Farm drainage | Page 2

Treatise does not contain all Knowledge.--Attention of Scientific Men attracted to Drainage.--Lieutenant Maury's Suggestions.--Ralph Waldo Emerson's Views.--Opinions of J. H. Klippart, Esq.; of Professor Mapes; B. P. Johnson, Esq.; Governor Wright, Mr. Custis, &c.--Prejudice against what is English.--Acknowledgements to our Friends at Home and Abroad.--The Wants of our Farmers.
CHAPTER II.
HISTORY OF THE ART OF DRAINING.
Draining as old as the Deluge.--Roman Authors.--Walter Bligh in 1650.--No thorough drainage till Smith, of Deanston.--No mention of Tiles in the "Compleat Body of Husbandry," 1758.--Tiles found 100 years old.--Elkington's System.--Johnstone's Puns and Peripatetics.--Draining Springs.--Bletonism, or the Faculty of Perceiving Subterranean Water.--Deanston System.--Views of Mr. Parkes.--Keythorpe System.--Wharncliffe System.--Introduction of Tiles into America.--John Johnston, and Mr. Delafield, of New York.
CHAPTER III.
RAIN, EVAPORATION AND FILTRATION.
Fertilizing Substances in Rain Water.--Amount of Rain Fall in United States; in England.--Tables of Rain Fall.--Number of Rainy Days, and Quantity of Rain each Month.--Snow, how Computed as Water.--Proportion of Rain Evaporated.--What Quantity of Water Dry Soil will Hold.--Dew Point.--How Evaporation Cools Bodies.--Artificial Heat Underground.--Tables of Filtration and Evaporation.
CHAPTER IV.
DRAINAGE OF HIGH LANDS--WHAT LANDS REQUIRE DRAINAGE.
What is High Land?--Accidents to Crops from Water.--Do Lands need Drainage in America?--Springs.--Theory of Moisture, with Illustrations.--Water of Pressure.--Legal Rights as to Draining our Neighbor's Wells and Land.--What Lands require Drainage?--Horace Greeley's Opinion.--Drainage more Necessary in America than in England; Indications of too much Moisture.--Will Drainage Pay?
CHAPTER V.
VARIOUS METHODS OF DRAINAGE.
Open Ditches.--Slope of Banks.--Brush Drains.--Ridge and Furrow.--Plug-Draining.--Mole-Draining.--Mole-Plow.--Wedge and Shoulder Drains.--Larch Tubes.--Drains of Fence Rails, and Poles.--Peat Tiles.--Stone Drains Injured by Moles.--Downing's Giraffes.--Illustrations of Various Kinds of Stone Drains.
CHAPTER VI.
DRAINAGE WITH TILES.
What are Drain-Tiles?--Forms of Tiles.--Pipes.--Horse-shoe Tiles.--Sole-Tiles.--Form of Water-Passage.--Collars and their Use.--Size of Pipes.--Velocity.--Friction.--Discharge of Water through Pipes.--Tables of Capacity.--How Water enters Tiles.--Deep Drains run soonest and longest.--Pressure of Water on Pipes.--Durability of Tile Drains.--Drain-Bricks 100 years old.
CHAPTER VII.
DIRECTION, DISTANCE AND DEPTH OF DRAINS.
DIRECTION OF DRAINS.--Whence comes the Water?--Inclination of Strata.--Drains across the Slope let Water out as well as Receive it.--Defence against Water from Higher Land.--Open Ditches.--Headers.--Silt-basins.
DISTANCE OF DRAINS.--Depends on Soil, Depth, Climate, Prices, System.--Conclusions as to Distance.
DEPTH OF DRAINS.--Greatly Increases Cost.--Shallow Drains first tried in England.--10,000 Miles of Shallow Drains laid in Scotland by way of Education.--Drains must be below Subsoil plow, and Frost.--Effect of Frost on Tiles and Aqueducts.
CHAPTER VIII.
ARRANGEMENT OF DRAINS.
Necessity of System.--What Fall is Necessary.--American Examples.--Outlets.--Wells and Relief-Pipes.--Peep-holes.--How to secure Outlets.--Gate to Exclude Back-Water.--Gratings and Screens to keep out Frogs, Snakes, Moles, &c.--Mains, Submains, and Minors, how placed.--Capacity of Pipes.--Mains of Two Tiles.--Junction of Drains.--Effect of Curves and Angles on Currents.--Branch Pipes.--Draining into Wells or Swallow Holes.--Letter from Mr. Denton.
