MOLE DRAINING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 20 (Supplement)

MOLE DRAINING

BENEFITS OF SYSTEM „ AID TO CULTIVATION. World-wide recognition has been given to the efficacy and e» onemy of the modern system of mole draining. Everywhere it is discussed as one of the most important advantage.* modern engineering has placed at the disposal of the farmer. This method if making wet land dry is no less useful for land newly ploughed up for wheat than it hat been found for grassland. In one district, says an English writer, 1 have noticed several fields, formerly down with seeds for grazing, being 7?OCghed up this season? While they have been under grass little attention <aa been given to these fields, and still •ess to keeping the ditches cleaned out, so that many of th e 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 d-ains up the fields from the main dyke*. Quite a satisfactory amount of work can be done in this time and toe 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 lhe 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 wellmade mole drain is drawn up the furrow, not only the surface water is carried 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 I 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 be 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 are put in six or nine feet apart, has also good results. This effect was not so notice- * able 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 of Drains. < As to the life of the drains, lam inclined to think that the modern mole drain will not last so Jong as those drawn in the old days. The old drains lasted for many years, but the methods employed in making them were slow and laborious. The modern implements, made by well-known 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 effects can be more readily judged. 11l effects on the land need not be feared, because there are both track-laying tractors and cable sets that can be adapted to a wheel tractor, thereby overcoming the difficulties of wheel adhesion.