158 



No. 4, is a drain filled with unbroken field stones, and it is made wide 

 at bottom in order that the stones may not choke it. 



No. 5, is formed by placing two tough sods so as to form an angle, 

 or angles in the bottoms of the drains; the vacant spaces in the corners 

 serve as water courses. 



No. 6, is a drain filled with brushwood covered with sods and filled 

 up like other drains. I give these latter specimens merely for the use of 

 those persons who cannot command materials for a more scientific mode 

 of operation. 



DRAINING TOOLS. 



No work of any kind can be well performed without a good assort- 

 ment of suitable tools. 



Draining plows of various kinds have been invented and introduced 

 to the attention of agriculturists, but as they are generally intended for 

 surface draining they need not be described in this essay. 



The subsoil plow has been used for a considerable time, as a power- 

 ful auxiliary to the drainer; it is made use of, for the purpose of stir- 

 ring up and loosening the subsoil, without bringing it to the surface, and 

 may be described, as a very strong plow without a mould board, follow- 

 ing in the furrow of the common plow, and loosening the soil to the 

 requisite depth. Subsoil plowing should always be performed across 

 the drains, by these means the furrows or tracks made by the subsoil 

 plow will be each a little drain, conveying the water into the parallel 

 drains. Subsoiling should not be performed for a year or two after a 

 field has been drained, as the soil should get time to shrink and open 

 into cracks and fissures before that operation is performed. 



The mole plow has been used in England for many years. A writer 

 in the London Farmers' Magazine states, that drains made by the mole 

 plow in the farm of Thomas Bates, of Kirkleavington, after having 

 lasted for more than thirty years were found running in perfect order; 

 and these drains were made simply h^/ the plow, without the addition 

 of tiles. 



The old mole plow has been entirely superseded by an improvement 

 invented by a Mr. Fowler. To his plow is attached a wire rope, on 

 which a line of pipes is strung, and as the plow proceeds, this line is 

 drawn into the ground. The plow is worked by a capstan which forces 



