472 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXIV, No. 6 
Concrete tile, on the other hand, may be made in small and inexpensive 
plants, adapted to seasonal business of various sorts, and the bulk of the 
material used is available at a comparatively low cost. 
The formation of drainage districts and the digging of large outlets 
is of little value without complete interior drainage of the wet lands by 
the construction of laterals, spaced as the soil condition may require. 
In outlying districts the excessive cost of clay tile due to long haul pro¬ 
hibits its use. With this in mind it may be said that concrete, if it can 
be made durable, is potentially the controlling factor in the drainage 
development of the newer parts of the country. 
Unfortunately, when first manufactured, concrete tile made a bad 
start. It was claimed that as most of the water got into the tile through 
its walls and not at the end of the tile, the more porous those walls were, 
the more efficient the drain would be. This erroneous idea was honestly 
promoted by engineers and was used as a sales argument by the manu¬ 
facturers of concrete. Standard specifications at the present time 
permit an absorption of lo to 12 per cent and unscupulous manufac¬ 
turers have been making a product that merely holds together long 
enough to get it into the ground. Failiure due to the breaking down of the 
tile has been common, but the firms manufacturing poor material have 
generally been of short life while those who turned out a good product 
have usually grown and increased their business. The result is that the 
average product of today is far superior to that of 10 or even 5 years ago. 
It has frequently been noted that tile made by certain manufacturers, 
or, more correctly, the tile made by manufacturers in certain districts 
did not last as well as tile manufactured in other districts. The manufac¬ 
turer was invariably blamed for any failure. 
INVESTIGATIONS 
In most average soils, well-made concrete tile appears to be permanent. 
As the vegetable and mineral matter of soils varies, however, the con¬ 
crete tile disintegrates. 
In some of the arid and semi arid districts of the West and Middle 
West, for instance, concrete has broken down in wet soil containing a 
high percentage of some alkalies, particularly alkaline sulphates. The 
cause is becoming fairly well understood, but the cure is still under 
investigation. This disintegration appears to have first been reported 
officially by Headden (7)^ and Tannatt (14) in 1908. Since that time the 
subject has been very carefully investigated, notably by Bates, Phillips 
and Wig (2) in 1912; Wig and Williams (16) in 1915; Wig, Williams and 
Gates {18) in 1916; Steik (10) and Wig, Williams and Finn (17) in 1917; 
Steik (ij) in 1919, and Miller {8) and Williams (19) in 1922. 
The outstanding fact developed by this work is the destruction of 
concrete by alkaline sulphates of a comparatively high concentration in 
the soil water of alkaline soils. 
Winter and Musselman {21) in 1915, and Winter {20) in 1917, working 
at the Michigan Agricultural College, investigated the solubility of 
concrete in water and in various acids. 
The University of Washington has made tests covering the destruction 
of concrete by carbonic acid. 
In Europe several marsh investigators have noted the disintegration of 
concrete in “ Hoch moor.’' This corresponds to our “ muskeg, ” which is 
* Reference is made by number (italic) to "Literature cited," pp. 499-500. 
