Farm drainage Part 23

For the accurate grading of the bottom of drains, as the work proceeds, we have in practice found nothing so convenient and accurate as the arrangement which we are about to ill.u.s.trate.

The object is simply to draw a line parallel with the proposed bottom of the drain, for the laborers to work under, so that they, as they proceed, may measure down from it, as a guide to depth. Having with the spirit-level, ascertained the fall from end to end of the drain, a short stake is set at each end, and a line is drawn from one to the other at the requisite height, and supported by the cross-pieces, at suitable distances, to prevent the sagging of the line.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 59.--GRADING TRENCHES BY LINES.]

Suppose the drain to be ten rods long, and that it is intended to cut it four feet deep, the natural fall being, from end to end, sufficient. We drive a stake at each end of the drain, high enough to attach to it a line three feet above the surface, which will be seven feet above the bottom of the finished drain--high enough to be above the heads of the cutters, when standing near the bottom.

Before drawing the line, the drain may be nearly completed. Then drive the intermediate stakes, with the projecting arms, which we will call squares, on one side of the drain, carefully sighting from one end of the stake to the other, at the point fixed for the line, and driving the squares till they are exactly even. Then attach a strong small cord, not larger than a chalk line, to one of the stakes, and draw it as tight as it will bear, and secure it at the other stake. The line is now directly over the middle of the drain, seven feet from the bottom. Give the cutters, then, a rod seven feet long, and let them cut just deep enough for the rod to stand on the bottom and touch the line.

Practically, this has been found by the author, the most accurate and satisfactory method of bringing drains to a regular grade.

Instead of a line, after the end stakes have been placed, a _boning rod_, as it is called, may be used thus: A staff is used, with a cross-piece at the top, and long enough, when resting on the proper bottom of the drain, to reach to the level of the marks on the stakes, three feet above the surface. Cross-pieces nailed to the stakes are the most conspicuous marks. A person stands at one stake sighting along to the other; a second person then holds the rod upright in the ditch, just touching the bottom, and carries it thus along. If, while it is moved along, its top is always in a line with the cross-bars on the end stakes, the fall is uniform; if it rise above, the bottom of the drain must be lowered; if it fall below, the bottom of the drain must be raised. This may be convenient enough for mere inspection of works, but it requires two persons besides the cutters, to finish the drain by this mode; whereas, with the lines and squares, any laborer can complete the work with exactness.

Another mode of levelling, by means of a mammoth mason's level, with an improvement, was invented by Colonel Challoner, and published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. It may appear to some persons more simple than the span level. We give the cut and explanation.

"I first ascertain what amount of fall I can obtain, from the head of every drain to my outfall. Suppose the length of the drain to be 96 yards, and I find I have a fall of two feet, that gives me a fall of a quarter of an inch in every yard. I take a common bricklayer's level 12 feet long, to the bottom of which I attach, with screws, a piece of wood the whole length, _one inch wider_ at one end than at the other, thereby throwing the level one inch out of the true horizontal line. When the drain has got to its proper depth at the outfall, I apply the broadest end of the level to the mouth; and when the plumb-bob indicates the level to be correct, the one-inch fall has been gained in the four yards, and so on. I keep testing the drain as it is dug, quite up to the head, when an unbroken, even, and continuous fall of two feet in the whole 96 yards has been obtained."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 60.--CHALLONER'S LEVEL.]

SPADES AND SHOVELS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 61, 62, 63.--DRAIN SPADES.]

No peculiar tool is essential in opening that part of the drain which is more than a foot in width. Shovels and spades, of the forms usually found upon well-furnished farms, and adapted to its soil, will be found sufficient. A Boston agricultural house, a year or two since, sent out an order to London for a complete set of draining tools. In due season, they received, in compliance with their order, three spades of different width, like those represented in the cut.

These are understood to be the tools in common use in England and Scotland, for sod-draining, and for any other drains, indeed, except tiles. The widest is 12 inches wide, and is used to remove the first spit, of about one foot depth. The second is 12 inches wide at top, and 8 at the point, and the third, eight at top, and four at the point. The narrowest spade is usually made with a spur in front, or what the Irish call a _treader_, on which to place the foot in driving it into the earth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 64. SPADE WITH SPUR.]

For wedge drains, these spades are made narrower than those above represented, the finis.h.i.+ng spade being but two and a half inches wide at the point. It will be recollected that this kind of drainage is only adapted to clay land. The shovels and spades which have been heretofore in most common use in New England are made with short handles, thus--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figs. 65, 66.--COMMON SHOVEL AND SPADE.]

They are of cast-steel, and combine great strength and lightness.

