lo Nov., 1910.] 



Irrigation. 



Levelling. 



The next operation is one tliat the average farmer not only cannot 

 do, but seems to have a superstitious dread of attempting, and yet it is 

 easily within his power, that is. using a surveyor's level to ascertain the 

 lay of his land for' grading. He will find it very much easier to mani- 

 pulate than a binder, 

 and be more successful 

 than he was in his first 

 attempts at setting a 

 plough. There are no 

 castings to break, or 

 bolts to wear out, 

 besides other little 

 annoyances that a far- 

 mer experiences with 

 II. SCARIFIER. his own tools of trade. 



Long association leads 

 me to have a \ery high opinion of the mechanical ability shown on a farm 

 where a man is remote from stores and tradesmen, and has often to venture 

 a lot of repairs with little else than fencing wire, " cockle's friend," as 

 it is facetiously called, as a stand-by. Let it be understood, however, 

 that I am speaking of the level only from a mechanical standpoint ; the 

 scientific side may be left to the professional man. 



The average cost of a good second-hand level and staff is about ^10, 

 and if that is distributed amongst a few neighbourly neighbours no one 

 is hurt. Ability to set the level up, and read the staves, keep a proper 

 level book and make a working plan may be acquired with a few weeks' 

 instruction and practice. If anything is wrong with the machine a 

 friendly shire engineer will soon remedy the trouble, and his services may 

 generally be relied on to assist in selecting a reliable instrument. A 

 I co-link measuring tape and set of arrows may be bought at any large 

 store for about 20s. However, whether the farmer does the work for 

 himself, or employs another, the following plan of operations may be 

 confidently recommended. 



Setting Out. — Chain out the land to be graded in a series of squares, 

 similar in appearance and plan to a chessboard, marking each chain point 

 with a small peg. The attached plan is from an actual example. What is 

 known as " section paper " may be purchased cheaply from a bookseller, 

 and will save work in making drawings to scale. If none is available 

 scale drawings may be made with an ordinary carpenter's rule, but pre- 

 ferably with what is known as a surveyor's 20-40 scale, which may b>e 

 bought for 2S. 6d. 



It will be noted that the plan refers to a square paddock having its 

 south and west boundaries fenced, and therefore providing good base 

 lines to work from. In other cases it may be desirable to set out .some 

 square line as a base, and it is not often that there is not some fence 

 to set out from. The old 3, 4, 5 rule is a good method of setting off a 

 square, and is readily understood. Measure along a base, as shown in 

 .sketch, a distance equal to 3 links, feet, vards, miles ; it does not matter 

 which. Then as nearly square as can be estimated, measure 4 along 

 the line A C. Then, if B C measures 5, the line A C is square to the 



