most 
satisfactory tie I have ever used is the ring 
and snap. The ring slides on a rope or strap 
round the horns, which is never taken oil’, and 
the snap, which should be large and strong, is 
attached to a short rope which is fastened to 
the manger. It will pay to secure the strap 
on which you have the ring so that it will not 
turn, so you will always have the ring in the 
center of the forehead, aud this can easily be 
done by tying it to the horns with a stroug 
twine. I have never been troubled by the 
cows getting loose when fastened in this way. 
Never Burn Straw. 
The N. Y. Tribune quotes in one column the 
excellent effects of strewing the refuse litter 
from-the bottom of mows, etc., on the surface 
of dry knolls on which tlie grass is usually 
burned out by the heats of Summer; and in 
the next column mentions the Virgilian ad- 
rice to hum all such straw and all stubble as 
a means of destroying insects aud fungi. 
Enough of time has elapsed since Virgil wrote 
to see the effects of his system, which has been 
largely practised along the Mediterranean to 
this day. There, from Spain to Asia Minor, 
the high ground has been mostly reduced to 
sterility, and only the low land, which is 
naturally last to become exhausted, remains 
fit for profitable tillage. The economical 
farmer will never born a straw that he can 
use in mulch or surface dressing, to become, 
as it decays, a constituent of the humus or 
vegetable mold, which the plow rapidly uses 
up, but which is essential both for protectiou 
and as a purveyor of nutriment. w. 
tjoriicwltaral. 
SMALL FRUIT NOTES. 
Strange as it may seen, small strawberry 
patches in gardens are often greatly neglect¬ 
ed. We see five-acre fields looking well, but 
a little 7x5* plot is tangled with grass and 
weeds ; this ought not so to lie. But what 
will you do about it ? Muster resolution, take 
a narrow hoe or a broad case-knife and re¬ 
move with as little disturbance as possible, 
every daisy, clover-root, tuft of grass ; in 
fact, everything but the needed strawberry 
plants. I do not advise moving earth much 
among bearing plants ; 1 am speaking of 
neglected beds and of two evils choose the 
least. 
But now for the better way. First let the 
ground be as rich as grain-fed horse manure 
the. previous year can make it; let the pul¬ 
verization of the soil bo perfect. Now, with 
first-class plants two feet by ten inches in 
straight rows cultivate well; allow no runner 
to form new plants, but secure continuous 
solid rows of green covering two-thirds of 
the entire ground. Here you have the re¬ 
quisites for an astonishing crop of berries us 
lar ge as Earl} - Beatrice peaches, and in quality 
superb. Jersey Queens in this way were raised 
in Connecticut last year, weighing from one to 
2 % ounces, and of quality to satisfy the most 
fastidious ; but don’t suppose everyone is go¬ 
ing to do this. Oh ! no ! it is only a full coin¬ 
cidence of all the proper conditions that can 
realize such results. Now, 1 imagine some 
one will say : “Yes, but as l have no ground 
thus prepared last year, I will put on manure 
bountifully now and plant at once.” Well, 
we can easily overshoot in this direction; I 
have tried this more than once, and partially 
or wholly failed. Crude manure, or even 
finely rotted manure in full strength, is too 
much for the plants iu hot, dry weather, ami 
they often, when so treated, burn out and 
fail ; so to meet the largest measure of suc¬ 
cess, we need to be wise in advance. A 
moderate application of flue manure at plant¬ 
ing is allowable ; but a heavy dressing nets Is 
one year in which to get well incorporated 
with the soil, to make an acceptable home for 
the strawberry. 
Pistillate varieties are often among the best, 
and most productive and are specially well 
adapted to high culture aud single rows, alter 
nating with a good bi-sexual variety iu every 
third row, but the alternating bi-sexual 
variety should well match the pistillate, 
especially in the time of blooming, iu older to 
make a full success. The strong cone of the 
pistillate with the abundance of pollen from 
the other, often result in most abundant and 
satisfactory fruitage and success. 
Middlefield, Conn. r. m. augur. 
My Experience With Peas. 
I see In the Rural of May 5 that the Lan- 
dreth’s Extra Early Peas did uot have edible 
pods under SO days at the Rural Grounds. 
