a ia illic ie sulla ili cil lr lc al: wy ee oo. rar ay en tr ee ee ee ee eBiims PRACTICAL is ne ¥ Amb: Hi nnay ih iediel sie > PAecencen cence neck mnnne noe Mea es gC SS Can Book. Copyright N° COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: ~ the AA S22 LY 4 PRACTICAL _s LILE DRAINING FOR FARMERS. ~)¢ ¢ . he = te ‘ sas A HAND BOOK OF INFORMATION ON ALL SUB- JECTS RELATING TO TILE DRAINING, EMBRACING IN ITS TREATISE NEW AND VALUABLE FEATURES IN TILE DRAINING. ff * | a A 5 636/ Vi re ASHLAND, OHIO: D, FE. Wise, Publisher. ee, “T8946 4 ” than walnuts, and should be placed so as to show on top of the ditch and LENGTH AND SIZE OF TILE. 29 need not be placed deeper than one foot, as that would be deep enough to make a good mark. These pieces might be mixed for a couple of feet along the ditch. But be sure-you put a good mark at the end of your drain, as itis for your convenience to know at any time where you laid the last tile of every drain. LENGTH AND SIZE OF TILE. Tile used in deep hollows should belonger than one foot. They should be two feet long. In Switzerland they use three foot tile. Tile used in such places should have joints to connect them that they may not be displaced by a heavy freshet in the spring. They should have the stone dam protection as afore described. Where tile are expected to discharge quite a lot of water very rapidly they should be corre- spondingly larger, many times twice the ordi- nary size, and where it is shed rapidly from hills, we say three times as large as would berequired to carry the water from flats. Again, if you areina flat valley where water is carried away in a ditch, your tile that leads into these ditches must be considerable larger than if they emptied into a natural living stream, because floods may be kept up much longer in some than in others. But in ditches having little fall, water flows slowly ; hence your tile entering in such ditches must be larger than usual, for when the water begins to fall in your 30 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. ditch then your tile will do their work quickly. This is the reason why many persons who putin small tile have to take them up and put in larger. In such cases try to get some informa- tion from those that have tiled in your locality —the size of tile, the depth put down, and the working effects. View their position, compare your situation and you may act safely and wise- ly. If you get your tile drains witha perfect grade as before described, then use the best tile vou can get. They should be smooth and even in- side. Ifithey have any rough spots inside, cut them out with an old file ground to an edge, or chisel shaped. Lay the tile with no holes in bottom, covering those on top with pieces of broken tile. Remember right here to do your work right, is to have the satisfaction of enjoy- ing a reward for life, and posterity for time to come, for having donea good workin good faith. Many swamps require drains to be put around the entire swamps and through the body of the same wherever there are depressions that hold water. Winter springs require a complete surr oa ing of tile, and many times, numerous branches thredieh: Tough clay that is inclined to winter- spring can be helped much by tiling, but I have one on my farm that did me little good until I used phosphates, after which it brought me the best crop that I ever had. I have raised three LENGTH AND SIZE OF TILE. 31 erops on this land with phosphates, which have yielded better than the heaviest manuring ever did on it. ButI will not say that if I had ap- plied lime to this sticky, sour, clay soil that it would not have had an equal effect to the phos- phates. ButI must say that the last of the three crops was the best of all that I raised, with a heavy set of clover in the bargain. I can say in this case phosphate helped me to raise a heavier crop than lever was able to raise on this land after tiling. This was part of a basin leaning to a swamp probably afall of from three to five hundred feet to the mile. It had sufficient fall to drain any soil naturally, but the sticky nature of the soil of this water shed I think is now partly dissolv- ed with the action of the phosphates, and I think that ii | keep stock from tramping it, and plow the second crop of clover under, seed and all— understand me that [I mean to mow that field then let the clover come up for seed, and then letit cover the ground till spring asa mulch then plow it under for a spring crop, as there is some blue grass that must be worked out, anda spring crop is the best for that purpose, before sowing to wheat. Whereas, should I plow it for wheat without first killing out the blue grass, it would choke the wheat out and so take posses- sion of the ground and make it impossible to raise a crop of clover, and this would entirely shut off all crop rotation, as the blue grass 32 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. does not do much more than to fool stock for a while in the spring, and then when the dry sea- son of the year comesitis like the darkey’s flea, it “aint thar,’ and yet when it once has got full possession of the soil it drives out all other grass plants; and I think it also helps to bind such soil to make it drain less instead of loosening it. - _Here let me say if you want to drain your soil perfectly, let plenty of clover help you to keep the soil loose. Itis the best of help, and