MOLE DRAINING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21473, 22 April 1933, Page 19

MOLE DRAINING

BENEFITS OF SYSTEM AID TO CULTIVATION World-wide recognition has been given to the efficacy and economy of the modern system of mole draining. Everywhere it is discussed as one of the most important advantages modern engineering lias placed at the disposal of the farmer. This method of making wet land dry is no less useful for land newly ploughed up for wheat than it has been found for grassland. In one district, says an English writer, I have noticed several fields, formerly down with seeds for grazing, being ploughed up this season. While they have been under grass little attention has been given to these fields, and still less to keeping the ditches cleaned out, so that many of the old pipe drains are now silted up. Such land should be mole drained. Before cultivation is begun a day can be spent in drawing mole drains up the fields from the main dykes. Quite a satisfactory amount of work can bo done in this time and the land laid dry. Alternatively, if the wheat has already been sown, a good mole drain can be made down the open furrows without damage to the crop in the ground.

The Open Furrow The open furrow, almost universal throughout the countryside where cereal crops are grown, is, of course, intended to lay the land dry. Unfortunately, it only carries off the surface water; wet patches remain, and here the wheat will look yellow. If a well-mado mole drain is drawn up the furrow, not only the surface water is cai.icd off, but the damp spots are drained by the ensuing general lowering of the water table. The surface soil is not then waterlogged for days after a downpour of rain. While 1 have emphasised the utility of such operations in land that has been down to grass and where the ditches and drains have been neglected, there is, of course, no reason why old arable land should not also lie drained in this way. Where grassland has been mole drained, one thing has forced itself upon my attention. There has not. only been improvement on the score of dryness, the primary object of the draining, but also in the turf. Naturally the drier land helps the turf, but the physical action of the drainer on the land, especially where the drains ore put in six or nine feet apart, has also good results. This effect was not so noticeable in the old days when the drains were often drawn at as far as 21ft. apart, and the physical effect of the operation was limited to a small breadth of land on either side of the mole. The closer modern drains seem to affect the whole field. The Life ol Drains As to the life of the drains, I am inclined to think that the modern mole drain will not last so long as those drawn in the old days. Iho old drains lasted for many years, but the methods employed in making them were slow and laborious. The modern implements, made by wellknown and reputable manufacturers, can do the work rapidly and cheaply, and there is really no reason why the work should not be repeated, if "that should prove necessary, at intervals of a few years.

In conclusion, I should emphasise the necessity for carrying out the work in the winter when the land is wet: more work can be done, and also its effect can be more readily judged. 11l effects on the land need, not be feared, because there ore both track-laying tractors and cable sets that can be adapted to a wheel tractor, thereby overcoming the difficulties of wheel adhesion.