Long-handled shovels and spades are much preferred, usually, by Irish laborers, whose fancy is worth consulting in matters with which they have so much to do. We believe their notion is correct, that the long-handled tool is the easier to work with, at almost any job.

In our own draining, we find the common spade, with long or short handle, to be best in marking out the lines in turf; and either the spade or common shovel, according to the nature of the soil, most convenient in removing the first foot of earth.

After this, if the pick is used, a long-handled round-pointed shovel, now in common use on our farms, is found convenient, until the ditch is too narrow for its use. Then the same shovel, turned up at the sides so as to form a narrow scoop, will be found better than any tool we yet have to remove this loosened earth.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figs. 67, 68.--LONG-HANDLED ROUND SHOVEL. SCOOP SHOVEL.]

Of all the tools that we have ever seen in the hands of an Irishman, in ditching, nothing approximates to the true Irish spade. It is a very clumsy, ungainly-looking implement used in the old country both for ditching, and for ridging for potatoes, being varied somewhat in width, according to the intended use. For stony soil, it is made narrower and stronger, while for the bog it is broader and lighter. The Irish blacksmiths in this country usually know how to make them, and we have got up a pattern of them, which are manufactured by Laighton and Lufkin, edge-tool makers, of Auburn, N. H., which have been tested, and found to suit the ideas of the Irish workmen.

This is a correct portrait of an Irish spade of our own pattern, which has done more in opening two miles of drains on our own farm, than any other implement.

The spade of the Laighton and Lufkin pattern weighs 5 lbs., without the handle, and is eighteen inches long. It is of iron, except about eight inches of the blade, which is of cast steel, tempered and polished like a chopping axe. It is considerably curved, and the workmen suit their own taste as to the degree of curvature, by putting the tool under a log or rock, and bending it to suit themselves. It is a powerful, strong implement, and will cut off a root of an inch or two diameter as readily as an axe. The handle is of tough ash, and held in place by a wedge driven at the side of it, and can be knocked out readily when the spade needs new steel, or any repair. The length of the handle is three feet eight inches, and the diameter about one and one-fourth inches. The wedge projects, and forms a "treader," broad and firm, on which the foot comes down, to drive the spade into the ground.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 69.--IRISH SPADE.]

We have endeavored to have the market supplied with the Irish spades, because, in the hands of such Irishmen as have used them "at home," we find them a most effective tool. We are met with all sorts of reasonable theoretical objections on the part of implement sellers, and of farmers, who never saw an Irish spade in use. "Would not the tool be better if it were wider and lighter," asks one. "I think it would be better if the spur, or "treader," were movable and of iron, so as to be put on the other side or in front," suggests another. "It seems as if it would work better, if it were straight," adds a third. "Would it not hold the dirt better if it were a little hollowing on the front," queries a fourth.

"No doubt," we reply, "there might be a very good implement made, wider and lighter, without a wooden treader, and turned up at the sides, to hold the earth better, but it would not be an Irish spade when finished.

Your theories may be all correct and demonstrable by the purest mathematics, but the question is, with what tool will Patrick do the most work? If he recognizes the Irish spade as an inst.i.tution of his country, as a part of 'home,' you might as well attempt to reason him out of his faith in the Pope, as convince him that his spade is not perfect." Our man, James, believes in the infallibility of both. There is no digging on the farm that his spade is not adapted to. To mark out a drain in the turf by a line, he mounts his spade with one foot, and hops backward on the other, with a celerity surprising to behold. Then he cuts the sod in squares, and, with a sleight of hand, which does not come by nature, as Dogberry says reading and writing come, throws out the first spit. When he comes on to the gravel or hard clay, where another man would use a pick-axe, his heavy boot comes down upon the treader, and drives the spade a foot or more deep; and if a root is encountered, a blow or two easily severs it. The last foot at the bottom of the four-foot drain, is cut out for the sole-tile only four and a half inches wide, and the sides of the ditch are kept trimmed, even and straight, with the sharp steel edge. And it is pleasant to hear James express his satisfaction with his national implement. "And, sure, we could do nothing at this job, sir, without the Irish spade!" "And, sure, I should like to see a man that will spade this hard clay with anything else, sir!" On the whole, though the Irish spade does wonders on our farm, we recommend it only for Irishmen, who know how to handle it. In our own hands, it is as awkward a thing as we ever took hold of, and we never saw any man but an Irishman, who could use it gracefully and effectively.

_Bottoming Tools._--The only tools which are wanted of peculiar form in draining, are such as are used in forming the narrow part of the trenches at the bottom. We can get down two feet, or even three, with the common spade and pick-axe, and in most kinds of drainage, except with tiles, it is necessary to have the bottom as wide, at least, as a spade. In tile-draining, the narrower the trench the better, and in laying cylindrical pipes without collars, the bottom of the drain should exactly fit the pipes, to hold them in line.

