AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 155 



being undermined by the running water. He has not used 

 the plough for opening his trenches, for the reason that all 

 his work has been let out by contract, and the men have 

 opened them by the spade ; charging from twelve and a- 

 half to fifteen cents per rod for opening and making the 

 bottom ready for the tile. The laying and filling was done 

 by the owner. 



&quot; His ditches are dug only two and a-half feet deep, and 

 thirteen inches wide at the top, sloping inward to the bot 

 tom, where they are just wide enough to take the tile. 

 One main drain, in which are placed two four-inch tiles set 

 eight inches apart, with an arch-piece of tile having a nine- 

 inch span set on top of them, was dug three and a-half and 

 four feet deep, and this serves as a conduit for the water 

 from a large system of laterals. Drains should never be 

 left open in winter, for the dirt dislodged by frequent frosts 

 so fills the bottom that it will cost five or six cents per rod 

 to clear them ; and, moreover, the banks often become so 

 crumbled away that the ditch cannot be straddled by a 

 team of horses, and thus most of the filling must be done 

 by hand. Mr. Johnston, in draining a field, commences at 

 the foot of each ditch, and works up to the head. He 

 opens his mains first, and then the lateral or small drains, 

 but he lays the tiles in the laterals, and fills them com 

 pletely, before laying the pipe in the mains. The object of 

 this is to prevent the accumulation of sediment in the 

 mains which would naturally be washed from the laterals 

 on their first being laid. By commencing at the foot of 

 each ditch, and working upward, he can always get and 

 preserve the regular fall, which may be dictated by the 

 features of his field, more easily than by working toward 

 the outlet. A little practice teaches the ditchers how to 

 preserve the grade almost as well as if gauges were em 

 ployed ; but before laying the tiles, the instrument is ap- 