it is help that pays you. See here, if you are troubled with plantain all vou need to dois to sow heavily with clover and timothy. Sow your timothy about midwinter, your clover in February or early in March, re- membering to sow heavily. But don’t let your timothy grow for a year or two after your clov- erisrun outas that will more than discount the good the clover has done towards loosening the soil and assisting in drainage. Some pec ple think they must have timothy hay anyhow if it will even rob the farm, just be- cause they have and because hay buyers all want it. Cut your clover when it is in full red bloom, not when the heads are half brown, as the rule of old is. If you mow when in fullred bloom you get all the sweet in your hay that the grass will — ever have. If the weather is rainy, on the after- noon of the first clear day, mowifthin, and in the afternoon of the next day rake into winrows. LENGTH AND SIZE OF TILE. 33 But should your grass be very heavy you must ted it on the forenoon of the second day. But I have never needed to ted when it made even two and one-half tons per acre. I always raked it the afternoon of the second day, turned it next morning after the dew was off. | turned it over so as to bring all loose scattering parts of the winrows into good shape for pitching; then I proceed to haul it to the barn as fast as I can. Ii you have any old hay or straw take it and cover your new hay every evening with a thin layer of your old hay as it helps your old hay and keeps the cold night air from condensing all evaporation on your new hay. You had better close all openings about vour barn except the ventilator and keep the cool air of the night from condensing the rising vapor upon the new hay. Sometimes you can haul in your hay the second day if the weather is very drying. Treat your hay thus and you will have the best kind of hay, and you don’t need to feed any grain in moderate work and when not work- ing, need feed no grain at all. I thus speak as I know. There is an opinion and a misleading one, too, that clover hay is notequalto timothy hay. It is even better, and with clover and timothy thickly sown you can at least make your hay half your ideal. If you sow mammoth ~ clover it will ripen or bloom when the timothyis at its best. Why I have said so much about clover hay is to demonstrate to you the value of 34 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. clover hay from my own experience, as a fodder, and the necessity of clover raising to bring: your soil into the best draining condition possi- ble. It loosens the soil. Now don’t think you must mow your grass to the ground, but leave good stubbles, for you cannot make your stock eat much of butts of the hay, and often they leave much of the stems, and would about as soon eat so much wood. »Why not leave it on the field where it will help to cover your soil and keep it loose. Here let me tell vou don’t eut vour wheat low but cut it high, and leave allthe stubbles on the field you can, to cover the ground and keep it loose and make your soil drain bet- ter. Mow your stubbles, weeds and all, down soon after the wheat is taken from the field. It will help your clover and help to loosen your soil and store nitrogen and help to tile drain your farm. This is why I say so much on this. DEPTH OF TILE DRAINS. You may want to know to what depth I put tile down. I put some tile down three feet eight years ago and there are some places along that drain that the water does not get down to the tile in time to produce potatoes, right over the drain. Nor does it.drain until most of the water has flown down the drain several rods. Now all that I will have to do in that drain is to dig it open down to the tile, and fill the drain with gravel and bring branches of smaller tile nearer DEPTH OF TILE DRAINS. - 3D the surface and then they will drain more rapidly as they will be above the sticky clay bed and then there will be no trouble about all the nec- essary drainage. Could I not get gravel to fill those drains after digging them open I should resort to the brick trunk as before described, and thus I would bring the drainage nearer to the surface. The occasional gravel fill or the brick trunk placed in those places will help you to drain three feet deep even in such sticky soil. It is very seldom that you find more than forty feet of it on one drain, though in the drain mentioned it was probably one hundred and twenty-five feet, along that drain in several places. You will find that in making a three feet drain the last foot of depth costs as much labor as the first two in many places. They put tile only two feet deep and it proves very good. And in some piace where they have a very close, sticky clay soil, tile are put about twenty inches deep on an ayerage, and they say that is the right depth for them. From experience of my own, I can say there are some places along my drains if I did not open the drains and make gravel fills, | am satisfied that there would never be such perfect drainage on some of the drains as there are on others where the soil is more porous. But let your drain be where it will, in filling, don’t put in straw, but spade the surface of the sides of your ditches on the tile first then put on the ground thrown out of the ditch to fill 36 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. the balance. It will then be on top of the ground where frost, sun