Shown is an example of the earliest type of clay drainage tile often used to help drain farm fields. Note the flat bottom and arched top.

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — Beginning in approximately the mid to late 1800s, quite often farmers wanting a way to drain their land so they could farm it came together to seek ways for proper drainage. At that time, the type of tile used for drainage was made of clay.

Apparently those tiles were built to last a long time, because, remarkably, many of them have survived well in excess of 100 years and are still used today. But some are deteriorating enough they will need to eventually be replaced.

Mike Kissinger, Kosciusko County surveyor, noted the first type of clay tile to be used in fields was typically baked clay bent into a flat bottom with an arched top. Another type used was vitrified clay baked at a hotter temperature and usually longer lasting than a standard clay tile, which is more porous.

“After that, the baked clay tile manufactured evolved into a round shape beginning in the early 1900s,” he said. Later, in roughly the mid-1900s, concrete field drainage tiles began appearing.

Clay, readily available in the area, was fired in a kiln to make the drainage tiles. Then the tiles were laid by hand by crews who used spades to dig trenches in farm fields. Sometimes, too, Kissinger noted, the drainage tiles were used to drain water away from older homes.

Eventually clay tiles begin to crack and start to shift, he said, and then holes begin to develop on the surface as materials cave in from the surface. Repairs have to be carefully made because it may be a hundred feet or more from the deteriorating tile before another good piece can be found. “We usually slip plastic over the clay tile or sometimes it can be butted up against the old tile,” he said.

Double walled strength plastic tiles were introduced in 1987 and have been used since then.

In one sense, history has come full circle. Drainage tiles were first used to drain farm fields, but now, depending on the location, repairing or replacing a tile could possibly be discouraged because the government wants to see nearby wetlands preserved more, Kissinger said.