FUTURE NEED FOR TILE DRAINAGE IN ONTARIO

Land drainage has played a largepart in the history and development ofOntario. People have been aware, in ageneral way, of the importance and thelarge cost of this water managementpractice but it is generally not appreciated how much drainage work remains to be done in the future to maintain land in full agricultural production.

The purpose of the study reportedhere was to make an estimate of: (1)the area of land that has been tileunderdrained in the past; (2) the areaof land that could profitably make useof tile underdrains, and (3) the generalgeographical areas where this workwill probably be carried out in thefuture.

This information will be valuable inplanning the extent and best locationfor research and extension activities, aswell as land-use, rural zoning andconservation planning.

DRAIN TILE PRODUCTION

Manufacturers of drain tile are required by law to report their annualproduction and sales to the Dominion

by

R. W. IrwinMember C.S.A.E.

School of Agricultural EngineeringUniversity of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario

Bureau of Statistics. These accumulated statistics are published by theDominion Bureau of Statistics (2) andby the Ontario Department of Mines(5). Annual drain tile production dataare available for Ontario from 1891 todate. A summary of these statistics isshown by Irwin (3).

The Agricultural Engineering Extension Service of the Ontario Departmentof Agriculture makes an annual survey(4) of drain tile manufacturers andobtains an estimate of total annualproduction, anticipated price for theyear, and an estimate of the total annual production which was sold foragricultural use. A Report (1) of theCentral Mortgage and Housing Corporation gives the number of housingand building starts each year. The totalnumber of drain tile used for this purpose can be estimated by assuming anappropriate number of footing tilethat would be used for each house,apartment, duplex and commercialbuilding. From statistics presented inthis same report an estimate may alsobe made of the number of drain tileused for septic tank fields. The aboveapplications constitute the major non-

DISTRICTS OF ONTARIO

CANADIAN AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING, JAN. 1967

agricultural use for drain tile in Ontario.

The drain tile manufacturers reported (4) that 54 million feet of all sizesof drain tile were manufactured in1961, a typical year. The manufacturers also estimated that approximately40 million feet, or 75 per cent, was soldfor agricultural use of which 21 millionfeet or 40 per cent of the total production was financed under the TileDrainage Act. This is about 50 percent of the drain tile sold for agricultural use.

In the 40-year period 1921 to 1960inclusive there were manufactured inOntario for agricultural use about 600million feet of drain tile of which 325million feet were produced since 1948.

DRAIN TILE USE

Records of the Drainage Division,Ontario Agricultural College for 1906to 1919 show that 18,609 miles ofdrain was designed for 153,531 acresand for 3,206 jobs. This is an averageof 640 feet per acre, 48 acres per joband 30,600 feet per job. These figuresare probably much higher than theaverage for the province since professional assistance tended to designthe more difficult and more intensivesystems. The figures for 1929 are 325feet per acre, 26 acres per job and8,400 feet per job. These are probablymore representative values and agreemore closely with other records basedon an analysis of Tile Drainage Actreturns which show 91.8 million feetdesigned for 306,000 acres or about300 feet per acre. Calculations in thispaper are based on the assumption ofa long term average drain tile use of350 feet per acre.

The Tile Drainage Act (7) makesprovision for assistance to farmers, bymeans of a low interest loan, with theunderdrainage of their farms. Townships which have made this legislationavailable to their residents are requiredto report each year full cost details ofeach loan to the Minister of Agriculture. These statistics are available from1878 and contain accurate details of

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DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL LAND AREA BY DRAINAGE NEED AND CROP ADAPTABILITY

('000 acres)

Southern Ontario District Western Ontario District5,244 6,451

Central Ontario District

10,228Eastern Ontario District

7,297

Key

pyjj Good and Fair crop land requiring no drainage improvement.

Ka Good and Fair crop land which would benefit from drainage improvement.

fflB Extent of cropland which has been tile drained.

I IPoor and Submarginal land which would not benefit from drainage.

Figure 1

the installation cost and the averagelength of drain tile installed on eachfarm.

Irwin (3) reported that the totalamount of the loans made under theTile Drainage Act from 1878 to 1948was $5,267,044.96. Since then an additional $8,436,000.00 has beenloaned. An analysis of the Tile Drainage Act returns for the year 1961showed that about 900 individual loanswere made. The average length of draintile installed per loan was 20,000 feet.The total length of drain tile installedunder the Tile Drainage Act in 1961

was, therefore, 18 million feet, whichis in reasonable agreement with theestimate made above by the drain tilemanufacturers. This amount of draintile at 350 feet per acre would drainabout 51,000 acres.

Similarly, it would appear that the1961 production of 40 million feet ofdrain tile for agricultural use woulddrain about 115,000 acres of land andfor the period 1921 to 1960 the landtile drained would be 1.7 million acres.

It has been current practice to depreciate a tile drainage system over a40-year period. The actual life of a

tile drainage system will depend uponthe maintenance it receives, the soil inwhich it is placed, and the culturalpractices followed by the farmer.

Since the life of a tile drainagesystem is often less than 40 years andsince some land has been retiled atcloser spacings it is most probable thatthe amount of land that is effectivelytile-drained in Ontario at this time is1.25 million acres. The current rate atwhich land is being tile-drained is 115,-000 acres per year.

SOIL DRAINAGE

The effectiveness of tile underdrain-age is dependent upon the provision ofadequate outlets and a good surfacedrainage system. Soil may be inadequately drained because of poor surface drainage, seepage, high water-table, or slow movement of waterthrough a fine-textured soil.

Many imperfect and poorly-drainedsoil series, may, through tile drainagebe brought into a high state of production. In some locations these same soilseries do not warrant the added costof artificial drainage. In these cases allthat is required is to use crops whichare adapted to wet conditions. Othersoil series are either too difficult todrain or no special advantage is gainedin doing so.

