596 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
How to make a, convenient watering sluice—Figure 21 represents the mode which the 
writer employed to construct watering sluices in those fields where all the water had 
been collected in underdrains. A gorge eight or ten feet wide was excavated with 
plow and scraper directly across a deep drain, and a plank box without bottom or top, 
eight or ten feet long, was set from bank to bank as represented. A hole in the end- 
plank permitted the water to enter the box, and a similar orifice allowed it to escape 
through the other end. By this arrangement sheep and swine, as well as horses, mules, 
and cattle, could step down to the sluice and drink at pleasure. The water should be 
four or five inches deep in the box, and the inclined excavation should be paved with 
stones, so that heavy animals may not poach up the ground, and thus make a deep 
mud hole. The surface of the pavement should be as low as the surface of the water. 
Such sluices should be constructed when deep drains are made, if water for domestic 
animals is an object. The holes in the sides of the box, through-which sheep and 
swine may put their heads, should not be made so large that small animals may get into 
the water. 
Filling ditches with flat stones— Where there are no cobble-stones to place on the sides 
of a ditch, but a liberal supply of flat stones, the ditches may be dug as narrow for a 
small drain as can be excavated to a depth of thirty inches. Then, if only a small 
water-course is required, stones may be set on the edge against each side, and a third 
stone be dropped in between the two side-stones, like the key-stone of an arch, 
as represented by Figure 22. Large flat stones may then be broken into small pieces, 
and the cavities filled with them, the surface being leveled up, earth-tight. A drain 
filled properly with flat stones placed in such a manner will render excellent service 
as long as water continues to flow, provided the outlet is kept clear from all obstruc- 
tions. ‘ 
Another mode of filling a ditch with flat stones is shown by Figure 23, in which is 
shown a water-course of a much larger capacity than is represented by the preceding 
illustration, (Fig. 22.) We will assume that a ditch is ten inches wide on the bottom. 
A course of thin stones is set on one side, as shown, another stone is set on one edge 
in the opposite corner, and the top inclined against the side of the other stone. The 
surface is then leveled up properly with suitable fragments. The operator should have 
a good stone hammer which he can handle with one hand, to dress off the edges of 
stones, and to break large pieces to fragments of a desirable size. 
When a water-course of a large capacity is desirable, flat stones may be set on edge 
on both sides and a flat stone, dressed off with the stone-hammer, be fitted to rest firmly 
on the upper edge. Great care should be exercised, however, when flat stones are em- 
ployed in this manner, to see that the covering stones rest on the side stones with 
sufficient weight to keep them from falling over into the middle of the water-course. 
Thin and scaly pieces should not be employed for covering stones except over the joints 
of strong pieces which cannot be crushed by the superincumbent pressure of the earth. 
Careless boys and heedless men, who possess no mechanical skill and who care little 
whether a drain operates satisfactorily or not, should never be permitted to place the 
side stones and covering stones in a ditch. They may aid in leveling up and in finish- 
ing the stoning, but some careful and intelligent person should be employed to place 
the side stones and covering stones. Oue or two stones carelessly placed wiil cause great 
damage to a drain. 
A convenient guard-board.—When laborers are distributing stones along the bank of a 
ditch, many of the stones will rebound and roll into the ditch, where they are not wanted, 
thus making much disagreeable labor in removing them. ‘To prevent stones from fall- 
ing into the channel, employ a stiff board piaced on one edge at one side of the exca- 
vation, which allows the stones to accumulate in a ridge close to the ditch without 
rolling into the channel. Two sticks, one near each end of the board, hold it on the 
edge. One end of each stick enters a hole through the board, while the other rests 
against the opposite bank of the ditch. Such a board may be twelve or sixteen feet 
long, and it should not be less than one foot wide. In casestones are distributea before 
the ditch is made, the guard-board will aid materially in keeping the stones in a close 
ridge. 
Filling ditches with irregular stones—When small boulders of almost every shape and 
size are to be employed, great care should be exercised to leave no passage for the water 
except the interstices between the stones. In laying a row of stones on each side of a 
ditch, the operator should exercise judgment in selecting those of a uniform size, as 
nearly as may be, so that the covering stones may rest on every side stone on both 
sides of the ditch, to prevent rolling toward the middle of the channel. When 
necessary to use side stones it is necessary to use several of that size, placed side by 
side, rather than to lay a few small ones between the large ones, which will often{be. 
one or two inches below the covering stones. 
“How to place the side stoncs.—The operator Jays one of the stones in the desired place, 
and supports it with one foot while he lays the covering stone in its place, which 
tends to hold the side stones firmly against the walls of the ditch. The entire super- 
incumbent pressure is .zpon .a narrow ,space near the .corner of the ditch. “By ;this 