and rain can dissolve the sticky clay; and by spading down the surface you have aloose mold on your tiie, and you have widened the sides of your ditch by giving it slope to the tile. | There is another rule by which you can govern yourself as to the depth that youshould lay your tile with a prospect of their working well or work- ing. perfectly. That is this: the nearer you areto a running stream of considerable size. where there is quite a considerable gravel or drift deposit and you want to drain only an occasional basin or swale, then you can @o as deep as your outlet will let you, or as deepas youwish togo. Remember to keep an even grade at all times. Should you have much fall, it is equally as important, for then it willsave washoutsin floods. Butforsuch places, longer tile with joints and stone dams over the tile to break washes, are neccessary. Right here remember as you go up thestream and where water flows slower, the condition of the soil is often not as good for drainage as lower down. Then you must not put your tile as deep, or you can put them as deepif you make the gravel fills often as necessary. But you must bear in mind to have the same effectual drainage that you are able to getfurther downstream, you willhave to exercise greater care in constructing your tile drains. Thefurther you go upstream the greater care you must take, and on the summit you DEPTH OF TILE DRAINS. SU should first secure a good outlet, then keep as deep as water will flow out of the outlet of the drain. Butif there isa very sticky clay soil, you can not drain as deep as further down thestream. But, sometimes, on the summit there are some very porous flats of clay loam that would drain much deeper than one would think they would. Such loams have sometimes a mixture of bog or some irony formation that seems to have a grit in it when the spade is passing through it. Such soil generally drains well. Let me say that tile draining, well done, is done for life, and to do it well, the first thing is to have a good outlet. After you begin to lay your tile or are ready to lay, voushould firstlay agood brick outlet large enough to carry the water of the tile. Lay these bricksin cement mortar. These bricksshould be burned hard enough to be frost proof. Your brick outlet should be several feet long, and clos- ed over the tile solidly. You should placea wire screen in your outlet to prevent animals from en- tering the tile drain. Why | say you should lay your brick in cement mortar is that nothing can displace them easily and spoil your outlet which would be a damage to the whole drain. Some make their outlets of sewer pipe, using several pieces. This will be all right if you can hold them to their places and no water dams in- to them to freeze them to pieces. Iivouusesuch you will have to hold them with stone and cover them so they are fully protected, or you will 38 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. have trouble. I have used wooden boxes for out- lets but they cave in before you are aware, as some side or the top will rot and down goes vour trunk, and it requires much time to look after them and keep them in good repair, and if made of good lumber they cost quite a considera- . ble. So I think for me there shall be no more wooden outlets. WHAT TO USE TO DRAIN OR UNDERDRAIN OUR SOIL. The very best burned tile that we can get. Glazed tile are the best, as they generally havea smooth inside, which is very important to have, as it lets the water flow more freely than it will in an ordinary tile, as they are somewhat rough and retard the flow of water very much; and many tile have blisters inside which must be cut out before laying. You had better throw such defective tile away rather than putthemin. Without cleaning they will only choke your ditch or reduce the capacity of the drain. Some say rough tile let water through the body of the tile. I assure you it would be very poor drain- age you would get were it not for the joints you eet in laying one foot tile. What water passes through the joints of a tile drain isabout ail you can expect to pass into the tile as the fine par- ticles of soil seal ali openings in the tile structure. It might do for filtering purposes but for noth- ing else. Then don’t let the man with his rough tile persuade vou that they are as good or bet- ter than glazed tile are. SIZE OF TILE. 39 SIZE OE TILE. What size tile shall we use? As we are on the summit we know to what extent our tile have to work; but as we go down stream further we have to contend with more water, for that which falls on the ground to be drained, and that which faJls on ground above encumbers the capacity of tile and the outlet of a drain in many cases can- not work as soon as it would farther up the stream, as the water from above may keep open ditches or even running streams full for several days, and in such case you will necessarilly need larger tile than where you have a free and un- obstructed outlet. I will try and give you a table that wili suit for most of the ordinary out- lets. TABLES OF CAPACITY OF TILE AS OUTLETS OF CON- NECTING BRANCHES. 2 inch tile drains, dic. SCTE: SE ete a 2% acres. 66 ae ce 66 ee ce ¢¢ S 66 6 66 6¢ 66 : 9 6¢ 5 86 66 ra 12Y a4 8 ce 66 ce 16 a3 ae Oa ‘é 66 95 66 TS 6c ee ce 36 ee 14 ce ee os AQ 66 15 66 6e 66 56 iz 16 66 66 ec 64 ce t& ce ec oe S1 a 40 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 94. 