Worked north of Carlinville

Formless Concrete Chute

Tile Flow Today

The top photo is an old formless concrete chute.  It is a structure that conveys water from the field into the ditch preventing erosion.  They were constructed by shaping the soil into the desired form and then pouring the concrete directly onto the ground with minimal forming.  Not many of these have been constructed in Illinois in the last 40 years, but this one is still doing the job.

I know that many people doubt that we have adequate subsoil moisture for now, but the small flow coming out this tile north of Carlinville would indicate that subsoil moisture is adequate.  Does this mean we can make it through the summer with no rain?  Last summer proved that even with excessive subsoil moisture timely rainfall is still needed.