GIFT

FHA?! 6 19W.
w BULLETIN

AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL
COLLEGE OF TEXAS.

OCTOBER, 1915.

EXTENSION SERVICE

‘_ BULLETIN B 11

Land Bedding as a Method
of Drainage in the
Gulf Coast Region
of Texas

Address Clarence Ousley, Director Extension
Service, College Station, Texas.

Co-operative Extension VVork in Agriculture and

‘ Home Economics, Agricultural and Me-
" chanical College‘ of Texas and United
States Department of Agri-
culture Clo-operating.

BLANK PAGE IN ORIGINAL

LAND BEDDING AS A METHOD OF DRAIN-
v AGE IN THE GULF COAST REGION
OF TEXAS.

By E. W. Gruss,

U. S. Demonstration Agent, Galveston County.

Farmers are coming more and more to
realize that before they can hope to raise crops
with reasonable assurance of success they
muslt have drainage. They know that tile drain-
age is the method that they must look to ulti-
mately. However, it costs money to install
tile, and many farmers are not in a po-
sition to expend their funds on this system of

drainage at this time. Perhaps the next best
thing to tile drainage, provided the farm
ditches are in good order, will be what is known
as “land bedding.”

Land bedding is accomplished by throwing
the soil up win “lands” from forty to eighty feet

‘ in width, pushing the‘ soil to the center of the

I beds from year to year until the soil is literally
“lifted up out of the water.” Many farmers
whose soil is low and poorly drained try to
overcome the trouble by throwing their land
up in ridges» three, four or five feet in width.
This is (lone from year to year, and no perma-
ent improvement is wrought. The Work must
be done over each year and after many years
of hard work of throwing the land back and
forth the- farm is not Worth a penny more from
the standpoint of effective drainage than it was
when first placed in cultivation.

Rather than spend so much time and labor
each year at a task forever hopeles-s, so far
as permanent drainage is concerned, why not
apply the same time and valuable labor with
some definite purpose in vie-w that will give
positive results. It costs no more to throw the
land up in wide beds than it does to ridge i-t,
and by the system of bedding herein described
the soil is slowly but surely raised and the level
of standing water in the surface soil is. lowered
and the cropping conditions are corresponding-

‘ ly improved.

N0 technicalqualifications are necessary on
the part of a farmer to establish a system of

3

beds ‘in his field. All that is necessary is to
lay off the field into lands 40, 50 or 80 feet i? -- \
width. The lands should lie in the direction’
of the slope and not across it. The slope can
be determined by the flow of storm water.
Beds of 40 feet, are not desirable except on very
10W land or in cases where the cost of land is
11ot an item to be considered. ‘In almost every
instance farmers who started beds 40 feet in
width have found it more desirable to throw
two narrow beds into one after two years of
bedding. Beds 80 feet Wide are best and should
be the average.

Having determined upon the width of beds
to be used, beginhin the middle of the land and
plowput a deep furrow making one round with
the plow. The second round returns the soil
into the first furrow opened and thus the plow-
ing continues until the entire land has been
turned over. The team must be turned to the
moldboard side of the work.

The center of the bed, known as the back-
furrow, must be plowed out deeply each year
to prevent the forming of a hard ridge in the
middle of the bed on which plant growth would ,v
be ver-y unsatisfactory. i

Care must be exercised at the time of each
plowing that ‘the dead-furrow at each side of
the bed is not deepened below the level of
the run-off which connects all the dead-furrows
as 'well as any water furrows that may be he-
tween the plant rows. Where such a run-off
does not exist it is recommended to lower the
turn-road sufficiently that it may be utilized as
the run-off. Where bedding is started with the
opening of a new field it will be unnecessary
to do any extra work on the turn-road. All that
is required is to avoid dragging the soil down
into the roadway. '

In order to keep the ditches and dead-furrows
open at all times and thus permit the water
to be carried off without delay it is advisable
to build‘ a levee pusher, known in some locali-
ties as a “go-devil.” This simple and inexpen-
sive implement will give excellent service in
keeping the waterways open, and do it quickly
and cheaply. It can be made by any farmer
who can use a saw and drive a nail or bore a
hole. It is made of two pieces of 2x12, one 1O
feet long and the other 6; or one 9 feet long  _
and the other 5. Set on edge and saw one end ’

4

\\

v" ‘iece will

to a bevel so that the rear end of the shorter
be about 3
Bolt the bevel ends securely
and brace in several places to prevent its being
closed in the course of work. About the cen-
ter of the long piece bolt a stout upright to be
used in tilting the

longer piece.

implement when working
in a narrow ditch. When operating, hi-tch the
team so that the long piece will run straight
with the side of the ditch While the short piece
pushes the loose dirt upon the plowed land.
If there are bumps or mounds in the field, it
may be necessary to take a spade and dig
through these mounds to the furrow beyond.
A little attention given to these and to your
dead-furrows after each rain will show where
the obstructions occur and will enable the
farmer to increase the efficiency of his ditches.

It is important to give some attention to the»

dead-furrows and run~offs after each plowing,
removing all obstructions immediately, so that
in case of rains all storm water will run off
as soon as possible after falling.

Owing to the ‘fact that one or two years’ work
will not raise the land to any great degree, it
is advisable to raise slight ridges on the beds
and on these ridges plant the crops. After the
third year this ridging can be discontinued and
the farmer can plant his crops on the broad
level beds Without the use of the narrow
ridges.

In order t0 get the best results run the rows
with and not across the beds. However, if for
any reason it is impractical to run the rows
with the beds it will be necessary to_ run the
levee pusher through the dead-furrows after
each cultivation in order to remove all loose
soil or other obstructions.

Aside from thg beneficial results the farmer
will get from better drainage by the use of wide
beds he will find that the dead-furrows may be
utilized when the time comes for the installa-
tion of a tile drainage system. In such cases
the dead-furrows, with additional deepening,
may be used for the location of laterals of the
tile drains. The run-off ditches may be deep-

5

or 4 feet from the~

ened to receive the mains or sub-mains. In
laying off a. farm into a series of lands, it 
well t0 keep this ultimate end in view.

In conclusion, let it be stated that no farmer
should expect results the first year. In the
second year improvements will begin to be
noticed. After that time conditions will visi-
bly improve as the beds grow higher. Nor is
there any danger that the beds will grow too
high very soon. Fields in which bedding has
been practiced for more than ten years do not
show any sign that they are getting too high,
but on the other hand show increased efficiency
each year. If, however, they should become
too high, all that needs to be done is to plow
them down each alternate year and thus delay
further raising. It is doubtful if any farmer
who has bedded for that length of time will be
willing to undo what has taken him years to
accomplish. -

This is farm improvement without the outlay
of a single penny. It is nothing more nor less
than turning to account an annual recurring
labor expense so that it will yield dollars and
cents both in the production of better and
more abundant crops and increasing the value
of the farm.

Approved October 4, 1915, E. C. Gee, Profes-
sor of Agricultural Engineering, A. & M. College
of Texas.

"VJ!

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