For information on the source (the book Counties of White and Pulaski, Indiana, published by A.F. Battey & Co., Chicago, in 1883), see this post.

(This is a continuation from last month’s post of the physical attributes of the county.)

Drainage

Owing to the large amount of wet land in the county, a very important subject is that of drainage. It may be said, in general, that all land should be under drained. It is clear that in times of heavy rains the rolling lands are washed of a large portion of their richest material; and also, as the rain itself contains many necessary elements of fertility, if it be permitted to run off without having first passed through the soil, such elements are lost, or conveyed to the low lands.

Photo from Images of America Pulaski County, Karen Clem Fritz, Arcadia Publishing 2009: “Pulaski County has nearly 1,000 miles of drainage ditches, which are important for ensuring productive cropland. Petitions to the surveyor’s office for digging ditches date back to at least 1877. This dredge boat may be among those that operated in Tippecanoe Township in the early 1900s. The crew included some women who did the cooking and laundry on the boat.” Original photo provided by Neal Hiatt.

Here, then, are two causes which combine to impoverish the rolling lands. Judicious underdrainage will, in a large measure, prevent both. The following may be considered a general summary of the benefits of underdrainage:

1. The surplus water which greatly damages the growth of crops is removed.
2. The depth of the soil is increased, thus allowing the roots of plants to descend to greater and better depth for the necessary food, and beyond the action of continued droughts.
3. Air, containing vital elements of life for the plant, is admitted to the roots.
4. The soil is enabled to absorb fertilizing substances from the lower depths of the ground, that otherwise could not be used.
5. The decayed vegetation in the soil, and the nitrogenous food absorbed from the air during a considerable time of fair weather, are prevented from being washed away by sudden freshets.
6. Such rainfalls are passed through the surface soil, which absorbs the ammonia, nitrogen, and other plant foods contained therein.
7. The surplus water, after passing through the surface soil, is carried off rapidly through the drains, thus preventing the severe cooling process of the evaporation of such water, and rendering the soil warm and porous.
8. The warmth and moderate moisture promote the germination of seed.
9. The cheerless labor of replanting is avoided.
10. The packing and baking of the soil is prevented; it is left open, porous and easily pulverized.
11. Winter crops are prevented from being frozen out.
12. The damages of long-continued wet weather are avoided.
13. The surface soil, from its porosity, can, in time of drought, absorb moisture from the air, and draw drafts of water from the lower depths of the ground, a most desirable state of affairs.
14. The uniformity and yield of crops are satisfactory.
15. The quality of crops is greatly improved.
16. Years of useless labor are saved and enjoyed.
17. The source of half the diseases incident to humanity is destroyed, and all the attendant blessings follow.

Perhaps the strongest reason for a thorough system of drainage, especially about dwellings, is the certain means thus adopted for the total avoidance of the various malarial disorders resulting from the poison spread broadcast in the atmosphere by the large quantities of decaying vegetation. That many of the fevers, such as typhoid, typhomalarial, intermittent, remittent, bilious, ague, etc., and their attendants, neuralgia, pneumonia, bronchitis, diphtheria and consumption, are largely due to malarial poison, is no longer a question of doubt.

In order to avoid these distressing disorders, the cause must be removed; this can only be done by judicious drainage.

The real magnitude of the cause is not fully realized. Families will continue to drink from wells that are the silt-basins of barnyards or backyards, implanting seed in the blood of children, that, in after years, make their appearance in the full and sorrowful fruitage of permanent blood or epidermic disorders.

The plowing and opening of new land are followed by a saturation of the atmosphere with malarial poison, as the decay of vegetation in the soil is rapidly increased; but, after a few years, when the cultivation of the soil leads to the swift destruction of such vegetation, the cause is thus removed.

The drainage of wet lands is followed in a similar manner by a severe poisoning of the atmosphere; but, after the sun and the elements have destroyed the mosses, grasses, roots and branches, a most fruitful cause of disease is removed.

The citizens of Pulaski County are beginning to realize the splendid results of drainage. J. H. Falvey, the County Auditor, states, that about 200 miles of open drains have been dug in the county, and almost the whole of this has been done within the last ten or fifteen years.

The total cost of this vast system of artificial water-courses, is not far from $75,000. Compared with open drainage, the underdrainage is almost reduced to naught. It remains for the future to fully develop the seventeen benefits of underdrainage specified above.

But the most important point remains to be considered. Prominent physicians who have lived and practiced in the county for many years state that malarial disorders are reduced from twenty to fifty per cent from what they were thirty and forty years ago, and that the greater portion of this great reduction has taken place within the past fifteen years.

It certainly does not require any reasoning to connect the reduction of malarial ills to the destruction of malarial poison by the drainage and cultivation of the soil. The future will see still greater results in the same direction.