66 (a5 cc ‘ 143 ar 30 ce 66 6¢ 950 cé 36 (a5 66 ‘a5 394 6é This will be very near the capacity oi the tile, though condition of locality may change the es- timate and make it too high or too low. THE SURVEY. Is it necessary to have a survey to locate a good tile drain? No, not unless there are sever- al disagreeing parties who have land along the route of the drain, or want to drain into the same. But [ want to say to you, you had better compromise the matter and make the drain without a survey, as the expense of making the drain will have to be made after all contending is over. Let each one do his or her share and it will bea lasting good to all con- eerned. If you cannot agree then try for an arbitration and agree to stand by the decision. Have such agreement in writing placed before the arbitrators, signed by alli parties concerned, agreeing to accept the decision of arbitration; have arbitrators to put agreement on record, also their decision, recording the same. Then if any party wishes to engage in constructing the ditch it may be necessary to have a surveyor, if there is still some dissatisfaction, to set each share apart with depth of grade. This will be about the best way of disposing of the work. Then have the surveyor to inake a plot of each . THINGS TO AVOID. 41 man’s share or give each man a separate plot of his share. Thus you will have the plot of your own construction at hand always to refer to. The division of the drain can also be made by the arbitrator if all parties are agreed to have them stake it off. But if they say each one shall do so much work, it must be surveyed. WHAT SHALL WE AVOID IN TILE DRAINING ? The first thing to avoid is a willow tree, the roots of which will sometimes reach a tile drain four rods from the tree. lm trees are equally as bad; white and black ash also are bad to choke tile drains by sending their fine roots into the tile drain at the joints. Almost any tree is ' that grows well on wet land, as they seem to naturally seek the water level and they can find this in the bottom of a tile drain. Right heretow depart a little from the text, such trees are very dangerous about foundation walls of buildings. They often root in among the morter of such walls and crowd the stones out of their place in the wall. Fruit trees are not liable to do this so much as the trees of the forest. Fruit trees are not likely to injure tile drains as they donot seek after a water level, but_rather prefer to re- main inadry soil. There is no instance of any trouble in tiling an orchard to my knowledge. I have tiled within ten feet of a row of apple trees along my orchard to reach my garden witha tile drain and have never had any trouble with that 4Q PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. drain in seven years, and I know where drains have been put in not more than five years ago that were put that near to ash trees that they had to be taken up and were found full of roots. Where you have to pass through timber of this kind, you should never use less than five inch tile. If the outlet is kept open it will then be too dry for them to send their roots into the tile. WHAT WE SHOULD REMEMBER IN TILE DRAINING. We should first look up the true line of the main drain, measure it and level it to have it all correctly proved the best line and the least ex- pensive. A little time spent in overlooking the situation is never lost. We next should remember to grade our ditch- es. The first thing we do is in cutting the soil away with a short spade, it is much easier done - by scooping out the loose dirt and see that the water all flows freely. Then you can make your drain of an exact depth. Next remember to lay your tile of the same size first, and take the shrunken ones of that size and lay them back and use them up the drain where you want smaller tile, as to lay three inch tile and when you have one burned very hard that is only two and one-half inches you would reduce your three inch tile to two and one-half by using the shrunken tile. Lay all tile as close as possible. Leave no un- covered cracks. Leave no holes in bottom of THINGS TO REMEMBER. 43 drain.’ Remember that tile laid in straight lines work best. Remember that sinks or miry swamps, or quicksands must have long narrow boards that are good and solid laid in the bottom be- fore tileis laid in any soft and bottomed ditches. Tile should be more than one foot in length. In draining a swamp all soft and miry places must _ be tiled to save the crop and beasts. Don’t use straw, hay or corn stocks to cover tile. They will dam the water from the tile. Cover your tile with the surface soil and then with bottom soil. Remember to use plenty of bricks or broken tile to mark: your drains. Broken tile of good quality can often be had for hauling from the tile kiln. Mark deep and well, as good marking will make you a good drain plot, one to last forever. Remember, too, that to have the best drain- age your tile must be laid periectly and have ventilation or air at the upper end to flow freely. Remember to have the best flow you must have good smooth tile inside, though some rough material may sometimes be stronger than the smooth is. If you lay rough tile, clean the in- side. But if you can get good glazed tile they are the best. The writer trusts that you will be able to drain successfully after reading this column. HOW TO LOCATE OLD TILE DRAINS. You can also locate