Tile Drainage - History of Tile Drainage

History of Tile Drainage

Both Cato and Pliny have described tile drainage systems, in 200 BC and the first century AD, respectively. According to the Johnston Farm website, tile drainage was first introduced to the United States in 1838, when John Johnston brought the practice from his native Scotland to his farm in Seneca County, New York. Johnston labored to lay 72 miles (116 km) worth of clay tile on 320 acres (1.3 km2). The effort paid off by increasing his wheat yield from 12 bushels per acre to 60 bu/acre. Johnston, "Father of American Tile Drainage", continued to advocate tile drainage throughout his life, attributing his success as a farmer to the formula "D,C, and D" (dung, credit, and drainage).

The expansion of drainage networks was an important technical aspect of Westward Expansion in the 19th century. Although land in the United States was parceled out in accordance with the Public Land Survey System as established by the Land Ordinance of 1785, development, especially of agricultural land, was often limited by the rate at which it was made capable for cultivation. For example, although Iowa was made a state in 1846, maps depicting land ownership show below-average population densities in the northwestern region as late as the 1870s, a corner of the state that today is still noted for its high water table and numerous lakes, marshes, and wetlands.

States throughout the region faced similar limits to agricultural intensification. Many states offered government incentives to improve land for farming. For example, legislation in Indiana prompted an Act of Congress in 1850 that provided for swamplands to be sold at a discount to farmers on the condition that they drain the land and bring it into agricultural productivity. To facilitate this process, most states set up government agencies to oversee and regulate the installation of tile drainage systems. Even today, ballots for elections in rural America often include candidates for local drainage supervisory boards.

The decades following the American Civil War saw rapid expansion of drainage systems. For example, historical literature from Ohio notes that in the year of 1882, the number of acres drained was about equal to the area of land drained in all previous years. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps contributed to the tile network throughout the Midwest, much of which is still in use.