Wisconsin State Drainage Association



  Mr. Uvaas. I am a beginner, but I cleared $1,800 over and
above expenses with my tiling machine. I have work enough
promised me now to keep me busy all of next season. With a
machine you can get work done quickly.  Some areas are too
wet for a machine.
  Mr. Harnless. On wet marshes a capstan ditch should be pulled
a year or two before the main tile is laid.
  Mr. Jones. That means adding $1.50 per rod to the cost of the
tile. You can buy 12 inch tile and lay it 4 feet deep for $3.50
a rod if you do not have to haul the tile more than 3 miles. It
costs about the same to lay tile by machine as it does by hand.
If a farmer begins to look for his tiler the winter before he needs
him, he can get ihis work done by hand, if he can not get a ma-
chine. I believe in using tiling machines, and know that excel-
lent machines are on the market, but I believe that every ma-
chine should have with it a small crew of hand tilers to dig the
trenches in the soft places. Good tilers make from $3 to $5 a
day and they are needed to work where the machines can not go.
  Mr. Harnless. The capstan ditch may remain for a surface run
after the tile are laid.
  Mr. Jonles. For fifty cents a rod you can make a surface run
with a team and at the same time fill the trench over the tile.
You are still throwing away a dollar a rod for the luxury of a
capstan ditch.
  Some of the ditching companies are making better capstan
ditches than used to be made, but even the best of them are only
a makeshift until big tile or a small dredge ditch 6 feet deep or
more is installed. Many capstan ditches are paying for them-
selves, but my contention is that the same money spent judici-
ously for tile would pay better. If you want merely to let off
the surface water so that the land will be firm enough to support
a tiling machine, hire a trenelh dug two feet deep for fifty cents
a rod. Properly laid out, it will firm the land more in a week
than many of your capstan ditches do in a year.
  The President. We had better end this discussion before it
gets too hot. Furthermore, many of us must leave the city on
trains soon after noon. We will listen to the report of the com-
mittee on resolutions.



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