TILE AND STONE DRAINS. 39 



experiment, that they hare convinced themselves, that if the 

 stone were delivered to them free of cost, on the bank of the 

 ditch, they would not dig a ditch large enough to accommodate 

 them, and put them properly into it. Having the stone on the 

 land, they would rather buy the tiles to put into the drain than 

 to use the stone. 



Question. Don't you think that extravagant? 



Col. Waring. No, sir, I do not ; because you are obliged to 

 make the drain a great deal larger if you lay stone in it, and 

 your stone must be laid with some care and skill, by a man 

 who is worth pretty good wages. I believe it would cost more 

 to lay a drain four feet deep with stone, if the stone were deliv- 

 ered on the bank of the drain, than to buy the tiles for it and 

 to lay them. The cost of the tiles, delivered in Fall River, for 

 an acre of land, supposing the drains to be forty feet apart, 

 would be just about $25, an acre would require about one 

 thousand feet — sixty rods. Those would be \\ inch tiles. 

 Now, I think there are very few fields in which you could lay a 

 stone drain of sixty rods, digging the wider ditch you would be 

 obliged to, for $25. 



Question. Supposing it is in a locality where you have to 

 pick out a foot and a half of hard-pan to get your three feet ? 



Col. Waring. I don't see how you are going to get along, 

 if you use stone, without making a wide ditch. You must 

 have it wide enough to work in, and that means two feet at the 

 top and a foot or more at the bottom ; whereas, a man can lay 

 a tile drain with the ditch five inches at the bottom and fifteen 

 at the top, if it is only three feet deep. 



Mr. Allis, of Conway. I can show the gentleman a stone 

 drain that has been down thirty-four years, and the water runs 

 as freely to-day as it ever did. 



Col. Waring! I am not objecting to the making of stone 

 drains. I have seen a great many good ones ; but I don't 

 believe they are any better than tile drains, and they are more 

 expensive. 



Question. Suppose you have the stones on the ground ? 



Col. Waring. You will find it a great deal easier to cart 

 them off and put them on the side of the road, or dig a wide 

 and deep ditch and throw them into it, if you want to get rid 

 of them. I have tried both methods. 1 will confess that I 



