40 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



started with the belief that the tile drain is the best and cheap- 

 est, but that belief has been strengthened by the experience I 

 have had. 



Secretary Flint. How would it be where you are liable to 

 come constantly, at a depth of two or three feet, in contact 

 with large rocks, which compel you to deviate from the direct 

 line ? Would not a stone drain, in many cases of that kind, 

 be better than a tile drain ? 



Col. Waring. It would be better, in many cases, to get a 

 perfectly uniform bottom, to clear the rocks out. 



Secretary Flint. Suppose they are so large that they cannot 

 be removed, or that you strike a ledge ? 



Col. Waring. Then the real floor of your drain is going to 

 be the level of the rock, and it is no use to dig below that. 

 Find the lowest point you can get, and then grade to that 

 depth. 



Secretary Flint. In many cases you would want to go lower 

 than the rock. 



Col. Waring. In that case, you would have to dig a wide 

 ditch and get them out by main force. But stones as large as 

 a man's body, even, are not apt to interfere with a tile drain. 

 Now and then one will crop out at the bottom of a drain, anc^ 

 you must get it out, even if you have to blast. But if you 

 should take a hundred stones, as large as your body, and put 

 them on the line of a drain within four feet of the surface, the 

 probability is, that nine-tenths of them, at least, would be so 

 high up that you could get your tile under them. 



Mr. Benj. Buffinton, of Fall River. I should like to know 

 how you would manage coarse, gravelly soil ? 



Col. Waring. I should not think it would be necessary to 

 drain such land as that. Is the land wet ? 



Mr. Buffinton. The land is wet. 



Col. Waring. Can't you tap that gravel somewhere, and get 

 the water out of it ? 



Mr. Buffinton. That is the reason I would rather drain 

 with stone than tile ; you can drain so much deeper. You can 

 dig larger drains, and have them farther apart. 



Col. Waring. The distance apart has nothing to do with 

 the size of the drain ; if you put in a very small pipe, you will 

 draw the water off from an immense area. 



