468 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPEDIA. 



no high ridges, with deep, open furrows between. The surface should be 

 nearly level. Though, in one respect, it is a matter of very little impor- 

 tance whether drain-lines are straight or crooked, yet, in another light, it 

 is advisable that they should be as free as possible from bends. When a 

 a plan of the drains is kept, and on every well-managed farm, the 

 drains will be accurately mapped it is a very simple matter to find out 

 any part of a straight drain that may have gone wrong, by merely running 

 a line between any two points of it. Now, in a crooked or badly laid 

 out drain, this is not so easily done; and, as it does not add to the expense 

 of the workmanship, there can be no objections to a straight line being 

 preferred. It is well, also, in cutting the drains, to keep the face as to 

 slope, the same on both sides. If one side is cut so as to overhang the 

 drain, the chances are, that, if the soil is slippery in its nature, and the 

 weather wet, it will give way, and fall in. And, besides, it is always ad- 

 visable to lay down a standard of excellence for the guidance of the work- 

 men,and encourage them to aim at reaching that standard. Inferior drainers 

 are generally as defective in the formation of the bottom of the drain, as 

 in the cutting of any other part of it. In all cases, the bottom should be 

 the exact width of the pipe to be laid in it ; but very often it is far wider 

 than it ought to be. The result is, that the pipes roll about too much, and, 

 of necessity, collars must be used in order to keep them in line. Surely it 

 would be much better to make the solid soil act as a collar ; and this end is 

 completely attained by keeping the bottom the exact size of the pipe. 

 Should the subsoil be too hard to admit of a narrow neat bottom being 

 formed, then the pipes may easily be kept in line by carefully packing 

 the sides with bits of clay or stone. 



In flat lands, the efficiency of the drains depends very much on the 

 accuracy with which the levels are kept. There should be no pools of 

 water in the bottom of a drain. The workman ought to be such an adept 

 in the use of the cleaning tools, that the bottom, if even very nearly dead 

 level, may have no standing water in it. A great many drainers can 

 judge very accurately in regard to levels simply by the eye ; but a far 

 greater number are altogether deceived bj it. Hence the reason why the 

 drainage engineer meets so frequently with workmen who will persist in 

 affirming that there is no declivity upon the land, and that, in conse- 

 quence, they cannot get the drains to the depth, while, all the time, it is 

 merely their judgment that is at fault. This is frequently very simply 

 proved, by making a little dam in the bottom of the drain, and showing 

 that, before the water has extended a certain number of feet along the 

 channel, it has overrun a bank of so many inches, representing the fall in 