CHAPTER IX.
THE COST OF TILES--TILE MACHINES.
Prices far too high; Albany prices.--Length of Tiles.--Cost in Suffolk Co., England.--Waller's Machine.--Williams' Machine.--Cost of Tiles compared with Bricks.--Mr. Denton's Estimate of Cost.--Other Estimates.--Two-inch Tiles can be Made as Cheaply as Bricks.--Process of Rolling Tiles.--Tile Machines.--Descriptions of Daines'.--Pratt & Bro.'s.
CHAPTER X.
THE COST OF DRAINAGE.
Draining no more expensive than Fencing.--Engineering.--Guessing not accurate enough.--Slight Fall sufficient.--Instances.--Two Inches to One-Thousand Feet.--Cost of Excavation and Filling.--Narrow Tools required.--Tables of Cubic contents of Drains.--Cost of Drains on our own Farm.--Cost of Tiles.--Weight and Freight of Tiles.--Cost of Outlets.--Cost of Collars.--Smaller Tiles used with Collars.--Number of Tiles to the Acre, with Tables.--Length of Tiles varies.--Number of Rods to the Acre at different Distances.--Final Estimate of Cost.--Comparative Cost of Tile-Drains and Stone-Drains.
CHAPTER XI.
DRAINING IMPLEMENTS.
Unreasonable Expectations about Draining Tools.--Levelling Instruments.--Guessing not Accurate.--Level by a Square.--Spirit Level.--Span, or A Level.--Grading by Lines.--Boning-rod.--Challoner's Drain Level.--Spades and Shovels.--Long-handled Shovel.--Irish Spade, description and cut.--Bottoming Tools.--Narrow Spades.--English Bottoming Tools.--Pipe-layer.--Pipe-laying Illustrated.--Pick-axes.--Drain Gauge.--Drain Plows, and Ditch-Diggers.--Fowler's Drain Plow.--Pratt's Ditch-Digger.--McEwan's Drain Plow.--Routt's Drain Plow.
CHAPTER XII.
PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR OPENING DRAINS AND LAYING TILES.
Begin at the Outlet.--Use of Plows.--Leveling the Bottom.--Where to begin to lay Pipes.--Mode of Procedure.--Covering Pipes.--Securing Joints.--Filling.--Securing Outlets.--Plans.
CHAPTER XIII.
EFFECTS OF DRAINAGE UPON THE CONDITION OF THE SOIL.
Drainage deepens the Soil, and gives the roots a larger pasture.--Cobbett's Lucerne 30 feet deep.--Mechi's Parsnips 13 feet long!--Drainage promotes Pulverization.--Prevents Surface-Washing.--Lengthens the Season.--Prevents Freezing out.--Dispenses with Open Ditches.--Saves 25 per cent. of Labor.--Promotes absorption of Fertilizing Substances from the Air.--Supplies Air to the Roots.--Drains run before Rain; so do some Springs.--Drainage warms the Soil.--Corn sprouts at 55°; Rye on Ice.--Cold from Evaporation.--Heat will not pass downward in Water.--Count Rumford's Experiments with Hot Water on Ice.--Aeration of Soil by Drains.
CHAPTER XIV.
DRAINAGE ADAPTS THE SOIL TO GERMINATION AND VEGETATION.
Process of Germination.--Two Classes of Pores in Soils, illustrated by cuts.--Too much Water excludes Air, reduces Temperature.--How much Air the Soil Contains.--Drainage Improves the Quality of Crops.--Drainage prevents Drought.--Drained Soils hold most Water.--Allow Roots to go Deep.--Various Facts.
CHAPTER XV.
TEMPERATURE AS AFFECTED BY DRAINAGE.
Drainage Warms the Soil in Spring.--Heat cannot go down in Wet Land.--Drainage causes greater Deposit of Dew in Summer.--Dew warms Plants in Night, Cools them in the Morning Sun.--Drainage varies Temperature by Lessening Evaporation.--What is Evaporation.--How it produces Cold.--Drained Land Freezes Deepest, but Thaws Soonest, and the Reasons.
CHAPTER XVI.
POWER OF SOILS TO ABSORB AND RETAIN MOISTURE.
Why does not Drainage make the