. The American farmer's hand-book ... Agriculture. SOILS : THEIR NATURE AND TREATMENT. Gl not reach it, if the land is arable, or the feet of cattle tread it in, if it be in pasture. All the drains which are to collect the water should lie as nearly at right angles to the inclination of the surface as is consistent with a suf- ficient fall in the drain to make them run. One foot is sufficient fall for a drain three hundred feet in length, provided the drains be not more than twenty feet apart. The main drains, by being laid obliquely, across the fall of the ground, will help to take off a part
. The American farmer's hand-book ... Agriculture. SOILS : THEIR NATURE AND TREATMENT. Gl not reach it, if the land is arable, or the feet of cattle tread it in, if it be in pasture. All the drains which are to collect the water should lie as nearly at right angles to the inclination of the surface as is consistent with a suf- ficient fall in the drain to make them run. One foot is sufficient fall for a drain three hundred feet in length, provided the drains be not more than twenty feet apart. The main drains, by being laid obliquely, across the fall of the ground, will help to take off a part of the surface water. It is evident that the drains can seldom be in a straight line, unless the ground be perfectly even. They should, however, never have sudden turns, but be bent gradually where the direction is changed. The flatter the surface and the stiffer the soil, the greater number of drains will be required. It is a common practice with drainers to run a main drain directly down the slope, however rapid, and to carry smaller drains into this alternately on the right and left, which they call herring-bone fashion. But this can only be approved of where the ground is nearly level, and where there is very little fall for the main drain. A considerable fall is to b^ avoided as much aa possible, and every drain should lie obliquely to the natural run of the water. It generally happens that, besides surface water, there are also some land springs arising from a variation in the soil; these should be carefully ascer- tained, and the drains should be so laid as to cut them off. Clay Land. — In draining clay land, where there is only a llayer of a few inches of looser soil over a solid clay, which the plough never stirs, the Fig. drains need not be deeper than two feet in the solid clay, nor wider than they can be made without the sides falling in. The common draining tile, which is a flat tile bent in the form of half a cylinder, and which can be made at a very cheap
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpubl, booksubjectagriculture
