178 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



round tile, when it can be obtained. Tiles five inches in diam- 

 eter were used for the main drain, and two-inch tiles for the 

 smaller. One hundred feet of the main, however, where it 

 crossed the street, going one foot below the bridge through 

 which the brook ran, was laid with six-inch cement-pipe. 



For ordinary draining, I do not esteem these, in any respect, 

 better than common red tile, provided the latter be well made 

 and hard burned. 



It was necessary to cross the street to get depth, and only 

 eighteen inches at one place could then be obtained, the tile 

 being laid nearly level for two hundred feet. When three feet 

 of earth could be put above the tile, no attempt was made to go 

 deeper, excepting to pass through swells and hillocks to low land 

 beyond ; always commencing at the outlet and finishing at the 

 top. 



Skilled laborers, at double wages, in difficult drainage, are 

 cheaper than common hands. Commencing, as I did here, with 

 such help as could be found at the street corners, there were 

 numerous embarrassments and hindrances. Ditches were dug 

 too deep in many places, and where soft places occurred, it were 

 easier to dig a new ditch and abandon the old one, than to try 

 to fill up to the proper height. The method I adopted, was to 

 cut a shelf on the side, level with the water in the ditch, which 

 was used as a guide. Strips of four-inch wide hemlock boards 

 were used over mucky spots, to keep every tile in place ; for if 

 one end of only one tile were tipped down out of the grade, the 

 whole drain might be ruined. 



Laying of the tiles, and pounding them firmly down, is one of 

 the most important items. It is a mistake to leave the ground 

 loose, that the water may find its way into the drain. To put 

 clay against the tile when it can be obtained, and then to fill up 

 the whole drain as if the object were to keep the water out, is a 

 better and the true way. Neither tarred paper nor newspapers, 

 which are sometimes put around the joints, were applied here, 

 except in one place of twenty feet, where quicksand would 

 otherwise have filled the tiles. When the ditch was filled, back 

 furrows were turned over it, causing the ground to be higher 

 over the drains, that no water should seek to enter the tiles from 

 the top. In all successful underdraining, the water must enter 

 from the bottom. 



