Rice [pp. 502-511]

The then still remaining higher level of the surface, and the open,
loose, and permeable texture of the soil, filled as it is with roots and
other undecomposed vegetable matter, make this slight drainage sufficient at first, and perhaps for some years after. As the surface subsequently becomes lower, and more compact, by decomposition, settling, and tillage, more close and perfect drainage will be needed.
And the natural drains furnished by the former beds of crookled
creeks and small" leads" are deepened, and side, or " spring" ditches
will then be required, and should be cut 3 or 4 feet wide, along the
foot of all the high lands, whence springs ooze out. Afterward,
when farther drainage is found wanting, straight drains are cut in
each field, 20 to 24 inches wide and 3 feet deep, parallel to the longest straight side of each field, and to each other, discharging at each
end into main ditches, and either 300 or 150 feet apart, according to
the wants of the land. After another or more crops, the intervals
left between these narrow drains are split in two by other similar
drains; and again, when needed, others made in like manner to subdivide the land, until these parallel drains are at every 75 feet apart,
as is usual lower down Waccamaw island, where the freshets have
less effect to flood and low tides more effect to drain, or at 371 feet, as
usual higher up the rivers. The working acre is not the same size,
of 4,840 square yards; but, as marked and estimated in all culture in
lower South Carolina is a space of 300 feet by 150, or 5,000 square
yards. And thence, the drainage at 75 yards is technically called
"quarter draining," and that at 371 yards as "half-quarter draining."
When the drains are very long, it is usually best to intersect them
at right angles, by cross-drains, at distances of 3 and 4 half acres
apart. With making all these, the general and usual plan of draining is complete; and thereafter, the planter has but to preserve and
keep in perfectly good condition for operation, his embankments,
ditches, and floodgates, or tide trunks. And to do this requires continued care, and annual and great labor, which are increased greatly
according to the amount of omissions or defects of the early construction of the embankment, or retaining of sufficient outside margin. Regularly every winter or as early as may be in spring, all the
drains are cleared out, and such of the main ditches as require it;
and the mud from the latter used to partially repair the waste of the
a(ljacent banks. The farther waste and defects of the banks, made
necessarily by decomposition of the vegetable portion of the earth itself, or by its being washed away by the waves of the river, or of
the "flows" dashed against the banks, are repaired by earth from
the most convenient places-and generally (and destructively for the
fulture), by cutting away the outside margin, until none is left, and
the wvhole force of the breaking waves is thus allowed to be spent
upon the embankment on the river-side. The consequences of this
very general error will be again brought into view.
Whlen a considerable leak has been made through, the bank is cut
through at that place down to the leak, and the passage carefully
stopped. When an old bank has by neglect become generally leaky,
(,r admitting oozing water, it is "split" or " centre ditched." A
narrow ditch is dug lengthwise along its middle, and down below
the leaks, and the opened space is then filled up by, slushl," or the
510
RICE.