DRAINS ON THE FARM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 114, 16 May 1931, Page 8 (Supplement)

DRAINS ON THE FARM

IMPORTANCE OF RECORDS Many farmers keep milk records and many poultry keepers record egg production by means of trap nests, but the importance of keeping proper records of the drains on a farm has not yet received the recognition it deserves. Estate agents frequently omit to provide a plan«setting out all the drains in detail. The landlord may supply pipes to his tenant, who will lay a length as occasion demands, neither owner nor occupier keeping a proper record of their position on the farm. Such drains are often laid alongside or across existing pipes, the result being a tantalising network running in all directions. Having no better guide than the memory of an old labourer or local resident, each newcomer .makes “confusion worse confounded,” while time and money arc wasted in searching for unrecorded drains. The process of tracing an unrecorded drain from a ditch by means of trial holes dug at intervals is tedious ami involves considerable labour, especially as the. old drains seldom run straight, and many outlets have disappeared owing to the neglect of water courses. When several fields arc merged into one a drain may be laro at the bottom, of a winding ditch before the latter j is tilled. It frequently happens that the drains entering such a ditch are not properly connected with the new drain, and to trace their course may be no easy matter. The cost of new pipes is high and if an old drain can be made, effective so much tin*, better. Ju the absence of a detailed survey a sketch map showing the direction of drains, indicating junctions and outlets, and giving distances from some well-defined object, will serve a useful purpose and effect considerable saving in time, labour and expense.