Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health Part 12

2. Digging the ditches.

3. Grading the bottoms.

4. Tile and tile-laying.

5. Covering the tile and filling the ditches.

6. Outlets and silt-basins.

1. _Engineering and Superintendence._-It is not easy to say what would be the proper charge for this item of the work. In England, the Commissioners under the Drainage Acts of Parliament, and the Boards of Public Works, fix the charge for engineering at $1.25 per acre. That is in a country when the extent of lands undergoing the process of draining is very great, enabling one person to superintend large tracts in the same neighborhood at the same time, and with little or no outlay for travelling expenses. In this country, where the improvement is, thus far, confined to small areas, widely separated; and where there are comparatively few engineers who make a specialty of the work, the charge for services is necessarily much higher, and the amount expended in travelling much greater. In most cases, the proprietor of the land must qualify himself to superintend his own operations, (with the aid of a country surveyor, or a railroad engineer in the necessary instrumental work.) As draining becomes more general, the demand for professional a.s.sistance will, without doubt, cause local engineers to turn their attention to the subject, and their services may be more cheaply obtained. At present, it would probably not be prudent to estimate the cost of engineering and superintendence, including the time and skill of the proprietor, at less than $5 per acre, even where from 20 to 50 acres are to be drained at once.

2. _Digging the Ditches._-The labor required for the various operations const.i.tutes the princ.i.p.al item of cost in draining, and the price of labor is now so different in different localities, and so unsettled in all, that it is difficult to determine a rate which would be generally fair. It will be a.s.sumed that the average wages of day laborers of the cla.s.s employed in digging ditches, is $1.50 per day, and the calculation will have to be changed for different districts, in proportion to the deviation of the actual rate of wages from this amount. There is a considerable advantage in having the work done at some season, (as after the summer harvest, or late in the fall,) when wages are comparatively low.

The cutting of the ditches should always be let by the rod. When working at day's work, the men will invariably open them wider than is necessary, for the sake of the greater convenience of working, and the extra width causes a corresponding waste of labor.

A 4-foot ditch, in most soils, need be only 20 inches wide at the surface, and 4 inches at the bottom. This gives a mean width of 12 inches, and requires the removal of nearly 2-1/2 cubic yards of earth for each rod of ditch; but an increase to a mean width of 16 inches, (which day workmen will usually reach, while piece workmen almost never will,) requires the removal of 3-1/4 cubic yards to the rod. As the increased width is usually below the middle of the drain, the extra earth will all have to be raised from 2 to 4 feet, and the extra 3/4 yards will cost as much as a full yard taken evenly from the whole side, from top to bottom.

In clay soils, free from stones or "hard pan," but so stiff as to require considerable picking, ordinary workmen, after a little practice, will be able to dig 3-1/2 rods of ditch per day, to an average depth of 3.80,-leaving from 2 to 3 inches of the bottom of 4-foot ditches to be finished by the graders. This makes the cost of digging about 43 cents per rod. In loamy soil the cost will be a little less than this, and in very hard ground, a little more. In sandy and peaty soils, the cost will not be more than 30 cents. Probably 43 cents would be a fair average for soils requiring drainage, throughout the country.

This is about 17 cents for each yard of earth removed.

In soft ground, the caving in of the banks will require a much greater mean width than 12 inches to be thrown out, and, if the accident could not have been prevented by ordinary care on the part of the workman, (using the bracing boards shown in Fig. 28,) he should receive extra pay for the extra work. In pa.s.sing around large stones it may also be necessary to increase the width.

The following table will facilitate the calculations for such extra work:

CUBIC YARDS OF EXCAVATION IN DITCHES OF VARIOUS WIDTH.

_Length of 12 _Inches 18 _Inches 24 _Inches 30 _Inches 36 _Inches Ditch._ Wide._ Wide._ Wide._ Wide._ Wide._ Yds. Feet. Yds. Feet. Yds. Feet. Yds. Feet. Yds. Feet.

