FAEMEES' INSTITUTES. 179 



ciently to render it dry enough for cultivation. In every case where the lands 

 are drained sufficiently and the muck is thoroughly rotted and pulverized, the 

 crops which they produce are a matter of astonishment to all beholders. They 

 far exceed the very best of the uplands in productiveness, and as 1 said before, 

 I believe it only a question of time and drainage when all will be equally fertile 

 and productive. 



Soon after the commencement of operations under the county drain law 

 system, a State convention of county drain commissioners was held at Detroit, 

 and at that convention the present style of ditch was adopted, and has since 

 been adhered to. The bottom of the ditch is one, two, three, and four feet 

 in width ; the sides flare at an angle of forty-five degrees, or one foot slope to 

 one foot rise ; the excavated earth to be removed twenty-four inches from the 

 edge of the bank, and to have the same slope as the ditcli. This form has 

 been found best for many reasons. The angle of forty-five degrees is within the 

 angle of repose of nearly every kind of material of which the banks of ditches 

 are composed in this county. Widening so rapidly, the carrying capacity of 

 the ditch increases rapidly as the water rises in it, and 3'et furnishes the maxi- 

 mum depth of current in low water^ and will carry off obstructions that would 

 lodge and clog a wider and consequently shallower current. The sides being 

 within the angle of repose of such soils, there is less liability to cave than with 

 steeper banks, and less liability to wash than with flatter ones. 



This shape of ditch makes the width on top depend upon the depth ; and as 

 they are now dug three feet deep in the low places, and deeper in the high 

 ones, the ditches are not less than seven, eight, nine and ten feet wide on top, 

 the larger or smaller size being used in each case according as there is much 

 or little water to be carried away. 



In the beginning of drainage under the law, some mistakes were made, as 

 would be likely where all parties, both commissioner and owners, were entirely 

 without experience ; the most important ones being, in not making any allow- 

 ance for the settling of the muck when the water was drawn off, and in mak- 

 ing the first ditches too small and too shallow. (The latter error I think is 

 not yet entirely corrected.) The first drains were only dug two feet and two 

 and a half feet deep. And in digging from a swamp through hard land, as is 

 often necessary to provide an outlet, the ditch was generally dug no deeper in 

 the hard land than in the muck. In such case, although when dug, the ditcli 

 through the bar would be deep enough to draw all the water out of the ditch, 

 in the swamp; yet, as the muck settled down and packed together and rotted 

 away, after the water ran off, it would often be so low that the bottom of the 

 ditch, in the swamp, would be a foot or more deeper than in the hard land, 

 and the water would stand in it to that depth. Add to this the fact that the 

 sides of the ditch in the swamp would settle down until a ditch through a wet 

 swamp or marsh, that was honestly dug three feet deep, would not be more 

 than a foot or fifteen inches deep when it had done settling, and you have the 

 causes of the failure of many of the earlier drains. These faults have been 

 corrected in the later drains. None are now dug a less depth than three feet. 

 I am confident that a depth of four, instead of three feet, would not only be 

 much better but would be cheaper in the long run ; thougli it is difficult to 

 convince the owners that this is the case, exce[>t by experience. 



Nearly every ditch in the county, except those constructed within the last 

 two years, either has been or will be reconstructed and dug deeper; and this, 

 not because they have filled up or weie not orignally dug the full depth, but 

 because they have almost disappeared by the gradual subsidence of the general 



