Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health Part 13

To counterbalance the charge of $5, as the yearly cost of the draining, each acre must produce, in addition to what it would have yielded without the improvement:

10 bushels of Corn at .50 per bushel.

3 bushels of Wheat at $1.66 per bushel.

5 bushels of Rye at 1.00 per bushel.

12-1/2 bushels of Oats at .40 per bushel.

10 bushels of Potatoes at .50 per bushel.

6-2/3 bushels of Barley at .75 per bushel.

1,000 pounds of Hay at 10.00 per ton.

50 pounds of Cotton at .10 per pound.

20 pounds of Tobacco at .25 per pound.

Surely this is not a large increase,-not in a single case,-and the prices are generally less than may be expected for years to come.

The United States Census Report places the average crop of Indian Corn, in Indiana and Illinois, at 33 bushels per acre. In New York it was but 27 bushels, and in Pennsylvania but 20 bushels. It would certainly be accounted extremely liberal to fix the average yield of such soils as need draining, at 30 bushels per acre. It is extremely unlikely that they would yield this, in the average of seasons, with the constantly recurring injury from backward springs, summer droughts, and early autumn frosts.

Heavy, retentive soils, which are cold and late in the spring, subject to hard baking in midsummer, and to become cold and wet in the early fall, are the very ones which are best suited, when drained, to the growth of Indian Corn. They are "strong" and fertile,-and should be able to absorb, and to prepare for the use of plants, the manure which is applied to them, and the fertilizing matters which are brought to them by each storm;-but they cannot properly exercise the functions of fertile soils, for the reason that they are strangled with water, chilled by evaporation, or baked to almost brick-like hardness, during nearly the whole period of the growth and ripening of the crop. The manure which has been added to them, as well as their own chemical const.i.tuents, are prevented from undergoing those changes which are necessary to prepare them for the uses of vegetation. The water of rains, finding the s.p.a.ces in the soil already occupied by the water of previous rains, cannot enter to deposit the gases which it contains,-or, if the soil has been dried by evaporation under the influence of sun and wind, the surface is almost hermetically sealed, and the water is only slowly soaked up, much of it running off over the surface, or lying to be removed by the slow and chilling process of evaporation. In wet times and in dry, the air, with its heat, its oxygen, and its carbonic acid, (its universal solvent,) is forbidden to enter and do its beneficent work. The benefit resulting from cultivating the surface of the ground is counteracted by the first unfavorable change of the weather; a single heavy rain, by saturating the soil, returning it to nearly its original condition of clammy compactness. In favorable seasons, these difficulties are lessened, but man has no control over the seasons, and to-morrow may be as foul as to-day has been fair. A crop of corn on undrained, retentive ground, is subject to injury from disastrous changes of the weather, from planting until harvest. Even supposing that, in the most favorable seasons, it would yield as largely as though the ground were drained, it would lose enough in unfavorable seasons to reduce the average more than ten (10) bushels per acre.

The average crop, on such land, has been a.s.sumed to be 30 bushels per acre; it would be an estimate as moderate as this one is generous, to say that, with the same cultivation and the same manure, the average crop, after draining, would be 50 bushels, or an increase equal to twice as much as is needed to pay the draining charge. If the method of cultivation is improved, by deep plowing, ample manuring, and thorough working,-all of which may be more profitably applied to drained than to undrained land,-the _average_ crop,-of a series of years,-will not be less than 60 bushels.

The cost of extra harvesting will be more than repaid by the value of the extra fodder, and the increased cultivation and manuring are lasting benefits, which can be charged, only in small part, to the current crop.

Therefore, if it will pay to plow, plant, hoe and harvest for 30 bushels of corn, it will surely pay much better to double the crop at a yearly extra cost of $5, and, practically, it amounts to this;-the extra crop is nearly all clear gain.

The quant.i.ty of Wheat required to repay the annual charge for drainage is so small, that no argument is needed to show that any process which will simply prevent "throwing out" in winter, and the failure of the plant in the wetter parts of the field, will increase the product more than that amount,-to say nothing of the general importance to this crop of having the land in the most perfect condition, (in winter as well as in summer.)

It is stated that, since the general introduction of drainage in England, (within the past 25 years,) the wheat crop of that country has been more than doubled. Of course, it does not necessarily follow that the amount _per acre_ has been doubled, large areas which were originally unfit for the growth of this crop, having been, by draining, excellently fitted for its cultivation;-but there can be no doubt that its yield has been greatly increased on all drained lands, nor that large areas, which, before being drained, were able to produce fair crops only in the best seasons, are now made very nearly independent of the weather.

It is not susceptible of demonstration, but it is undoubtedly true, that those clay or other heavy soils, which are devoted to the growth of wheat in this country, would, if they were thoroughly under-drained, produce, on the average of years, at least double their present crop.