1 Yard. 0 12 0 18 0 24 1 3 1 9 1 Rod. 2 12 3 18 4 24 6 3 7 9

Men will, in most soils, work best in couples,-one shovelling out the earth, and working forward, and the other, (moving backward,) loosening the earth with a spade or foot-pick, (Fig. 41.) In stony land, the men should be required to keep their work well closed up,-excavating to the full depth as they go. Then, if they strike a stone too large to be taken out within the terms of their contract, they can skip a sufficient distance to pa.s.s it, and the digging of the omitted part may be done by a faithful day workman. This will usually be cheaper and more satisfactory than to pay the contractors for extra work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 41 - FOOT PICK.]

Fig. 41 - FOOT PICK.

Concerning the amount of work that one man can do in a day, in different soils, digging ditches 4 feet deep, French says: "In the writer's own field, where the pick was used to loosen the lower two feet of earth, the labor of opening and _filling_ drains 4 feet deep, and of the mean width of 14 inches, all by hand labor, has been, in a mile of drains, being our first experiments, about one day's labor to 3 rods in length. The excavated earth of such a drain measures not quite 3 cubic yards, (exactly, 2.85.)" In a subsequent work, in a sandy soil, two men opened, _laid_, and _refilled_ 14 rods in one day;-the mean width being 12 inches.(21)

"In the same season, the same men opened, _laid_, and _filled_ 70 rods of 4-foot drain of the same mean width of 12 inches, in the worst kind of clay soil, where the pick was constantly used. It cost 35 days' labor to complete the job, being 50 cents _per_ rod for the labor alone." Or, under the foregoing calculation of $1.50 per day, 75 cents per rod. These estimates, in common with nearly all that are published, are for the entire work of digging, grading, tile-laying, and refilling. Deducting the time required for the other work, the result will be about as above estimated; for the rough excavation, 3 1/2-rods to the day's work, costing, at $1.50 per day, 43 cents to the rod.

_Grading_ is the removal of 2 or 3 inches in depth, and about 4 inches in width, of the soil at the bottom of the ditch. It is chiefly done with the finis.h.i.+ng scoop, which, (being made of two thin plates, one of iron and one of steel, welded together, the iron wearing away and leaving the sharp steel edge always prominent,) will work in a very hard clay without the aid of the pick. Three men,-the one in the ditch being a skillful workman, and the others helping him when not sighting the rods,-will grade about 100 rods per day, making the cost about 6 cents per rod. Until they acquire the skill to work thus rapidly, they should not be urged beyond what they can readily do in the best manner, as this operation, (which is the preparing of the foundation for the tiles,) is probably the most important of the whole work of draining.

_Tiles and Tile-Laying._-After allowing for breakage, it will take about 16 tiles and 16 collars to lay a rod in length of drain. The cost of these will, of course, be very much affected by the considerations of the nearness of the tile-kiln and the cost of transportation. They should, in no ordinary case, cost, delivered on the ground, more than $8 per thousand for 1-1/4-inch tiles, and $4 per thousand for the collars, making a total of $12 for both, equal to about 19 cents per rod. The laying of the tiles, may be set down at 2 cents per rod,-based on a skilled man laying 100 rods daily, and receiving $2 per day.

_Covering and filling_ will probably cost 10 cents per rod, (if the sc.r.a.per, Fig. 39, can be successfully used for the rough filling, the cost will be reduced considerably below this.)

The four items of the cost of making one rod of lateral drain are as follows:

Digging the ditches - - - .43 Grading - - - .06 Tiles and laying - - - .21 Covering and filling - - - .10 - - -.80 cts.

If the drains are placed at intervals of 40 feet, there are required 64 rods to the acre,-this at 80 cents per rod will make the cost per acre,-for the above items,-$51.20.

How much should be allowed for main drains, outlets, and silt-basins, it is impossible to say, as, on irregular ground, no two fields will require the same amount of this sort of work. On very even land, where the whole surface, for hundreds of acres, slopes gradually in one or two directions, the outlay for mains need not be more than two per cent. of the cost of the laterals. This would allow laterals of a uniform length of 800 feet to discharge into the main line, at intervals of 40 feet, if we do not consider the trifling extra cost of the larger tiles. On less regular ground, the cost of mains will often be considerably more than two per cent. of the cost of the laterals; but in some instances the increase of main lines will be fully compensated for by the reduction in the length of the laterals, which, owing to rocks, hills too steep to need drains at regular intervals, and porous, (gravelly,) streaks in the land, cannot be profitably made to occupy the whole area so thoroughly.(22)

Probably 7-1/2 per cent. of the cost of the laterals for mains, outlets, and silt-basins will be a fair average allowance.

