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[pg 159] 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 competition 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[pg 160] 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.