Here is my last year's experience with them 
and the Little Gem; perhaps it may be of some 
interest to the Rural readers:— 
On March 3,1882, 1 planted Laudreth’s Ex¬ 
tra-Early Pen. The ground was broken very 
deep and worked until well pulverized. The 
rows were marked off three feet apart, aud the 
peas sowed by hand and covered with a hoe. 
They were cultivated ns soon as they could be 
seen, and the cultivation was repeated every 
three days if the weather was favorable, until 
cultivated six times. In 14 days they were 
coming up; in +8 days they were iu bloom, and 
in 70 days they had edible pods. Thus, 34 
days from coming up they were in bloom: 24 
days from bloom they were ready for the table, 
and 55 days from germination they had edi¬ 
ble pods. 
I also planted the Little Gems on March 15, 
the same year, at the side of Laudreth's, The 
ground and subsequent cultivation were the 
same as for Landretfi’s, In 12 days they were 
coming up; in 45 days from seed they were in 
bloom, and in 70 from seed they had edible pods. 
Greenville Co., Ky. t. d. b. 
Planting Wrinkled Peas. 
A'on generally see the caution that wrinkled 
peas should not be planted too early, as there 
is a danger of their rotting in the ground. Mv • 
soil is a heavy, stiekey clay, and 1 planted 
Bliss's American Wonder—the standard among 
amateur gardeners—early iu April after a 
heavy rain. The soil was of the consistency 
of stiff paste. There has been little or no- 
warm weathersince, and any quantity of rain, 
but the peas are growing nicely, not one hav¬ 
ing missed. The Wonder is probably hardier 
than other wrinkled varieties. I have the best 
results with this pea when planted about two 
inches apart—in drills a foot apart. Every 
five foot I plant a row of tomato plants, and 
when the peas arc oil', put iu celery. The to¬ 
matoes are on the crowns between the trenches 
and if the soil is wanted for earthing up it is 
not until the tomatoes are frozen aud deposited 
in the weed heap. c. w. y. 
ft tat ford, Out., May 21. 
porno Ituv.cul 
THE BEARING YEAR. 
There seems to lie a great desire manifested 
to solve the mysteries of the bearing year. 
The fact is. nothing can be more easy to ex¬ 
plain and to understand. A tree, like an indi¬ 
vidual, cannot do everything at once. It. can¬ 
not produce wood anil fruit aud fruit buds at 
the fame time. When it is young It expends 
its energies in making wood, and when it bears 
a full crop of fruit it does not grow. When a 
young tree produces a little fruit its growth is 
effectually checked, and it is better to pick the 
buds off as the growth is worth much than 
the fruit. When a tree bears a heavy crop it 
makes neither wood nor fruit buds for the 
next season, but uses all its energies to de¬ 
velop its crop without, any regard for the fu¬ 
ture; the consequence is t he failure of t he next, 
year’s crop. The next season the tree has no 
fruit to mature aud it develops on abundance 
of fruit buds. Again, the next year the tree 
boa is abundantly aud thus is established the 
habit of hearing ©very other your. Now, if 
the tree only bears a partial crop any one sea¬ 
son, it will also develop fruit buds for the next 
and thus bear each year. If during the bearing 
year the blossoms are killed by frost, the tree 
then having no fruit to mature, will produce 
a full supply of fruit buds, und unless some 
accident, prevents, will produce a full crop of 
fruit aud thus the bearing year becomes 
changed. 
One of my neighbors had his orchard strip¬ 
ped of its leaves by the canker-worm. It bore 
no fruit that year, which was the bearing 
year, but it bore a large crop the next, and 
thus the bearing year was permanently 
changed. Whatever the previous habit of 
the tree on which the fruit failed last season, 
we have reason to expect a full crop the com¬ 
ing year, unless some accident prevents, anil 
where the crop is large we need not expect a 
crop the next year. One person took cions 
from a tree that bore on the “even” year and 
w'as surprised that the young trees bore on the 
“odd” year; another took cions from n tree 
that bore on the “odd” year and found the 
yoimg trees bore the “even” year, hence the 
inference that grafting changed the bearing 
year. The fact is, the bearing year of the pa¬ 
rent tree has no influence whatever on that of 
