THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
293 
1908. 
AN EXPERIENCE WITH TILE DRAINAGE. 
A. H. P., Orleans Co., N. Y., inquires 
in regard to different varieties of tile. 
While I do not feel competent to give 
a categorical answer to his questions, I 
have had some experience in farming 
and tiling which may be of interest to 
some of your readers. My father was 
one of the city men who turned farmer. 
He settled in western Allegan Co., 
Michigan. Peaches brought big prices 
those days, 1860 to 1870, and he soon 
had a bad attack of the peach fever. In 
those days it was supposed that peaches 
would grow only on high sandy soil, so 
he bought the farm on which I live. 
About half of the farm was quite high, 
and the rest was swamp land. As I 
grew up we began to drain and clear 
the low land. We followed the plan so 
often recommended of using all the 
farm manures on the orchards. This 
was very good for the orchards, but very 
bad for the low lands, which soon 
began to show the effect in smaller 
crops. As the crops grew smaller and 
smaller a change in method became im¬ 
perative. As our swamp lands were 
cold and springy, we decided as a first 
step in soil improvement to tile. As 
a first step I began to write for bulletins 
and get advice and experience from 
every source possible. The next thing 
was to plan ahead, and plow for two or 
three times so as to have the dead fur¬ 
rows where the tile drains were to be 
located. The furrows answered as sur¬ 
face drains until the land was tiled, and 
saved lots of hard work digging. What 
I most feared was quicksand. But no 
one seemed to have had any experience 
with it, or knew anything about it, so 
I took a course at the school that 
teaches fools. In order to keep the sand 
out of the tile, I bought tarred paper 
and cut it into strips three or four 
inches wide and long enough to go 
around the tile and lap. I laid several 
thousand tile this way. Then I con¬ 
cluded that it would be just as well 
to cut the strips shorter and put them 
in place after the tile were laid. Finally 
I dropped the paper altogether, and 
finished by using strips of sod over the 
joints. In four years, once around the 
rotation, the work was .finished. But 
soon after, some of the drains did not 
seem to be working right, and water 
began to stand on the surface. Wonder¬ 
ing what could be the matter, I got the 
spade and dug up a couple of tile in 
several drains, and found them filled 
with quicksand. My castles in the air 
came down with a crash, and my heart 
sank like lead as I thought of the 
hundreds of rods of ditch rendered 
worthless, and the hundreds of dollars 
invested in tile and labor. For a while 
I was as blue as ever in my life. But 
I never liked to own up beat, and I soon 
began to devise ways and means to get 
ahead of that quicksand. This is not 
an easy task, as I have but very little 
fall, and the sand will not run out of 
the tile, and it seems to be able to go 
almost any place that water can go. 
My troubles' did not come from care¬ 
less workmanship as I was very careful 
about the grading, and have dug up 
some drains which were not working 
that were so tightly jointed that neither 
water nor sand could enter. As they 
were unglazed tile it would seem to dis¬ 
pose of the claim that water will enter 
through the side of a tile. In fact any 
tile that is so soft that water will pass 
through it to any extent is too soft 
to lay. 
The only plan that I could think of, 
that gave promise of success in keep¬ 
ing the sand out and letting the water 
in, was to cover the joints' with gravel. 
After a careful search 1 found a bed of 
suitable gravel about three miles away, 
and for three years have been working 
at the disagreeable dirty job of digging 
up and cleaning out and relaying the 
draifts. It will take three or four 
years to finish. How I wish I had met 
some one who could have told me what 
I know now. The way I am doing 
now is to have the ditch larger than the 
tile, and in laying the tile I am very 
careful to have the bottom of the 
joint as tight as possible and if any 
crack is necessary it must be on top, so 
it will be covered with gravel. In this 
way the joint is covered at least three- 
fourths of the way around. It is pos¬ 
sible that the tile may fill from below. 
If they do, about the only thing to do, 
would be to lay the tile on four or five- 
inch wide strips of board, and cover 
with gravel as fast as laid. I have al¬ 
ways graded the ditches with water. 
When water will run from end to end 
without being more than half an inch 
deep anywhere the ditch is ready for the 
tile. At first I followed the old rule, 
and laid from the outlet up, but I find 
it much better to lay from the upper end 
down. If you cannot secure a good 
outlet, so that you can put the tile 
in deep enough, do not tile—it is use¬ 
less. And don’t allow your outlet ditch 
to fill, so that the water will stand above 
the end of the tile. Keep it so that the 
water falls out. You should have at 
least two feet of dirt on top of the 
tile, or some cold Winter when the 
ground is bare the tile will freeze and 
the drain be ruined. If possible have 
all single straight drains, where this 
cannot be done, build catch basins. 
Brick below the tile with a two-foot 
sewer pipe on top, are good materials. 