The soils of Ontario have been surveyed by the Ontario Soil Survey (6)and a map and report which indicatethe extent and distribution of the

various soils has been published formost counties. The soils have beengrouped into six Land-Use CapabilityClasses based on their productivity,workability and conssrvability in relation to the production of general farmcrops. The most important factorswhich affect the ability of a soil toproduce are drainage, fertility andclimate. To produce good crops it isusually necessary to improve the drainage of many soils by the use of tiledrains. The soils are then more productive. The ratings used are for thenatural drainage of soils and are basedon the production of oats and alfalfa.These crops were chosen because theyrespond to drainage improvement, arethe least affected by climate, and aregenerally grown throughout the Province. The best measure for a cropadaptability rating is average yield ofeach crop.

The Ontario Soil Survey (6) in theirmapping program also records the natural internal soil drainage in three

78 CANADIAN AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING, JAN. 1967

general classifications of good, imperfect and poor drainage. The installation of tile drains in an imperfect orpoory drained soil usually improves thecrop adaptability rating for that soil.Generally the increase is a single ratingclass although certain fair and poorsoils, when drained, may attain a goodrating. Poor soils frequently will notbe rated higher when tile drained. Tiledrains are generally not installed economically in soils with a rating lowerthan fair.

Figure 1 shows the relative distribution of the total land area by cropadaptability and drainage rating in eachgeographical district. These chartsshow that there are 6,124,050 acres ofsoil with a drainage hazard whichwould probably be improved with theinstallation of tile drains. This value is

for the total land area and gives noindication of the proportion that iscleared land under production althoughit is probable that the majority of thesoils with the highest rating capabilityare now under production.

FARMER'S OPINION

The Dominion Bureau of Statistics*in co-operation with the StatisticsBranch of the Ontario Department ofAgriculture, provided space for answering four questions relating to farmdrainage in their schedule for the 1960,1961, and 1963 Annual June Surveyof Crops, Livestock and Poultry. Thequestions were designed to determinethe area which, in the farmer's opinion,would be benefited by tile drainage andto estimate how much work had been

done. Additional information regardingthe availability of outlet ditches and thetype of land was also solicited in thesesurveys. The surveys are difficult tocorrelate because the questions askeddiffered each year. This became necessary to clarify problems that appearedin each survey.

The 1960 survey, based on a sampleof 5,904 returns of which 65 per centanswered the drainage question, forecast there were still 3.6 million acres

of cleared land in Ontario which would

be improved by tile drainage. About 11per cent of this land did not have asatisfactory outlet. The concept ofrolling land is not the same across theProvince and the estimate of 41 percent rolling land requiring drainagemay range from hills to gentle undulating.

In 1961, which was a Census year,there were more returns in the survey,although fewer persons answered thedrainage question. The questions weremore specific than the 1960 survey. Ananalysis of the replies showed thatthere were 3 million acres of cleared

land in Ontario which would be im

proved by tile drainage. About 8 percent of the land did not have a suitable

outlet.

In 1963 special mechanical equipment made it feasible to enlarge thesampled population. There were42,000 returns of which 27,434 answered the drainage question. Based onthis intensive sampling of farmer'sopinion it appears that there are 6million acres of farm land which re

quire tile drainage including landalready improved by tile drains. About14 per cent of the land did not havean outlet.

The survey also shows that there are2.2 million acres or 37 per cent ofland already tile drained so there are3.8 million acres of additional land

which would be improved by tile drainage. About one million acres does nothave a satisfactory outlet.

About 88 per cent of the land requiring tile drainage is in the Southernand Western Ontario Districts. About

40 per cent of this is now tile drained.These statistics in the survey are influenced by the Farmer's consciousnessregarding drainage need and since experience is relative, two different farmers may not draw similar conclusionsabout the same farm.

SUMMARY

There is no single source in Ontariowhere detailed information regardingthe extent of past, current or futuredrainage work is available. This paper

CANADIAN AGRICULTURAL ENSINEERING, JAN. 1967

has used the most accurate information

available from many sources to makesuch an estimate.

In the agricultural area of Ontarioexcluding those of Northern Ontarioand the District of Nipissing, there are6 million acres of land which would be

improved by the installation of tiledrains. About 14 per cent of the landdoes not have a satisfactory drainageoutlet.

Based on tile production figures itwas estimated that 1.25 million acres

are now tile drained. In the farmer's

opinion this value should be 2.2 millionacres.

It is also estimated that there re

mains about 4 million acres of cleared

land to be tile-drained when economic

conditions permit. The present rate ofinstalling tile drains is believed to beabout 115,000 acres per year.

The greatest activity in land drainagehas been in the Southern and Western

districts of Ontario and this will con

tinue. About 35-40 per cent of theland has been tile drained but over half

of the land which would benefit from

drainage in Ontario is still in this area.

REFERENCES

1. Central Mortgage and HousingCorp. Canadian Housing Statistics. 1962.

2. Dominion Bureau of Statistics.Clay products manufacturers.(Domestic) Cat. No. 44-215.1900-1961.

3. Irwin, R. W. Review of landdrainage in Ontario. Ont. Agr.College. Eng. Tech. Pub. 7, 1961.

4. Ontario Dept. of Agriculture. Unpublished data on drain tile production. 1906-1962.

5. Ontario Dept. of Mines. AnnualReports. Part I. Statistical reviewof the mineral industry. 1891-1962.

6. Ontario Soil Survey. Soil Surveysof Ontario Counties. Reports 1-38 v.d.

7. Revised Statutes of Ontario. TileDrainage Act. Chapter 399. 1960.

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