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This work is a practical treatise on farm drainage, written by Henry Flagg French in 1859 for American farmers who need clear guidance on removing excess water from their fields. The author opens by stating his aim to blend scientific theory with step‑by‑step instructions, covering everything from the basic reasons land needs drainage to the cheapest ways to lay tiles, construct ditches, and use implements such as plows and spades. The book’s extensive contents list reveals a systematic approach: chapters on the history of drainage, the physics of rain and evaporation, various methods (open ditches, stone drains, tile systems), cost calculations, and even the effects on soil temperature and crop yields. French promises both the “simplest details of the practice” and the “scientific principles to satisfy intelligent inquiry,” making the volume a comprehensive reference for anyone looking to improve the productivity of wet or swampy land.
Written in a measured, didactic voice typical of mid‑nineteenth‑century agricultural manuals, the text combines technical description with occasional literary allusion, citing figures such as Lieutenant Maury, Emerson, and English drainage pioneers. Its style is dense but earnest, peppered with tables, diagrams, and practical anecdotes, reflecting the era’s belief that scientific knowledge should be directly applicable to the farmer’s field. Readers who enjoy detailed, historically grounded manuals on agronomy, civil engineering, or early American science will find French’s exhaustive catalog of tools, methods, and cost analyses both informative and evocative of a time when the nation was actively shaping its agricultural infrastructure.
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PREFACE.
The Agriculture of America has seemed to me to demand some light upon the subject of Drainage; some work, which, with an exposition of the various theories, should give the simplest details of the practice, of draining land. This treatise is an attempt to answer that demand, and to give to the farmers of our country, at the same time, enough of scientific principles to satisfy intelligent inquiry, and plain and full directions for executing work in the field, according to the best known rules. It has been my endeavor to show what lands in America require drainage, and how to drain them best, at least expense; to explain how the theories and the practice of the Old World require modification for the cheaper lands, the dearer labor, and the various climate of the New; and, finally, to suggest how, through improved implements and processes, the inventive genius of our country may make the brain assist and relieve the labor of the hand.
With some hope that my humble labors, in a field so broad, may not have entirely failed of their object, this work is offered to the attention of American farmers.
H. F. F.
THE PINES, EXETER, N. H., March, 1859.
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.
PAGE.
Elkington's Mode 32, 33 Ditch and Bore-hole 35 Keythorpe System 42 Theory of Springs 80-84 Plug Drainage 106, 107 Mole Plow 108 Wedge Drains 111 Shoulder Drains 111 Larch Tube 112 Pole Drain 113 Peat Tiles and Tool 113 Stone Drains 115-117 Draining Bricks 121 Round Pipes 122 Horse-shoe Tile 124 Sole-Tile 125 Pipes and Collar 126 Flat-bottomed Pipe-Tile 129 Drains across Slope 150 Draining Irregular Strata 162 Relief Drains 162 Small Outlet 178 Large Outlet 179, 180 Outlet, with Flap 181 Well, with Silt Basin 186 Peep-hole 188 Spring in Drained Field 189 Main of Two Tiles 194 Main of Several Tiles 194 Plan of Drained Field 195 Junction of Drains 196 Branch Pipe 197 Daines' Tile Machine 209 Pratt's Tile Machine 210 Tiles, laid well and ill 229 Square and Plumb-Level 229 Spirit Level 230 Staff and Target 231 Span, or A Level 232 Grading Trenches by Lines 233 Challoner's Level 235 Drain Spades 235 Spade with Spur 236 Common Shovel and Spade 236 Long-handled Round Shovel 237 Shovel Scoop 237 Irish Spade 238 Birmingham Spades 240 Narrow Spades 242 English Bottoming Tools 243 Drawing and Pushing Scoops 244 Pipe-Layer 244 Pipe-Laying 245 Pick-axes 245 Drain Gauge 246 Elkington's Auger 246 Fowler's Drain Plow 247 Pratt's Ditcher 249 Paul's Ditcher 250 Germination 277, 278 Land before Drainage and After 286 Heat in Wet Land 288 Cracking of Clays 325 Drainage of Cellar 355 Drainage of Barn Cellar 359 Plan of Rand's Drainage 372 " H. F. French's Drainage 376
CONTENTS.
Why this Treatise does not contain all Knowledge.--Attention of Scientific Men attracted to Drainage.--Lieutenant Maury's Suggestions.--Ralph Waldo Emerson's Views.--Opinions of J. H. Klippart, Esq.; of Professor Mapes; B. P. Johnson, Esq.; Governor Wright, Mr. Custis, &c.--Prejudice against what is English.--Acknowledgements to our Friends at Home and Abroad.--The Wants of our Farmers.
