1909. 
THE RURAL* NEW-YORKER 
415 
The grade of mains has nnich to do in determining 
the amount of water they will carry. According to 
Elliott in “Engineering for Farm Drainage,” this 
eight-inch main would require a grade of about nine 
inches to 100 feet in order to remove one inch of 
water from the 30 acres in 24 hours. With the light 
grade of one inch to the 100 feet only a half inch 
of water would be removed in the same time. So if 
we had to remove all the water precipitated by 
rainfall, directly through this main an eight-inch 
sown. I also send my photograph, together with 
one plant of Alfalfa which measures over five feet 
and six inches high; this plant is one year old from 
the seed; all the grains and grasses grow here with 
vigor, and perhaps that fact may be all the more 
interesting when I say that this country up to four 
or five years ago was called a part of the “Great 
American Desert,” in undisputed possession of sage 
brush, the coyote and jack rabbit. The sage brush 
and the coyote are rapidly disappearing, but the 
jack rabbit we still have numbered by thous¬ 
ands. I am always interested in what The R. N.-Y. 
has to say in regard to Alfalfa growing and know 
something of the difficulty of succeeding with that 
crop in the East, as I have tried several times to 
grow it there in a small way myself, but always with 
little or no success compared with the ease of get¬ 
ting a stand and the luxuriance of growth obtained 
here, aided by fertile soil and irrigation. j. c. m. 
Twin Falls, Idaho. 
R. N.-Y.—We could not quite identify the dead 
specimen, which was in poor condition, but it looks 
like the running Buffalo clover. Trifolium stolon- 
iferum. It does not appear to be the true White 
clover, like the specimen mentioned from Maryland. 
The picture of Alfalfa. Fig. 174, speaks for itself. 
If such crops could be grown all over the Eastern 
States history would be rapidly changed. 
New York. 
PLOWING MATCHES FOR CONNECTICUT 
FAIR NEXT FALL. 
A PROBLEM IN TILE DRAINING. 
Unsatisfactory Outlet. 
I enclose a crude diagram of some tile drains I want 
to put in. My outlet is shallow, as I cannot drain into the 
main open ditch without crossing a neighbor's land, and 
lie does not want any tile. Would it be safe to dig quite a 
large silt hole at outlet and see to keeping it cleaned out and 
possibly in Winter covered to keep it from freezing? What 
size of tile should I use in the main line? I have marked 
size on diagram as I guess at it. One man who claimed 
to have laid miles of tile said four-inch would be all 
right for the main line; another said I should not lay less 
than 10-inch. I don’t want to lay too large or larger 
than necessary to do the work in proper time. a. j. l. 
Burton, Mich. 
An unsatisfactory outlet is a most discouraging 
proposition to start with on so expensive an ope¬ 
ration as a 30-acre gridiron draining project, which 
this chart seems to indicate. If your neighbor and 
the topography of his land would permit, I would 
rather continue that eight-inch conduit across the 
other farm to the nearest point on the main open 
ditch, which I judge is of sufficient depth for a 
good outlet. If there are obstacles other than its 
natural cost, which make this plan impracticable, 
then the silt well or pond as proposed by the in¬ 
quirer could under certain conditions be substituted. 
Avoid a drowned outlet if possible. I have one six 
years old, and it works all right, but it is unortho¬ 
dox and liable to stoppage. Surely, on so large a 
system as the one in question, I would never risk it. 
Perhaps the grade is heavy enough so the tile can 
be brought close to the surface for a short distance 
at the outlet, in which case use vitrified tile on 
account of frost. There are many determining fac¬ 
tors to be considered when making an estimate on 
the size of mains, such as the amount of rainfall, 
length, depth and grade of laterals, physical con¬ 
dition of the soil, whether porous or otherwise; 
chances for surface water to get away and the 
grade of the main itself, data for none of which is 
given in this case. If after making the survey it 
is found practicable to give the proposed line of 
six and eight-inch tile an equal grade the entire 
length and the fall is sufficient for a free flow of 
water, I would think the size of tile and their ap¬ 
portionment about right. The only change I would 
suggest from this long range viewpoint would be 
in the first lateral north from silt well at the head 
of the eight-inch main. Run this, as I have shown 
by dotted line, into the well. This will relieve the 
six-inch a little and add nothing to the eight-inch. 
Of course it will be understood that I am at too 
long range to advise only in general terms. There 
might, for instance, be springs on some parts of 
the system, fed by ooze from a neighboring farm, 
or there might be low places where surface water 
could get away only through the drains or more 
or less spring water in the open ditch, from the 
25 acres north. Any one of these conditions might 
create a necessity for a larger main and perhaps 
a change in the apportionment of laterals to the 
upper and low¬ 
er parts of the 
main. 
