Marshland Road Farmlet Drainage Scheme

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 9

Marshland Road Farmlet Drainage Scheme

A drainage scheme is bringing quick benefit to a 14-acre partly waterlogged dairy farm on Marshland road on the outskirts of Christchurch, which is being converted into a market garden Even at the height of the summer farm implements were unable- ..o get on to some of the sodden ground, and two or three weeks ago, before the drainage project was initiated, some of the land was under a sheet of water. Two tractors were attached to a tractor drawing and powering a ditch digger to keep it from foundering in the wettest parts of the farmlet.

Now two main drains each 22 chains long. 3ft 6in deep, and 2ft wide have been cut through the property, and lateral drains totalling 30 chains of similar depth and 20in wide have been excavated to gather in the water The result has been a remarkable decline in the water level, so that after the recent spell of almost springlike weather almos* the whole of the area has been brought under cultivation. Next season the whole of the farmlet will be put in potatoes. The country is mainly of peat formation, but in digging the ditches some blue clay and two

knobs of sand have been encountered. Where there has been sand, sides of the drains have had to be boarded up and excavations have had to be deeper. Inability to satisfactorily penetrate the sand barriers is thought to be one of the main reasons for the inefficiency of earlier attempts at drainage. Three-sided red pine box drains and pipes at a lesser level have been encountered in the course of curreni excavations.

The lateral drains are to be piped with 2ft lengths of 4in pipe, which will be surrounded by a layer of shingle. The total cost of the drainage is expected to be about £2O an acre, but the property owner, Mr W. J. Winter, anticipates that as a result the production potential of the land for market gardening will be doubled. Of the need for drainage there is no doubt. In the drains there is evidence of bubbling springs, and water from some of the springs has blown through the sides of the drains. Some of the springs have not yet found an outlet, and some additional laterals may yet be needed to complete the job.