your old tile drains and 44 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. mark them.in this way very closely. All’ you have to do is to start near the outlet, just as soon after a rain as you see the plowed ground drying off over your old tiledrains. Take a line, measure across the dry line of ground over the tile. Take one-half of the width and place a mark of about a half bushel of pounded bricks into the ground at this point, then go up this dry line to the first curve. Put in brick again after measuring as before. You should also put in some brick above and below the curve, making measurements every time. Go up your tiledrain in this way and I will assure you that you will never vary more than a foot or so if you take correct measurements. Go up this line as faras you see dry ground. Mark at the upper end with several lots of brick, only a rod orso apart. This will give you a direct line to approach your tile drain from above; if you start above the drain and come down to the drain on this line, you will surely find your tile and your work is never lost. But if your drain don’t work you cannot expect to mark them all right. But as far as they work all right you can do the mark- ing all right, and some times where they only work partly by this you can also tell above eround where your tile works right. Now ifyou start out take your measure and stakes and you may mark the tile location first with stakes, then follow with pounded brick and shovel to mark where stakes mark the drain. When you HOW TO LOCATE OLD TILE DRAINS. 45 first begin to see the dry line on your plowed ground then is the best time to mark your tile drains. Remember that a tile drain ever so well laid, if its outietis not looked after and kept open it will not work well. Remember that the straighter your tile are laid in line, the better the flow of the water. Remember that it is cheaper to have a good tile drain than to lose your crop on untiled land, or in some cases to only have half a crop. Remember it is cheaper to have tile drains in your swamps, than to swampstock. Rentember it is cheaper to have tile drains than have your field full of plowed out ditches to run your machinery over and break them, as the money lost in this way would often make your tile drains. Remember it is cheaper to make tile drains than to have your field full of plowed out ditches and have your stock roll in and die. Remember asheep lostin this way, ifsold would buy many tile. Remember a good colt or a good horse lost in this way would be something; if sold would go far towards tiling a farm. Remember, if you could notsell that horse from your farm, thatto have used the money that was required to buy another horse, would have gone far towards tiling your farm, and would have saved your horse, saved crossing ditches and 46 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. breaking your machinery and vexation; instead of having nice, even fields to reap over and an abundant harvest to reap. Remember that if you must have field ditches, take aroad grader and make them. They will not wash out like plow ditches, but they arestill dangerous to stock if made.very deep. Remember that too deep spading occasionally will make a soft slushy bottom to lay your tile in, and yourtile will never work perfectly. Have a Sarectly solid bottom, sae graded and you have a good job. Remember, oh remember last of all, to see to it that all your tile are laid right and never let e job work, but better pay by the day and have — your tile all laid an even depth. If tile are laid in a ditch and water partly covers them, they will be likely to fill up to the water, and you pay for work half done. Don’t let tile be covered be- fore you see them, if possible. Remember it is when you have no places on your farm that are too wet to produce any crop thatitisthen that by good culture you can bring your farm to the highest state of pr oductivel ness of your locality. CHAPTER ON DITCHING TOOLS. a The numbers designating the different drain- ing tools, and the numbers of the descriptive paragraphs correspond. 1. Surface Spade Shovel, to be used in start- . ing and grading water level. 2. Flat Cleaner should be used in grading to first water level. 3. Round Cleaner, to be used in absence of Flat Cleaner. 4. Push and Pull Cleaner, to be used in the bottom of drain to level tile drain bottom be- fore laying tile. 5. Square Cleaner, to be used inlaying Square Sewer pipe. 6. Flat Cleaner, to be used in removing all ground that falls back into ditch, andin making’ the first level. Also to be used in marshy, swampy land where you have to lay boards in the bottom of the ditch before laying the tile. 7. Drain Spade, the most useful in all drains except where roots interfere. 8. Ordinary Ditching Spade, to be used in rooty ground; also very good in swamps where roots may occur and | you have to lay boards in the bottom. 48 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. 9. Post Hole Spade, not wanted for ditching. 10. The Ordinary Spade is not very:good in ditching. 