218 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



heaps to cart into the yard, then shovelling the soil, following 

 with pickaxe and shovel, several times over, till the depth ot 

 three feet is excavated from ten to twelve inches wide, which 

 is as narrow as a person can work in to advantage with a pick 

 and shovel in blue hard-pan. This gives about a foot and a 

 half of drain below the soil, and mostly below the frost, and 

 will take in the surplus-water almost as quickly as the soil re- 

 ceives it, if laid with stone, and I have used no other material, 

 having been able by frequent ploughing and using a few piles 

 on my neighbors' lands in close proximity, to obtain all I 

 needed from 3'ear to year. But it was declared before the 

 Board of Agi'iculture last 3^ear that stone drains were a failure ; 

 also that tile drains were the cheapest, if you could have the 

 stone delivered. That was not accepted in my vicinity, for the 

 following reasons : First, the failure. I have sixty rods of 

 stone drain under a two-acre plot, of not over one degree 

 slope, laid thirty-five years ago, in as good running order now 

 as ever, for aught I know, and have laid none since that has 

 proved the contrary. In laying drains, I place the flattened 

 surface of the larger stones lengthwise of the drain, with the 

 sharpest point down, side by side, until from six to ten inches 

 from the bottom. I have them packed very firmly between the 

 hard-pan sides, then filling on top with smaller stones, nearly 

 to the top of the hard-pan, making it very compact on top, 

 firm in the centre, with several fine aqueducts at the bottom 

 for free and abundant flow of water ; cover the stone with fine 

 hemlock-brush, swamp-grass or litter, though I prefer brush, 

 which will last until the dirt over it is thoroughly settled ; 

 cover with dirt and stamp down till fully rounded, fitting, 

 according to my observation, for the draining of land much 

 more rapidly than tile-drain, to the special benefit of growing 

 crops. 



The comparative expense is decidedly in fovor of stone with 

 me. The digging and laying of drains has cost me from sixty 

 to seventy cents per rod. The stone I pick and cast ofi" every 

 time I plough, and it is usually more convenient to dump 

 them beside the ditch than to draw oft* to the side of the road, 

 or any other conspicuous locality, to form brier-hedges, while 

 the cost, transportation, digging for and laying of tile would 

 cost nearly or quite one dollar per rod in my vicinity ; not- 



