Drainage and Good Husbandry.
BY C. G. ELLIOTT, DRAINAGE ENGINEER.
I.
The practical advantage of drainage as it appears to the casual observer, is in the increased production of valuable crops. Ordinary land is improved, and worthless land so far reclaimed as to yield a profit to its owner, where once it was a source of loss and a blemish upon an otherwise fair district. The land-buyer who looks for a future rise in his purchase, recognizes the value of drainage, being careful to invest his capital in land which has natural drainage, or is capable of being drained artificially with no great expense, if it is suitable for use as an agricultural domain. The physician, though perhaps unwilling, is obliged to admit drainage as an important agency in the reduction of malignant diseases and much general ill-health among dwellers in both country and village. Our State Board of Health recognizes the influence of land drainage upon the healthfulness of districts where it is practiced. The Secretary of this Board gives it as his opinion that even good road drainage would diminish the number of preventable diseases 25 per cent.
Such are now some of the impressions as to the value of drainage among those who judge from acknowledged effects. That a great change has been brought about by this practice is apparent to the most superficial observer, if he compares pre-drainage with the present.
A FEW FACTS.
The Indiana Bureau of Statistics made an investigation about two years ago of the influence of tile drainage upon production and health in that State. Two periods of five years were selected, one before drainage was begun, and the other after most of the farms had been drained, the area examined being one township in Johnson county.
As near as could be determined, the average yearly yield of wheat for a period of five consecutive years before drainage was nine and a half bushels per acre. The same land and tillage after drainage in a period of five consecutive years produced an average of nineteen and one-fourth bushels per acre. Comparing the corn crops in the same way for the same time, it was found that the average yearly yield before drainage was thirty-one and three-fourths bushels per acre, and after drainage seventy-four and one-fourth bushels per acre.
In order to determine the influence of drainage upon health, physicians, who had, during the same two periods of five years each, answered all calls in cases of disease, were asked to report from their books all cases of malarial fever. It was found from this data that, for the first period of five years before drainage, there had been 1,480 cases of malarial disease. During the next five years under a pretty good system of drainage, there were but 490 cases of such disease. These facts show that drainage not only brings material prosperity to the individual, but promotes the general healthfulness of the climate of that district, in which all are interested and all enjoy.
It is a matter of note that the Campagne about Rome, which in ancient days was the healthful home of a dense population, is now afflicted with the most deadly fevers. It is claimed by high authorities that this is due to the destruction and choking of the drains which in excavating are found everywhere, but always filled and useless.