Draining as old as the Deluge.--Roman Authors.--Walter Bligh in 1650.--No thorough drainage till Smith, of Deanston.--No mention of Tiles in the "Compleat Body of Husbandry," 1758.--Tiles found 100 years old.--Elkington's System.--Johnstone's Puns and Peripatetics.--Draining Springs.--Bletonism, or the Faculty of Perceiving Subterranean Water.--Deanston System.--Views of Mr. Parkes.--Keythorpe System.--Wharncliffe System.--Introduction of Tiles into America.--John Johnston, and Mr. Delafield, of New York.
Fertilizing Substances in Rain Water.--Amount of Rain Fall in United States; in England.--Tables of Rain Fall.--Number of Rainy Days, and Quantity of Rain each Month.--Snow, how Computed as Water.--Proportion of Rain Evaporated.--What Quantity of Water Dry Soil will Hold.--Dew Point.--How Evaporation Cools Bodies.--Artificial Heat Underground.--Tables of Filtration and Evaporation.
What is High Land?--Accidents to Crops from Water.--Do Lands need Drainage in America?--Springs.--Theory of Moisture, with Illustrations.--Water of Pressure.--Legal Rights as to Draining our Neighbor's Wells and Land.--What Lands require Drainage?--Horace Greeley's Opinion.--Drainage more Necessary in America than in England; Indications of too much Moisture.--Will Drainage Pay?
Open Ditches.--Slope of Banks.--Brush Drains.--Ridge and Furrow.--Plug-Draining.--Mole-Draining.--Mole-Plow.--Wedge and Shoulder Drains.--Larch Tubes.--Drains of Fence Rails, and Poles.--Peat Tiles.--Stone Drains Injured by Moles.--Downing's Giraffes.--Illustrations of Various Kinds of Stone Drains.
What are Drain-Tiles?--Forms of Tiles.--Pipes.--Horse-shoe Tiles.--Sole-Tiles.--Form of Water-Passage.--Collars and their Use.--Size of Pipes.--Velocity.--Friction.--Discharge of Water through Pipes.--Tables of Capacity.--How Water enters Tiles.--Deep Drains run soonest and longest.--Pressure of Water on Pipes.--Durability of Tile Drains.--Drain-Bricks 100 years old.
DIRECTION OF DRAINS.--Whence comes the Water?--Inclination of Strata.--Drains across the Slope let Water out as well as Receive it.--Defence against Water from Higher Land.--Open Ditches.--Headers.--Silt-basins.
DISTANCE OF DRAINS.--Depends on Soil, Depth, Climate, Prices, System.--Conclusions as to Distance.
DEPTH OF DRAINS.--Greatly Increases Cost.--Shallow Drains first tried in England.--10,000 Miles of Shallow Drains laid in Scotland by way of Education.--Drains must be below Subsoil plow, and Frost.--Effect of Frost on Tiles and Aqueducts.
Necessity of System.--What Fall is Necessary.--American Examples.--Outlets.--Wells and Relief-Pipes.--Peep-holes.--How to secure Outlets.--Gate to Exclude Back-Water.--Gratings and Screens to keep out Frogs, Snakes, Moles, &c.--Mains, Submains, and Minors, how placed.--Capacity of Pipes.--Mains of Two Tiles.--Junction of Drains.--Effect of Curves and Angles on Currents.--Branch Pipes.--Draining into Wells or Swallow Holes.--Letter from Mr. Denton.
Prices far too high; Albany prices.--Length of Tiles.--Cost in Suffolk Co., England.--Waller's Machine.--Williams' Machine.--Cost of Tiles compared with Bricks.--Mr. Denton's Estimate of Cost.--Other Estimates.--Two-inch Tiles can be Made as Cheaply as Bricks.--Process of Rolling Tiles.--Tile Machines.--Descriptions of Daines'.--Pratt & Bro.'s.
Draining no more expensive than Fencing.--Engineering.--Guessing not accurate enough.--Slight Fall sufficient.--Instances.--Two Inches to One-Thousand Feet.--Cost of Excavation and Filling.--Narrow Tools required.--Tables of Cubic contents of Drains.--Cost of Drains on our own Farm.--Cost of Tiles.--Weight and Freight of Tiles.--Cost of Outlets.--Cost of Collars.--Smaller Tiles used with Collars.--Number of Tiles to the Acre, with Tables.--Length of Tiles varies.--Number of Rods to the Acre at different Distances.--Final Estimate of Cost.--Comparative Cost of Tile-Drains and Stone-Drains.