Do not lay anything smaller than three- 
inch bore, fours are better, and be sure 
your tile are well burned. I have had 
over a dozen go down in one drain, and 
one is enough to spoil a drain. A well- 
burned tile should ring like a bell when 
struck. Remember that tiling is a job 
that must be well done. In conclusion 
don’t plant any tree fruits on tile drained 
land; they will surely fill the drains with 
roots. At least peaches and pears will, 
as I know from observation. Even grass 
will sometimes fill tile with roots. 
Allegan Co., Mich. a. bauhahn. 
Water Power for Electric Light. 
M. A. W., Farmington, Conn .—We have 
a mill dam. near the house the power from 
which was formerly used to turn a mill 
which is now never used. We cut ice on 
the pond, and the children skate there, but 
we want to use the power for light, heat, etc. 
The dam is about 200 feet from the house, 
and the old mill is about 400 feet farther, 
and from dam to mill there is about 45 
feet fall, but not much from dam to house. 
Could we get power enough with the wheel 
in the cellar to furnish 20 electric lights? 
How large a pipe would it require to run 
the wheel? I would like to know the 
probable cost of installing such a system. 
The stream is never dry, but gets low in 
dry weather. If the dam was repaired the 
water could be held all Summer. 
Ans. —If your inquirer has a fall of 
45 feet available for water power, he is 
very fortunate. This is a high head and 
comparatively little water will furnish a 
large amount of power. The smallest 
size of turbines commonly made will 
furnish as much as 20 horse power 
under 45 feet head, or enough to carry 
200 lamps. However, a pretty fair¬ 
sized Summer flow will be needed to 
carry this for several hours each day. 
Of course, the wheel can be run at only 
part gate, _ thus losing considerable 
water. It is a weak point in the tur¬ 
bine, however, that it needs quite a bit 
of water to give any power at all. If I 
wanted only two horse-power from a 
45-foot head, I would investigate the 
type of wheels' commonly used on city 
water systems and known as “motors.” 
But if there is ample water available, 
then it will be best to put in a turbine 
and light a small village if you wish. 
Of course, to have your outfit in the 
cellar would be ideal, as it would be so 
convenient to control and oil and would 
be safe from frost, but if there is only 
a little fall from the dam to the house, 
the cellar is not the place. To carry 
water 400 feet in either wooden or iron 
conductors will mean a lot of money. 
If raceway is already built, you have a 
long start. Under such high heads as 
this the wheel should be installed in an 
iron case or flume, as wood will fail and 
spring under this pressure of more than 
2800 pounds to the square foot. 
J. v. w. 
Bigger Crops, 
Save Time—Save Yourself and 
Horses Work—Save Repairs, 
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Duane H. Nash, Inc., 
Box 38, Millington, N. J. 
IJOOTHE BItOS., Stratford, Conn., soil 
the above ACME HARROW, Wholesale and 
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BLE ACTION^ JOINTED POLE CUTA 
O. , IBI - 
ENDFOR ' *-- 
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• C0.v_' 
HIGGANUMv 
C0NN.U.S.Aa 
Jointed Pole takes all the weight off Horsea 
and keei>9 tlieir beels away from the Disks. 
His Rev. Disk Plow cuts a 
furrow 5 to 10 in. deep, 14 
in. wide. All Clark’s ma¬ 
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Clark’s Mould Board Disk Plow 
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log and foil Information. 
THE SUPERIOR FEYCE CO. 
Dept. ^ Cleveland. Ohio 
FIX YOUR ROOF 
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iuf oo per aqua 
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Box 102p Grenloch, N , J, 
Freight 
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PIRE 
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breachiest bull 
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The Empire Splice 
Looks 
Strong as ^^//////////////////////%/P Saves 
Solid Wire Wire 
Buy the Empire direct from factory at 
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Bond Steel Post Co., Adrian, Mich. 
STANDARD STEEL 
DRIVE POSTS 
are practically everlasting; they 
will not rot, burn or decay; re¬ 
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drive them in the ground. Cost 
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299 Broadway, New York City. 
THE 
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HEAVIEST FENCE MADE 
V All No. 9 Steel Wire. Well galvanized. Weighs 
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Cleveland, Ohio. 
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Box 230 MUNCIE, IND. 
saving 
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BLOCK 65 
* KANSAS CITY, MO, 
FENCE ATa</0^^. 
Made of High Carbon Double Strength 
Colled Wire. Heavily Galvanized to 
.prevent rust. Have no agents. Sell at 
factory prices on 30 days’ free trial. 
We pay all freight. 37 heights of farm 
land poultry fence. Catalog Free. 
COILED SPRING FENCE CO. 
;Box. 263 Wincheeter, Indiana 
D /\ |( p D ET IT Write at once for onr money- I 
D W saving Dlan on buying the I 
A THRIFTY GARDEN 
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Page Woven Wire Fence Co.. Box 714, Adrian, Mlrh. 
