BY THE ROD AND BY THE DAY. 35 



do is to secure the tiles. That, of course, is simply a commercial 

 matter, in which no advice from me is necessary. 



The next thing is, to prepare for the digging of the drains. 

 And here considerable improvement over the usual methods 

 may very easily be made. In the first place, the idea that a 

 plough must be used is a fallacy ; it does not help, it retards 

 the work. It leaves a ragged edge, throws out a great mass of 

 earth, and leaves it in such a way that it is likely to fall back 

 and trouble the drainers afterwards. It commences the drain 

 with a width of two feet, when a width of a foot, or thirteen or 

 fourteen inches, at the outside, would be ample, and we have a 

 crumbling, loose edge, instead of the clean edge that a good 

 drainer always leaves directly at the side of his ditch. Of course, 

 the diggers must be Irishmen, and they must be men who, having 

 been " draining all their lives," will be determined to do it in 

 their own way. But it is much better that they should not be 

 allowed to do it in their own way. They will tell you that they 

 will do the work for so much a rod ; and the price may seem 

 reasonable ; but it is very much better to hire them by the day, 

 while teaching them to use the new tools, for the work can be 

 done much better and more cheaply with these. I refer to the 

 narrow draining-spade which you have probably all seen. I am 

 doing some draining for a near neighbor, with a gang of expe- 

 rienced men, at sixty-five cents a rod, for a three and a half 

 (31) feet drain, and I am satisfied they are making 84 a day. 

 The reason why they make that is because I cannot get ordinary 

 workmen to do the same work any cheaper. If I hire ordinary 

 diggers, they will earn 81.75 or 82 a day, but the work will not 

 be done so well nor so quickly. These men have learned how 

 to use the tools, for they have used them for years. Their 

 first operation is to take the broader of these spades, which is 

 five inches wide at the point, and seven or eight inches wide at 

 the top, and this they drive directly into the ground, to the 

 depth of about fourteen inches, and take out the sod, which shows 

 the round or scooped form of the spade, each end being four or 

 five inches square. This is taken out with a twist, and laid on 

 the bank, with the grass end, not directly against the edge of 

 the ditch, but a short distance removed, which makes a good 

 protection for the earth which is thrown out afterwards, which 

 slides over directly behind it. When they have gone to a depth 