Mr. John Johnston, a venerable Scotch farmer, who has long been a successful cultivator in the Wheat region of Western New York,-and who was almost the pioneer of tile-draining in America,-has laid over 50 miles of drains within the last 30 years. His practice is described in Klippart's Land Drainage, from which work we quote the following:

"Mr. Johnston says he never saw 100 acres in any one farm, but a portion of it would pay for draining. Mr. Johnston is no rich man who has carried a favorite hobby without regard to cost or profit. He is a hardworking Scotch farmer, who commenced a poor man, borrowed money to drain his land, has gradually extended his operations, and is now reaping the benefits, in having crops of 40 bushels of wheat to the acre. He is a gray-haired Nestor, who, after acc.u.mulating the experience of a long life, is now, at 68 years of age, written to by strangers in every State of the Union for information, not only in drainage matters, but all cognate branches of farming. He sits in his homestead, a veritable Humboldt in his way, dispensing information cheerfully through our agricultural papers and to private correspondents, of whom he has recorded 164 who applied to him last year. His opinions are, therefore, worth more than those of a host of theoretical men, who write without practice." * * * * *

"Although his farm is mainly devoted to wheat, yet a considerable area of meadow and some pasture has been retained. He now owns about 300 acres of land. The yield of wheat has been 40 bushels this year, and in former seasons, when his neighbors were reaping 8, 10, or 15 bushels, he has had 30 and 40." * * * * *

"Mr. Johnston says tile-draining pays for itself in two seasons, sometimes in one. Thus, in 1847, he bought a piece of 10 acres to get an outlet for his drains. It was a perfect quagmire, covered with coa.r.s.e aquatic gra.s.ses, and so unfruitful that it would not give back the seed sown upon it. In 1848 a crop of corn was taken from it, which was measured and found to be _eighty bushels_ per acre, and as, because of the Irish famine, corn was worth $1 per bushel that year, this crop paid not only all the expense of drainage, but the first cost of the land as well.

"Another piece of 20 acres, adjoining the farm of the late John Delafield, was wet, and would never bring more than 10 bushels of corn per acre. This was drained at a great cost, nearly $30 per acre. The first crop after this was 83 bushels and some odd pounds per acre. It was weighed and measured by Mr. Delafield, and the County Society awarded a premium to Mr.

Johnston. Eight acres and some rods of this land, at one side, averaged 94 bushels, or the trifling increase of 84 bushels per acre over what it would bear before those insignificant clay tiles were buried in the ground. But this increase of crop is not the only profit of drainage; for Mr. Johnston says that, on drained land, one half the usual quant.i.ty of manure suffices to give maximum crops. It is not difficult to find a reason for this. When the soil is sodden with water, air can not enter to any extent, and hence oxygen can not eat off the surfaces of soil-particles and prepare food for plants; thus the plant must in great measure depend on the manure for sustenance, and, of course, the more this is the case, the more manure must be applied to get good crops. This is one reason, but there are others which we might adduce if one good one were not sufficient.

"Mr. Johnston says he never made money until he drained, and so convinced is he of the benefits accruing from the practice, that he would not hesitate,-as he did not when the result was much more uncertain than at present,-to borrow money to drain. Drains well laid, endure, but unless a farmer intends doing the job well, he had best leave it alone and grow poor, and move out West, and all that sort of thing. Occupiers of apparently dry land are not safe in concluding that they need not go to the expense of draining, for if they will but dig a three-foot ditch in even the driest soil, water will be found in the bottom at the end of eight hours, and if it does come, then draining will pay for itself speedily."

Some years ago, the Rural New Yorker published a letter from one of its correspondents from which the following is extracted:-

"I recollect calling upon a gentleman in the harvest field, when something like the following conversation occurred:

'Your wheat, sir, looks very fine; how many acres have you in this field?'

'In the neighborhood of eight, I judge.'

'Did you sow upon fallow?'

'No sir. We turned over green sward-sowed immediately upon the sod, and dragged it thoroughly-and you see the yield will probably be 25 bushels to the acre, where it is not too wet.'

'Yes sir, it is mostly very fine. I observed a thin strip through it, but did not notice that it was wet.'

'Well, it is not _very_ wet. Sometimes after a rain, the water runs across it, and in spring and fall it is just wet enough to heave the wheat and kill it.'

I inquired whether a couple of good drains across the lot would not render it dry.

'Perhaps so-but there is not over an acre that is killed out.'

'Have you made an estimate of the loss you annually sustain from this wet place?'

'No, I had not thought much about it.'

'Would $30 be too high?'

'O yes, double.'

'Well, let's see; it cost you $3 to turn over the sward? Two bushels of seed, $2; harrowing in, 75 cents; interest, taxes, and fences, $5.25; 25 bushels of wheat lost, $25.'

'Deduct for harvesting---'

'No; the straw would pay for that.'

'Very well, all footed $36.'

'What will the wheat and straw on this acre be worth this year?'

'Nothing, as I shall not cut the ground over.'

'Then it appears that you have lost, in what you have actually expended, and the wheat you would have harvested, had the ground been dry, $36, a pretty large sum for one acre.'

'Yes I see,' said the farmer."

While Rye may be grown, with tolerable advantage, on lands which are less perfectly drained than is necessary for Wheat, there can be no doubt that an increase of more than the six and two-thirds bushels needed to make up the drainage charge will be the result of the improvement.

While Oats will thrive in soils which are too wet for many other crops, the ability to plant early, which is secured by an early removal from the soil of its surplus water, will ensure, one year with another, more than twelve and a half bushels of increased product.