Farm drainage Part 24

The _pipe-layer_, of which mention has so often been made, is a little implement invented by Mr. Parkes, for placing round pipes and collars in narrow trenches, without stepping into them.

The following sketch, by our friend Mr. Shedd, shows the pipe-layer in use. The cross section of the land, shown in front, represents it as having had the advantage of draining, by which the water-table is brought to a level with the bottom of the drain, as shown by the heavy shading. An "Irish spade" and a pipe-layer are shown lying on the ground.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 83.--PIPE-LAYING.]

The _pick-axes_ commonly used in excavation of trenches, are in the following forms:

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 84, 85.--PICK-AXES.]

Pick-axes may be light or heavy, according to the nature of the soil. A chisel at one end, and point at the other, is found best in most cases.

A _Drain-gauge_ is usually mentioned in a list of draining tools. It is used when ditches are designed for stone or other material than tiles, and where the width is important. In tile-draining the width is entirely immaterial. If opened by the rod, it is only important that they be of proper depth and inclination, with the bottom wide enough for the tile.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 86.--DRAIN-GAUGE.]

The above figure shows the usual form of the drain-gauge. Below, we give from Morton, drawings, and a description of Elkington's augers for boring in the bottoms of ditches.

"The cut annexed represents the auger employed by Elkington, where _a b_ and _c_ are different forms of the tool; _d_, a portion of the shaft: _e_, with the wedges, _h h_, the cross handle; and _f_ and _g_ additional pieces for grasping the shaft, and so enabling more than one person to work at it." The auger-hole ought to be a little at one side of the drain, as in Fig. 3, at page 35, so that the water may not rise at right angles to the flow of water in it, and obstruct its current.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 87.--ELKINGTON'S DRAINING AUGER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration:

_a._ The plug, or point under ground, to which the string of pipes is attached.

_bb._ The coulter from the point up through the beam, regulated by wheel and screw midway.

_c._ The beam connecting the two pairs of wheels.

_e._ Drain opened by hand where pipes enter the ground.

_a to e._ Pipes under ground.

_e to f._ Pipes above ground.

_g._ Windla.s.s or capstan, worked by horses.

_h._ Wire rope attached to plow, and wound round the windla.s.s.

_i._ Pulley round which the rope runs to keep the plow in the line of the ditch.]

DRAINING-PLOWS AND DITCH-DIGGERS.

The man who can invent and construct a machine that shall be capable of cutting four-foot ditches for pipe-drains, with facility, will deserve well of his country.

It is not essential that the drain be cut to its full depth at one operation. If worked by oxen or horses, it may go several times over the work, taking out a few inches at each time. If moved by a capstan, or other slowly-operating power, it must work more thoroughly, so as not to consume too much time.

With a lever, such as is used in Willis's Stump Puller, sufficient power for any purpose may be applied. An implement like a subsoil plow, constructed to run four feet deep, and merely doing the work of the pick, would be of great a.s.sistance. Prof. Mapes says he has made use of such an implement with great advantage. For tile-drains, the narrower the ditch the better, if it be only wide enough to receive the tiles. A mere slit, four inches wide, if straight and of even inclination at the bottom, would be the best kind of ditch, the pipes being laid in with a pipe-layer. But if the ditch is to be finished by the machine, it is essential that it be so contrived that it will grade the bottom, and not leave it undulating like the surface. Fowler's Drain Plow is said to be so arranged, by improvements since its first trials, as to attain this object.

Having thus briefly suggested some of the points to be kept in mind by inventors, we will proceed to give some account of such machines as come nearest to the wants of the community. Fowler's Draining-Plow would meet the largest wants of the public, were it cheap enough, and really reliable to perform what it is said to perform. The author saw this implement in England, but not in operation, and it seems impossible, from inspection of it, as well as from the theory of its operation, that it can succeed, if at all, in any but soft h.o.m.ogeneous clay. The idea is, however, so bold, and so much is claimed for the implement, that some description of it seems indispensable in a work like this.

The pipes, of common drain tiles, are strung on a rope, and this rope, with the pipes, is drawn through the ground, following a plug like the foot of a subsoil plow, leaving the pipes perfectly laid, and the drain completed at a single operation. (See Fig. 88.)

The work is commenced by opening a short piece of ditch by hand, and strings of pipes, each about 50 feet long, are added as the work proceeds; and when the ditch is completed, the rope is withdrawn. When the surface is uneven, the uniform slope is preserved by means of a wheel and screw, which governs the plug, or coulter, raising or lowering it at pleasure. A man upon the frame-work controls this wheel, guided by a sight on the frame, and a cross-staff at the end of the field.

Drains, 40 rods long, are finished at one operation. This plow has been carefully tested in England. Its work has been uncovered when completed, and found perfect in every respect. The great expense of the machine, and the fact that it is only adapted to clay land free from obstructions, has prevented its general use. We cannot help believing that, by the aid of steam, on our prairies, at least, some such machine may be found practicable and economical.

PRATT'S DITCH DIGGER,

Patented by Pratt & Bro., of Canandaigua, is attracting much attention.

We have not seen it in operation, nor have we seen statements which satisfy us that it is just what is demanded. It is stated, in the _Country Gentleman_, to be incapable of cutting a ditch more than two and a half feet deep. A machine that will do so much is not to be despised; but more than one half the digging remains of a four-foot ditch, after two and a half feet are opened, and we want an implement to do the lowest and worst half. It is stated that, in one instance, a ditch, 60 rods long, about two feet deep, in hard clay, was cut with this machine, worked by two horses, in five hours.

