UNDERDRAWING. 179 



Ditching by the rod is the correct way of employing help in 

 systematic draining. One of my men, who was much superior 

 to the average, was allowed to work by the day at $2, or by 

 the rod at 25 cents. He would usually dig nine rods in a day, 

 and with the common tools I then had, it was a good day's work. 

 The ditches averaged three feet in depth, and as narrow at the 

 bottom as the digger pleased to make them, the soil being 

 thrown on one side and the subsoil opposite. I have since used 

 draining tools which cut only four inches wide and five feet in 

 depth, when required, and effect a saving of labor principally 

 in filling the ditches. 



On the upper part of my lot, small drains have been made, 

 which run directly to the brook. Strips of hemlock boards are 

 used at the outlets, as tiles are apt to be displaced. The boards 

 were taken to the mill, and an equal number of pieces were 

 sawed two, three and four inches wide, and in the winter nailed 

 together in the form of a triangle. Whole drains were made 

 in this way, one season, to lay about five hundred feet, because 

 tile could not be had, and they are the next best substitute. 

 Placed under ground, and constantly wet, they will last a gen- 

 eration, but they are not as durable as tile, and more expen- 

 sive. In one drain at the side of a hill, I was obliged to use 

 them, as we encountered a spring that in a week's time did not 

 diminish, and the water could not be kept out long enough to 

 lay the tile successfully. Tiles or boards are either of them 

 cheaper than stone, even when the latter is in the field. 



CHARACTER OF THE SOIL. 



Numerous wet places were found before draining, which were 

 the result of two causes. 1st. At the foot of the hills. 2d. 

 Basins which were surrounded by hard pan, or clay. Because 

 the water could not run out freely from these pockets, the land 

 was cold and unproductive. One place, of a rod in extent, was 

 so compact that a strong team could scarcely force a subsoil 

 plough through it. Forty feet was adopted as the distance 

 apart for the drains, and the direction up and down the ascent. 

 And in only one instance did I allow the drain to make a right- 

 angle and terminate vertically at the surface to admit the con- 

 tinual passage of air. 