It is well to 
understand 
that the true 
funct ions of 
under drains 
is to lower 
the water ta¬ 
ble in the soil 
rather than to 
carry surface 
water. Let this 
surface flow re- 
1 i e v e the 
drains all it 
w'll, then b y 
the aid of 
wells properly 
located and 
screened t h e 
remainder o f 
the surface 
water m a y be 
trapped and 
run out 
through the mains, in most instances, before the 
laterals get to sending their burden of water. The 
writer put in one such well on a draining pro¬ 
ject which he engineered up near Lake Ontario dur¬ 
ing the past Summer, which is about 12 feet deep by 
six feet in diameter, and has in its concrete walls 
seven or eight barrels of Portland cement. This 
is unusually large and deep, for we had to go deep 
with our outlet to overcome an adverse surface 
giade. I have smaller wells of a similar type on my 
own farm. 1 hey are entirely practical and are doing 
their work satisfactorily. 
YEARLING ALFALFA PLANT IN IDAHO. Fig. 174. 
calibre would he entirely inadequate. Lienee the 
desirability of aforesaid surface flo-w and silt wells. 
We must also remember that a soil in proper condi¬ 
tion as to texture and humus content, will hold 
more than two inches of water in the surface foot 
without being too wet. Here is where the depth 
of laterals would play a part in determining the size 
of the main*; the deeper they are laid the more reser¬ 
voir we have, for the drains, like the forces of na¬ 
ture. work while we sleep, until all surplus water is 
AN ILLINOIS PLOW TEAM; MULES AND THEIR (MOTHERS WIN PRIZES. Fig. 175 
removed and the reservoir is ready for the next rain, 
which will be promptly taken care of. 
JAMES F. VAN SCIIOONIIOVEN. 
GREAT ALFALFA IN IDAHO. 
I send a sample of White clover. Is it the true 
White clover? If so it is double as large as the 
sample sent from Maryland, illustrated in The 
R. N.-Y., page 
This sample measures 30 inches 
and is growing on my lawn and in the city park and 
wherever the seed of lawn grass mixture has been 
Transplanting An Illinois Institution. 
The R. N.-Y. has been instrumental in establishing 
on the soil of Connecticut an institution of Illinois, 
one of the most famous and praiseworthy of the 
Middle West. Last Fall one of the officers of the 
Berlin Agricultural Society read in The R. N.-Y. an 
.account of the annual meet of the Wheatland Plow¬ 
ing Match Association, of Will County, Illinois. Later 
on he sent to the officers of the Illinois institution 
for information concerning the rules under which 
the contest is held, and now there is under considera¬ 
tion the project of attaching a feature of this kind 
to the annual fair of the Berlin association to be held 
next Fall. If the plan is carried out, it will prove 
to be one of the most interesting and novel innova¬ 
tions of agricultural exhibitions. The plowing match 
in Illinois has been of incalculable value to the 
agriculture of the great Prairie State. The Wheat- 
land association is over 30 years .old, and in that time 
not more than one year was missed, and that on ac¬ 
count of the World’s Fair at Chicago. From the 
success of the Wheatland association sprang me Big 
Rock matches, held in Kane County every year for 
the last 15 years. The two organizations have set the 
pace for good plowing, the most important thing in 
agriculture, and they have sent high-class plowmen 
to practically all of the agricultural districts of the 
W e s t, South- 
west, and 
Northwest, 
who have main- 
t ain e d the 
standard set in 
their Illinois 
homes. More 
than this, t h e 
plowing match 
has forced the 
plowmakcrs to 
make better 
plows, the man- 
u facturers 
scarcely ever 
failing to at¬ 
tend the 
matches. 
Fig. 175 rep¬ 
resents Cyrus I. 
Stark, of 
Wheatland, who 
has won more 
valuable tro- 
p hies in the 
plowing match 
than perhaps any other soil turner in the world, 
plowing on his own farm with a sulky plow and 
his famous team of two mares and two mules, the 
mares being the mothers of the mules. In the pic¬ 
ture also appear Cy’s boy and his dog. Most of 
the medals, cups, and cash prizes that Stark has taken 
at the matches have been won with this intelligent 
team. The creatures are so well drilled that in a 
contest in which their master has entered, they seem 
to know what is depending on them, and they stretch 
the tugs so evenly that only the highest class of 
soil turning and laying is produced. 
Illinois. J. L. GRAFF. 
