THE DRAINAGE OF A GARDEN 



DRAINING is nothing else than laying some material below the 

 ground, in regular channels, to carry away water. Sometimes 

 men are satisfied with digging ditches, laying in hay or straw 

 lengthwise of the ditch, and covering again. That is very unsatis- 

 factory, for the effect will scarcely last for more than a year. A 

 better way is to fill the bottom of the ditches, to the depth of a foot, 

 with cobble-stones, covering with sod or hay. This will last for 

 some years ; but since the earth will finally sift in, it is not perma- 

 nent. Best of all is to lay drain-tiles, which are hollow earthen pipe, 

 about two feet long. Sometimes the ends are shaped to fit each 

 other, sometimes they simply meet squarely. In either case tar- 

 paper, or sod, or something of the sort, is laid to prevent the earth 

 from sifting in. Then the drains, if laid below frost, will last for 

 years ; and if by any chance they become clogged, they can be dug 

 up, cleaned, and laid again. 



The principle of laying drains is of course to lead the water to 

 some lower level. Therefore the bottoms of the ditches should 

 slope downward to some spot where the water can be discharged. 

 Perhaps this is into a brook, or on to some low meadow. But the 

 drains can be simply led into a "dry well," a deep hole, best in a 

 sandy spot, which is dug, filled with stones, and then covered in. 

 Into this the water drains, and from it it finds its way into the 

 subsoil. 



If you propose to lay the drain yourself, draw, on a map of the 

 garden, on which you have marked the slope of the land, lines from 

 twenty to forty feet apart, according to the sogginess of your ground. 

 Make the lines run with the slope, connect them all at the bottom 

 with another line, still running as nearly as possible with the slope, 

 and so often somewhat diagonal to the first ones. Lead this line 



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