11. The Ordinary Shovel, is not of much use in ditching. > 12. Tosumall up, about all that is needed for willing hands is a Surface Spade, Shovel and Round Push and Pull Cleaner. This is aboutall generally needed except where roots interfere. Then use the Ditch Spade. The Ditch Spade is intended for open ditches. In buying those tools get the best and lightest. You can get the weight on in mud, and clumsy, heavy tools are tiresome. I give you this to tell you what to get and don’t let your dealers put no you other tools than those recommended. Hussey, Binns & Co., Linard, Pittsburgh, Pa., have favored me with these plates and I am thankful to them. With these illustrations I think I can tell. you what you want and what you don’t want. DITCHING TOOLS. 49 50 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. No. 5. No. 6. No. 7. i ‘é heel Na) = es 5 Te Se EY BINNG Ave — CLOVER FOR FERTILITY. The importance of frequent clover seedings is too often overlooked by many farmers, especial- ly if they do not grow clover seed themselves. Clover is not directly a money crop. It may be sold, but we pity the farmer who grows it for this purpose. Its best use-is for feeding tostock on the farm, making manure that is worth near- ly as much as its price in the market. Thus con- siderable time is required to bring a clover crop into money. Capital also is needed to purchase or even to breed the stock to be fed. Thousands of farmers every spring neglect sowing clover seed, or sow it in such small amounts as not to get much benefit from it. They do not have money to spare to buy clover seed, when thereis such indefinite prospect of getting it back the same season. Probably in nothing is lack of capital in farming more injurious than in pre- venting frequent, and liberal seeding of clover. Going into debt for clover seed is not necessary. A good seeding costs not much more than adol- lar an acre. Nothing else comes as cheap as this, and nothing costing twice as much keeps fertility as clover does. Ten to twelve pounds of clover seed are enough CLOVER FOR FERTILITY. 53 if the soil is in good condition as to tilth. This will give more plants on a square foot than can grow to full size, but it is better to seed thickly, so as to suppress weeds. Iithesoil is very weedy it is better to sow a peck per acre than to have partial failure anywhere, and this at present prices might cost $1.25. Before midsummer this clover seed will have attained a growth more than enough to pay the cost of seed. It will usually pay to sow clover -seed at any- thing less than $8 or $10 a bushel on spring grain, whose stubble is to be plowed for wheat in the fall. It is not merely the bulk of clover growth that makes this pay. The clover has, if successiul, suppressed many weeds, and it is worth much more as a fertilizer then they could be. Let this clover grow through two seasons, and how much has it benefited the soil in that time? The roots have pushed into the subsoil so far as the vigor of the plant and richness of soil above will allow. Successive clover crops penetrate the soil deeper, until it will in drained land reach down to shallow drains two or two and one-half feet deep. It is for this reason bet- ter to put underdrains down three feet at least, so that successive clover crops may not finally reach into them and choke them. No permanent injury is likely to occur to drains from clover roots. Assoon as the plant dies the root quick- ly dissolves, and is washed out by next winter’s 54 PRACTICAL TILE DRAINING. or spring’s floods. The track of the clover root in the subsoil makes a water course for surplus water to filter through to the drain. Clover and - underdraining thus each help the other. If all small grains were seeded with clover at every crop there would soon be no complaint of the scarcity of manure to fertilize the farm. Ifa part of all the manure applied is used in grow- ing clover, it will so rapidly increase the capacity of the farm to keep stock that there need be no lack of manure thereafter. Without such clover seeding it is impossible to grow grain crops with- out making the land sterile, even though com- mercial fertilizers be ever so abundantly used. With clover seeding as often as possible, so much of all manure is returned to the soil that it can not help increasing in fertility and this too with- out plowing under any part of the clover crop except its roots. So far as possible, farmers should grow clover seed. In growing the second crop after the first has been cut for hay, the grain in soil fertility and also in the depth of the clover root is great- er than during any previous equal length of time that the plant is growing. Part of the clover seed is generally dropped on the ground in gathering it, but this is by no means wasted. Land where clover seed has been oiten grown be- comes so well seeded that it will grow a crop of clover every time the field is plowed for several years thereafter. Farmers sometimes say that - CLOVER FOR FERTILITY. ay such land is “‘natural to clover,” which is a mis- take if it means that clover grows without seed. But such land is always regarded as among the best, because it has long been in the hands of farmers who appreciate the value of clover.—The ~American Cultivator. INDEX. Benefits of Tile Draining, - To Find Depth and Grade of Drains, Draining Swamps, - How To Do Tiling, - - Covering Tile, ie How To Make Trunks, - Draining Hollows, - Branch Drains, - - Ventilating Drains, - Length and Size of Tile, - Depth of Drains, - Outlets, — - - - What to Use for Drains, - Size of Tile, ~ - The Survey, - : What to Avoid, © : - What to Remember, - How to Locate Old Drains, - Ditching Tools, - _- TRE \ ig Uf LIBRARY OF CONGRESS OTN 00009367639 mide} 7 4 | nr eae | = 4 é ‘ 4