We trust that the enterprising inventors will perfect their implement, so that it will open drains four feet deep, and thus meet the great want of the public. It is not to be expected that any such implement can be made to operate in ground full of stones and roots; and inventors should not be discouraged by the continual croakings of those sinister birds, which see nothing but obstacles, and prophecy only failure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 89.--PRATT'S DITCH DIGGER.]

The drain plow was first introduced into Scotland by M'Ewan. The soil in his district was mostly a strong unctuous clay, free from stones. He constructed an immense plow, worked by 12 or 16 horses, by means of which a furrow-slice, 16 inches in depth, was turned out; and, by a modification of the plow, a second slice was removed, to the depth, in all, of two feet. This plow is expensive and heavy, and incapable of working to sufficient depth.

Mr. Paul, of Norfolk Co., England, has lately invented an ingenious machine for cutting drains, of which we give an elevation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 90.--PAUL'S DITCHING MACHINE.]

It is worked by a chain and capstan, by horses, and, of course, may be operated by steam or lever power. It is drawn forward, and, as it moves, it acts as a slotting machine on the land, the tools on the circ.u.mference of the acting-wheel taking successive bites of the soil, each lifting a portion from the full depth to which it is desired that the trench should be cut, and laying the earth thus removed on the surface at either side. There is a lifting apparatus at the end of the machine, by which the cutting-wheel may be raised or lowered, according to the unevenness of the surface, in order to secure a uniform fall in the bottom of the drain. The whole process is carried on at the rate of about four feet per minute, and it results, on suitable soils, in cutting a drain from three to five feet deep, leaving it in a finished state, with a level bottom for the tiles to rest upon. We give the cut and statement from the Cyclopaedia of Agriculture, and if the machine shall prove what it is represented to be, we see but little more to be desired in a ditching machine. The principle of this implement appears to us to be the correct one, and we see no reason to doubt the statement of its performance.

Routt's drain plow is designed for surface-draining merely. We give, from the _New England Farmer_, a statement of its merits, as detailed by a correspondent who saw it at the exhibition of the U. S. Agricultural Society at Richmond, in 1858:

"One of the most attractive implements on the Fair ground, to the farmer, was A. P. Routt's patent drain plow. This implement makes a furrow a foot deep, two feet and a half wide at the top, and four inches wide at the bottom, the sides sloping at such an angle as to insure the drain from falling in by the frost, the whole being perfectly completed at one operation by this plow, or tool. Those who have tried it say it is the very thing for surface-draining, which, on wet lands, is certainly very beneficial where under-draining has not been done. The manufacturer resides in Somerset, Orange County, Va. The plow is so made that it opens a deep furrow, turning both to the right and left, and is followed by a heavy iron roller that hardens the earth, both on the sides and the bottom of the surface-drain, thus doing very handsome work. The price, as heretofore stated, is $25, and with it, a man can, with a good pair of team horses, surface-drain 60 acres of land a day."

CHAPTER XII.

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR OPENING DRAINS AND LAYING TILES.

Begin at the Outlet.--Use of Plows.--Levelling the Bottom.--Where to begin to lay Pipes.--Mode of Procedure.--Covering Pipes.--Securing Joints.--Filling.--Securing Outlets.--Plans.

In former chapters, we have spoken minutely of the arrangement, depth, distance, and width of drains; and in treating of tools for drainage, we have sufficiently described the use of levelling instruments and of the various digging tools.

We a.s.sume here, that the engineering has been already done, and that the whole system has been carefully staked out, so that every main, sub-main, and minor is distinctly located, and the fall accurately ascertained. Until so much has been accomplished, we are unprepared to put the first spade into the ground.

We propose to give our own experience as to the convenient method of procedure, with such suggestions as occur to us, for those who are differently situated from ourselves.

The work of excavation must begin at the outlet, so that whatever water is met with, may pa.s.s readily away; and the outlet must be kept always low enough for this purpose. If there is considerable fall, it may not be best to deepen the lower end of the main to its full extent, at first, because the main, though first opened, must be the last in which the pipes are laid, and may cave in, if unnecessarily deep at first. In many cases there is fall enough, so that the upper minors may be laid and find sufficient fall, before the lower end of the main is half opened.

With a garden line drawn straight, mark out the drain, with a sharp spade, on both sides, and remove the turf. If it is desired to use the turf for covering the pipes, or to replace it over the drains, when finished, it should at first be placed in heaps outside the line of the earth to be thrown out.

A plow is used sometimes to turn out the sod and soil; but we have few plowmen who can go straight enough; and in plowing, the soil is left too near to the ditch for convenience, and the turf is torn in pieces and buried, so as not to be fit for use. Usually, it will be found convenient to remove the turf, if there be any, with a spade, by a line.

Then, a plow may be used for turning out the next spit, and the drain may be kept straight, which is indispensable to good work. A good ditching-machine is, of course, the thing needful; but we are endeavoring in these directions to do our best without it. We have opened our own trenches entirely by hand labor, finding laborers more convenient than oxen or horses, and no more expensive.

Many have used the plow in the first foot or two of the cutting, but it is not here "the first step which costs," but the later steps. After the first foot is removed, if the ground be hard, a pick or subsoil plow must be used. A subsoil plow, properly constructed, may be made very useful in breaking up the subsoil, though there is a difficulty in working cattle astride of a deep ditch, enc.u.mbered with banks of earth.

A friend of ours used, in opening drains, a large bull in single harness, trained to walk in the ditch; but the width of a big bull is a somewhat larger pattern for a drain, than will be found economical.