Draining. 769 



or I'our yards, done by the same party with at least as much bottom 

 as will allow of two pipes beiug laid in their position, and space for the 

 scoop to draw out the loose earth when the drain is taken over by the 

 man who is to make it. This enables the joints to be made much 

 safer than can be done after the main drain is finished and filled 

 in, the filling should be done every night so as to prevent slips or 

 dashes of surface water getting into the drain and shifting or silting 

 up the pipes. ^lain drains cannot always be made in straight lines, as 

 they must follow the course of the lowest part of the ground, but the 

 straighter they can be made the better. 



In proceeding with the making of branch drains, the drainer should 

 first stretch a cord along one side of the proposed line (it is desirable 

 that it be a long cord, say, not less than twenty-four yards), and rut it 

 evenly with a sharp spade, returning in the same way on the other 

 side, regulating the breadth according to the depth of the drain and 

 ihe description of soil to be cut through. After this he must find his 

 way to the required depth as best he can with pick, spade, and scoop. 

 A soft bottom is easily taken out with a half-worn spade, and cleanly 

 scooped to the bed of the pipe with an even slope, or level, as the 

 nature of the ground may require, all hard substances or stones being 

 carefully removed. Where the bottom is hard and gravelly it is best 

 done with the pick, and a sufficiency of fine earth must be left in the 

 bottom to permit the pipes to lie smoothly. The sooner the pipes are 

 laid in, after the bottom is taken out, the better. 



Where draining is carried on to any extent the pipes should be laid 

 in by a thoroughly trustworthy man, avIio is not likely to be influenced 

 by the plausible stories of the piece-work men who seldom scruple to 

 try to get their work ofi" their hands an inch or two less than the proper 

 depth. The pipe-layer's first business is to see that the drain is cut to 

 the required depth with the proper fall, by means of a cross-headed 

 pole. Pipes can be best laid in the soft-bottomed drains by means of 

 a " cleek," as a man going into a soft drain with his feet generally 

 treads it into a puddle, quite unfit for any pipe to be laid in. In 

 quicksand a thin layer of well-drawn straw is very beneficial. Per- 

 haps the most important operation of all is covering the pipes with 

 earth. If in so doing a stone of any weight falls upon the pipe, it 

 runs a great risk of being broken, and covered up unseen. The pipes 

 should be covered with three inches of the soil from the sides of the 

 drain, or where a sod has been taken off" the top and is not intended to 

 be replaced it should be put in next the pipes. Farmers sometimes 

 leave the filling of drains to be done with the plough, which we con- 

 sider a decidedly reprehensible practice and very little saving in the 

 end. ' M. R. 



