354 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



By careful study of the lay of your land you can save a great deal in your sys- 

 tem of tile drains. 



I bought a farm that had five acres of quicksand that I found had a clay rim. 

 I tried to drain the hill and had no success until I cut through that clay rim 

 in five places, and that let the water right out, and so by an expenditure of 

 $;;i5.00 I drained the whole five acres. 



After all, the matter of first consideration is to be certain of the grade 

 of your drain. 



Not the least advantage of draining is that it enables you to get at your 

 land from a fortnight to six weeks earlier in the spring. 



Mr. Mclntyre : Does it pay to drain land on which there is ordinarily no 

 surface water? 



T. H. Stuart: I remember a high lying farm where there was no standing 

 water and which was called a dry farm. The owner thoroughly under- 

 drained his land and said he never spent money to better advantage. 



H. G. Reynolds: Many lands are naturally underdrained, and it would be 

 a sheer waste to underdrain them. 



Dr. W. J. Beal : A good test is to dig holes two or three feet deep and 

 see whether they gather standing water. If they do the land needs draining. 



T. H. Stuart: In the farm of which I spoke, the owner, wherever his 

 drains came shallow, brought them to the surface in open troughs for water- 

 ing his stock, and these places never froze in winter, as the water, coming 

 from underground, was warm. 



Wilkes Stuart: Draining is not a particularly expensive operation. I 

 used to think it took a small fortune, but find it is not so. I do not like the 

 glazed tile for field drainage. 



Dr. Beal : I never heard of using glazed tile for ordinary drainage, except 

 for connections. 



Wilkes Stuart: I do not think the connections amount to ai^thing, as 

 they never come just where you want them. 



Mr. Beam: Where small cobble stones encumber the surface they are often, 

 used as a cheap substitute for tile. Is that a good plan? 



Dr. Beal : I have laid a good deal of such drain and there is not a rod of 

 it that is worth a cent. 



T. H. Stuart: I have had the same experience, even putting two feet deep 

 of stone. It worked one season and was no good at all afterwards. I then took 

 them out and put in poles from two to eight inches in diameter, and piled 

 the stones in above. It worked one season and no more. I had the same 

 experience with a cellar drain which I tried over and over again, and at last, six 

 years ago, I bought tile at 3|- cents per foot and found it cheaper than hem- 

 lock lumber, and have had no trouble since. The same tile are now one 

 cent a foot or $10 per thousand. 



J. Macomber : I have tried a cobble stone drain and in the course of it 

 passed through quicksand, where I used large stone and covered in with 

 marsh hay. It has worked well so far — two years. 



Mr. Wilsey: I have laid some board underdrains made of fencing that 

 worked well till the boards rotted. Then I cut poles and slabs, cutting wedge 

 shaped pieces from center to sap, and put the thin edge on the pole. The poles 

 were tamarack, four to six inches in diameter. I was very careful in the 

 bottom surface of my ditch. This drain has worked well for eight years. 

 Another cat-hole I drained by setting two poles on the bottom and one on 



