SWAMP-LANDS DRAINED. 297 



large tract of land that is nearly level or of an uneven sur- 

 face, as success depends upon a regular fall of not less than 

 three inches in a hundred feet distance, or more, if possible, 

 and as much regularity in the fall secured as the location will 

 permit. He obtained, by blasting in a ledge, an outlet some 

 six feet below the surface, which, with the natural fall of the 

 land, gave him sufficient fall for his drain. He used the 

 round tile with collars, which is the best kind in use. A 

 wide, open ditch, with sloping banks, which are now grassed 

 over and can be mowed, was dug the whole length of the 

 meadow, at the bottom of which he sunk a box-drain, eigh- 

 teen inches square in area, made of two-inch plank: this 

 drain is four or five feet below the surface, and covered over, 

 so that grass grows on the whole surface of the open drain. 

 The box-drain is designed to take the natural flow of a small 

 brook that always flowed through the meadow, and also 

 serves as the main drain for the whole system of tile-drains. 

 The open drain over the box-drain serves in times of freshets 

 to convey the surplus surface-water. 



In most land of this character the tile should be laid as 

 near four feet deep as the nature of the lay of the land will 

 permit, and in parallel lines forty feet apart. Some portion 

 of so large a tract of land as this may require two-inch 

 pipe for the lateral drains ; but ordinarily an inch or an 

 inch-and-a-quarter pipe is sufficient to convey the rainfall 

 in as short a space of time as is desirable. All water flow- 

 ing into the meadow from adjoining high lands or springs 

 should be provided for by a cut-off drain running along the 

 border, which may be connected with the lateral drains run- 

 ning to the main drain. With the lateral drains forty feet 

 apart, it would require about eleven hundred feet of tile per 

 acre, which would allow for ordinary breakage. In average 

 digging, an experienced man will dig the trench, and lay 

 about three rods per day. No care need be taken to cover 

 the tile with any porous substance, as the water flows into the 

 tile from the bottom, rather than from the top, except immedi- 

 ately over the tile ; but in case of quicksand, the tile should 

 be embedded in clayey or tenacious soil to keep the sand out 

 of it. With tile properly laid, and with silt receptacles at 

 proper places, a drain will keep in order for any length of 

 time ; so that the first cost of this system of drainage may be 