Although round pipes are generally used in England, we have known none used in America until the past season--the sole-pipe taking their place.

As the sole-pipe has a flat bottom, a different tool is required to finish its resting-place, from that adapted to the round pipe. As we have not, however, arrived quite at the bottom, we will return to the tools for removing the last foot of earth.

And first, we give from Morton, the Birmingham spades referred to by Mr.

Denton, in his letter, quoted in this chapter. They are the theoretically perfect tools for removing the last eighteen or twenty inches of soil in a four or five-foot drain. Mr. Gisborne says of the drain properly formed:

"It is wrought in the shape of a wedge, brought in the bottom to the narrowest limit which will admit the collar, by tools admirably adapted to that purpose. The foot of the operator is never within twenty inches of the floor of the drain; his tools are made of iron, plated on steel, and never lose their sharpness, even when worn to the stumps; because, as the softer material, the iron, wears away, the sharp steel edge is always prominent."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 70. Fig. 71. Fig. 72. BIRMINGHAM SPADES.]

This poetical view of digging drains, meets us at every turn, and we are beset with inquiries for these wonderful implements. We do not intimate that Mr. Gisborne, and those who so often quote the above language, are not reliable. Mr. Gisborne "is an honorable man, so are they all honorable men;" but we must reform our tiles, and our land too, most of it, we fear, before we can open four-foot trenches, and lay pipes in them, without putting a foot "within twenty inches of the floor of the drain."

In the first place, we have great doubt whether pipes can be laid close enough to make the joints secure without collars, unless carefully laid by hand, or unless they are round pipes, rolled in the making, when half dried, and so made straight and even at the ends. In laying such sole-pipes as we have laid, it requires some care to adjust them, so as to make the joints close. Most of them are warped in drying or burning, so that s.p.a.ces of half an inch will often be left at the top or side, where two are laid end to end. Now, if the foot never goes to the bottom of the drain, the pipes must be laid with a hook or pipe-layer, such as will be presently described, which may do well for pipes and collars, because the collar covers the joint, so that it is of no importance if it be somewhat open.

Again, we know of no method of working with a pick-axe, except by standing as low as the bottom of the work. No man can pick twenty inches, or indeed any inches, lower than he stands, because he must move forward in this work, and not backward. Each land-owner may judge for himself, whether his land requires the pick in its excavation.

In soft clays, no doubt, with suitable tools, the trench may be cut a foot, or more, lower than the feet of the workman. We have seen it done in our land, in a sandy soil, with the Irish spade, though, as we used sole-pipes, our "pipe-layer" was a live Irishman, who walked in the trench backwards, putting down the pipes with his hand.

We are satisfied, that the instances in which trenches may be opened a foot or two below the feet of the workmen, are the exceptions, and not the rule, and that in laying sole-tiles, the hand of a careful workman must adjust each tile in its position.

We have found a narrow spade, four inches wide, with a long handle, a convenient tool for finis.h.i.+ng drains for sole-tiles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 73. Fig. 74. NARROW SPADES FOR TILES.]

We have thoroughly tested the matter; and in all kinds of soil, give a decided preference to spades as broad at the point as at the heel. We have used common long-handled spades, cut down with shears at a machine-shop, into these shapes.

The spade of equal width, works much more easily in the bottom of a trench, because its corners do not catch, as do those of the other. The pointed spade is apparently nearer the shape of the sloping ditch, but such tools cannot be used vertically, and when the heel of the pointed spade is lowered, it catches in the side of the trench, before the point reaches the bottom.

Very strong spades, of various width, from three to eight inches, and thick at the heel, to operate as a wedge, will be found most suitable for common use. The narrowest spades should have the spur, as shown in Fig. 64, because there is not room for the foot by the side of the handle.

The various tools for finis.h.i.+ng the bottoms of drains, as figured in Morton, are the following:

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 75. Fig. 76. Fig. 77. Fig. 78. Fig. 79.

ENGLISH BOTTOMING TOOLS.]

The last implement, which is a scoop for the bottom of trenches for round pipes, is one of the tools mentioned in Mr. Denton's letter, as not being found to the taste of his workmen. For scooping out our flat-bottomed trenches, we use a tool like Fig. 77. For boggy land, soft clay, or, indeed, any land where water is running at the time of the excavation, scoops like the following will be found convenient for flat bottoms.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 80. Fig. 81. Fig. 82.

DRAWING AND PUs.h.i.+NG SCOOP, AND PIPE-LAYER.]

The pus.h.i.+ng scoop (Fig. 81), as it is called, may be made of a common long-handled shovel, turned up at the sides by a blacksmith, leaving it of the desired width.