This will bring the total cost of the work to about $60 per acre, made up as follows:

Cost of the finished drains per acre - - - $51.20

7-1/2 per cent. added for mains, etc. - - - 3.83

Engineering and Superintendence - - - 5.00

Of course this is an arbitrary calculation, an estimate without a single ascertained fact to go upon,-but it is as close as it can be made to what would probably be the cost of the best work, on average ground, at the present high prices of labor and material. Five years ago the same work could have been done for from $40 to $45 per acre, and it will be again cheaper when wages fall, and when a greater demand for draining tiles shall have caused more compet.i.tion in their manufacture. With a large general demand, such as has existed in England for the last 20 years, they would now be sold for one-half of their present price here, and the manufacture would be more profitable.

There are many light lands on retentive subsoils, which could be drained, at present prices, for $50 or less per acre, and there are others, which are very hard to dig, on which thorough-draining could not now be done for $60.

The cost and the promise of the operation in each instance, must guide the land owner in deciding whether or not to undertake the improvement.

In doubtful cases, there is one compromise which may be safely made,-that is, to omit each alternate drain, and defer its construction until labor is cheaper.

This is doing half the work,-a very different thing from half-doing the work. In such cases, the lines should be laid out as though they were to be all done at once, and, finally, when the omitted drains are made, it should be in pursuance of the original plan. Probably the drains which are laid will produce more than one-half of the benefit that would result if they were all laid, but they will rarely be satisfactory, except as a temporary expedient, and the saving will be less than would at first seem likely, for when the second drains are laid; the cultivation of the land must be again interrupted; the draining force must be again brought together; the levels of the new lines must be taken, and connected with those of the old ones; and great care must be taken, selecting the dryest weather for the work,-to admit very little, if any, muddy water into the old mains.

This practice of draining by installments is not recommended; it is only suggested as an allowable expedient, when the cost of the complete work could not be borne with out inconvenience.

If any staid and economical farmer is disposed to be alarmed at the cost of draining, he is respectfully reminded of the miles of expensive stone walls and other fences, in New England and many other parts of the country, which often are a real detriment to the farms, occupying, with their accompanying bramble bushes and head lands, acres of valuable land, and causing great waste of time in turning at the ends of short furrows in plowing;-while they produce no benefit at all adequate to their cost and annoyance.

It should also be considered that, just as the cost of fences is scarcely felt by the farmer, being made when his teams and hands could not be profitably employed in ordinary farming operations, so the cost of draining will be reduced in proportion to the amount of the work which he can "do within himself,"-without hiring men expressly for it. The estimate herein given is based on the supposition that men are hired for the work, at wages equal to $1.50 per day,-while draining would often furnish a great advantage to the farmer in giving employment to farm hands who are paid and subsisted by the year.

CHAPTER VII. - "WILL IT PAY?"

Starting with the basis of $60, as the cost of draining an acre of ordinary farm land;-what is the prospect that the work will prove remunerative?

In all of the older States, farmers are glad to lend their surplus funds, on bond and mortgage on their neighbors' farms, with interest at the rate of 7, and often 6 per cent.

In view of the fact that a little attention must be given each year to the outlets, and, to the silt-basins, as well, for the first few years, it will be just to charge for the use of the capital 8-1/3 per cent.

This will make a yearly charge on the land, for the benefits resulting from such a system of draining as has been described, OF FIVE DOLLARS PER ACRE.

_Will it Pay?_-Will the benefits accruing, year after year,-in wet seasons and in dry,-with root crops and with grain,-with hay and with fruit,-in rotations of crops and in pasture,-be worth $5 an acre?

On this question depends the value of tile-draining as a _practical_ improvement, for if there is a self-evident proposition in agriculture, it is that what is not profitable, one year with another, is _not_ practical.