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Potatoes prefer a soil that has good drainage. Planting seed potatoes in wet soil causes compaction, which damages the soils ability to drain properly and hold nutrients. This can cause disease and rotting of the seed potatoes. Potatoes have shallow roots and can become stressed if watered excessively. Soil that is too dry leads to slow-growing yellow plants. Finding the perfect balance for watering potatoes can be a challenge, but is important for yield and potato size. PreviousNextEnd

Furrows can be intercepted at appropriate points during the season of low rainfall for moisture retention. Furrow interception should be cleared during season of high rainfall for efficient drainage Of the several conditions which influence the growth of crops, none is more important than the amount of water in or on the soil. While water in a thin film around the soil grains is absolutely essential to plants, an excess is as bad as a deficiency. The removal of this excess is known as land drainage. PreviousNextEnd

 Crop growth on the steeper slopes in the hills suffers from excess water if the ridge and furrows run across the slope.  On the other hand,soil erosion assumes a serious dimension if ridges and furrows run down the slope.  If the soil is sufficiently deep to allow the construction of bench terraces ridge and furrow drawn across the slope can overcome the problem of drainage as well as erosion. PreviousNextEnd

Areas of shallow soil and steep slopes, - continuous zigzag or serpentine furrows crossing between transversely drawn ridges to check the velocity of water and facilitate drainage. Surface drainage deals with the surface runoff and under-drainage with the water which occupies the spaces between the soil grains. Most of lands have some natural drainage, but many acres have it to such a limited degree that an improvement therein is found profitable. PreviousNextEnd

Too much water is detrimental because: 1. It makes areas so soft and these soft areas are long and narrow in form, cut the upland into irregular pieces that cannot be cultivated. 2. It delays cultivation, particularly in the spring. 3. It makes soils cold: because, (a) in the spring season, >1/2 of the heat that the soil receives is used to warm water; (b) Evaporation consumes heat that the soil could otherwise retain; and (c) Presence in the soil prevents the entrance and downward movement of rainwater. PreviousNextEnd

It crowds out the oxygen between the soil grains, thus hindering the necessary decomposition of organic matter in the soil. 5. It prevents all crop growth, prevents healthy root development.  The occurrence of an excess of water in a soil or on an area is an indication that some source supplies water faster than it can be removed.  The water is either coming too fast or it is going too slowly.  In upland areas, wetness to the excessive seepage from the upland; while retentive clays, due to lack of fall, are too wet primarily because the water is very slowly removed from them. PreviousNextEnd

Drainage conditions is improved either by hindering the entrance of damaging water, or by facilitating its removal. These improvements drains must be constructed which will give gravity a better opportunity to remove surplus water. Good drainage owe it to 1. Some natural condition that prevents the entrance of an excessive amount of water; 2. A valley or ravine to serve as an outlet for the water that does enter; 3. A surface slope to allow the escape of surface water to the outlet, or 4. A subsoil sufficiently porous to admit of some under-drainage. PreviousNextEnd

When water oozes into the dead furrows until they are kept wet almost continually it is an indication that the land needs tiling. The water table, instead of extending horizontally from a tile, bends upward at a slope that increases with the retentiveness of the soil. It is evident that laterals may be farther apart in sand than in clay, and that the deeper the laterals are the farther apart they may be. Four rods is a common interval in clay sub-soils and eight rods in open sub-soils. PreviousNextEnd

In muck or peat it is frequently best to put them eight rods apart at first, and if that does not prove to be close enough together an intermediate line may be put in later in each space, making them eventually four rods apart. In rare cases of springy soils it has been found necessary to have lines of tile two rods apart. A single line of tile in wet sag is frequently sufficient, but if more than four rods wide, two lines are better, each to be located as near to its side of the sag as seems necessary. In this way the centre of the sag, unless it is exceedingly low, will be protected from the seepage of the adjacent upland. PreviousNextEnd

Mains are generally located parallel to a natural water course - a little to one side if there is danger of washing by the surface runoff. Sub-mains should be so laid out as to give the laterals a sufficient gradient without an excessive depth. Instead of permitting each lateral to discharge directly into the outlet ditch, it is best to put in a main perhaps four rods away from the ditch and parallel to it, to receive the discharge from the laterals. The expense is but little greater because of the saving in the length of the laterals, and there is an advantage in having only one outlet - that of the main - to look after. PreviousNextEnd

The water in an outlet ditch should be enough below the banks to afford an outlet for a line of tile which may be laid to it from any part of the marsh of which the ditch is the direct outlet. This line of tile is entitled to a depth of 3 feet at the head On a marsh exactly level and with no part more than half a mile from an outlet ditch, this means that the 3 feet of depth at the head, added to the 2.64 feet of fall in a half mile requires a depth a little more than 5 1/2 feet deep at the outlet. PreviousNextEnd

With an allowance of 2 1/2 feet for the depth of the water in the outlet ditch, it is evident that, under these conditions, it should be dug 8 feet deep. Where there is a surface slope toward the ditch, its depth may be decreased by an amount equal to the fall causing the slope. Following this rule, the depth may, in rare cases, be reduced to 4 feet. Tile outlets may be submerged for a short time during flood flow without serious results. PreviousEnd