104 BuEEAU OF Farmers' Institutes. 



boggj marsh; I dug a ditch four feet deep and a little over a foot 

 wide at the bottom, so that I could get two good-sized stones, 

 one on each side; then I covered it with large stones on top, 

 and filled it with gravel, chinking it on the sides for about a 

 foot, making it tight; then I used boards in the bottom to put 

 my stones on, so they would not slip in the mud, and after the 

 water got thawed, it run a nice stream of water. During the dry 

 season this winter it has run a nice stream of water. 



Supt. McKerrow. — Do your tiles run water in cold weather? 



Mr. Nicolai. — Yes, sir; most of my tiles are running water now. 

 Of course, most of my ground is springy. On most land there 

 is no water to run only in the spring of the year. 



The Chairman. — Now we will suppose there is some marsh 

 land running by the side of the hill (highland), and we know that 

 along next to the highland the marsh is apt to be the wettest. 

 Now, how would you run your tile — parallel with one side of the 

 hill, or run it right down through the marsh to the creek, forty 

 rods from there? 



Mr. Nicolai. — I would run it parallel with the hill. 



The Chairman. — That is the way I did, and it dried the land for 

 twenty rods beyond it; just cut off that spring water. 



Mr. Nicolai. — Springs are frequently cut off in that way, and it 

 will save a great deal of tile. It will make dry land out of small 

 fields which are kept wet by the seepage of these springs over the 

 land. 



The Chairman. — I want to say, just as Mr. Nicolai did, that if 

 it is going to cost more to tile the land than the land is worth, of 

 course it won't pay to tile it, but even in such cases a man may 

 have a wee spring running diagonally through a field, and it may 

 pay him a great profit to tile it. That was some of the first 

 work I did. I had a field of twenty acres that was cut in two 

 diagonally by a spring, resulting in all five acres of wet landi. 

 I ran a tile through the whole field, so I could plow it. It worked 

 splendidly, and after one has commenced to tile such places as 

 that, he will see other places, and he will keep on until he makes 

 a garden of his whole farm. 