Unreasonable Expectations about Draining Tools.--Levelling Instruments.--Guessing not Accurate.--Level by a Square.--Spirit Level.--Span, or A Level.--Grading by Lines.--Boning-rod.--Challoner's Drain Level.--Spades and Shovels.--Long-handled Shovel.--Irish Spade, description and cut.--Bottoming Tools.--Narrow Spades.--English Bottoming Tools.--Pipe-layer.--Pipe-laying Illustrated.--Pick-axes.--Drain Gauge.--Drain Plows, and Ditch-Diggers.--Fowler's Drain Plow.--Pratt's Ditch-Digger.--McEwan's Drain Plow.--Routt's Drain Plow.
Begin at the Outlet.--Use of Plows.--Leveling the Bottom.--Where to begin to lay Pipes.--Mode of Procedure.--Covering Pipes.--Securing Joints.--Filling.--Securing Outlets.--Plans.
Drainage deepens the Soil, and gives the roots a larger pasture.--Cobbett's Lucerne 30 feet deep.--Mechi's Parsnips 13 feet long!--Drainage promotes Pulverization.--Prevents Surface-Washing.--Lengthens the Season.--Prevents Freezing out.--Dispenses with Open Ditches.--Saves 25 per cent. of Labor.--Promotes absorption of Fertilizing Substances from the Air.--Supplies Air to the Roots.--Drains run before Rain; so do some Springs.--Drainage warms the Soil.--Corn sprouts at 55 deg.; Rye on Ice.--Cold from Evaporation.--Heat will not pass downward in Water.--Count Rumford's Experiments with Hot Water on Ice.--Aeration of Soil by Drains.
Process of Germination.--Two Classes of Pores in Soils, illustrated by cuts.--Too much Water excludes Air, reduces Temperature.--How much Air the Soil Contains.--Drainage Improves the Quality of Crops.--Drainage prevents Drought.--Drained Soils hold most Water.--Allow Roots to go Deep.--Various Facts.
Drainage Warms the Soil in Spring.--Heat cannot go down in Wet Land.--Drainage causes greater Deposit of Dew in Summer.--Dew warms Plants in Night, Cools them in the Morning Sun.--Drainage varies Temperature by Lessening Evaporation.--What is Evaporation.--How it produces Cold.--Drained Land Freezes Deepest, but Thaws Soonest, and the Reasons.
Why does not Drainage make the Land too Dry?--Adhesive Attraction.--The Finest Soils exert most Attraction.--How much Water different Soils hold by Attraction.--Capillary Attraction, illustrated.--Power to Imbibe Moisture from the Air.--Weight Absorbed by 1,000 lbs. in 12 Hours.--Dew, Cause of.--Dew Point.--Cause of Frost.--Why Covering Plants Protects from Frost.--Dew Imparts Warmth.--Idea that the Moon Promotes Putrefaction.--Quantity of Dew.
Most Land cannot be Over-drained.--Nature a Deep drainer.--Over-draining of Peaty Soils.--Lincolnshire Fens. Visit to them in 1857.--56 Bushels of Wheat to the Acre.--Wet Meadows Subside by Drainage.--Conclusions.
Clay not impervious, or it could not be wet and dried.--Puddling, what is.--Water will stand over Drains on Puddled Soil.--Cracking of Clays by Drying.--Drained Clays improve by time.--Passage of Water through Clay makes it permeable.--Experiment by Mr. Pettibone, of Vermont.--Pressure of Water in Saturated Soil.
Drainage Hastens the Supply to the Streams, and thus creates Freshets.--Effect of Drainage on Meadows below; on Water Privileges.--Conflict of Manufacturing and Agricultural Interests.--English Opinions and Facts.--Uses of Drainage Water.--Irrigation.--Drainage Water for Stock.--How used by Mr. Mechi.
England protects her Farmers.--Meadows ruined by Corporation dams.--Old Mills often Nuisances.--Factory Reservoirs.--Flowage extends above level of Dam.--Rye and Derwent Drainage.--Give Steam for Water-Power.--Right to Drain through land of others.--Right to natural flow of Water.--Laws of Mass.--Right to Flow; why not to Drain?--Land-drainage Companies in England.--Lincolnshire Fens.--Government Loans for Drainage.
Wet Cellars Unhealthful.--Importance of Cellars in New England.--A Glance at the Garret, by way of Contrast.--Necessity of Drains.--Sketch of an Inundated Cellar.--Tiles best for Drains.--Best Plan of Cellar Drain; Illustration.--Cementing will not do.--Drainage of Barn Cellars.--Uses of them.--Actual Drainage of a very Bad Cellar described.--Drains Outside and Inside; Illustration.
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