142 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



in the fall or summer, after the hay is taken off. This 

 brook comes from a swamp covered with timber and brush, 

 principally maple and huckleberry and other hard woods, 

 and every fall brings down a great quantity of leaves and 

 vegetable matter. It also flows through meadows and 

 cultivated fields, and after heavy rains carries a good deal 

 of mud and sediment. This, I think, can not fail to bene 

 fit vegetation, though it is not so rich as the road wash. 



The arrangement of the channels is a matter of consid 

 erable importance. It is found from experiment that the 

 grass gets all the more valuable parts of the water and 

 sediment in running six or eight rods, so that the main 

 channels should be about, that distance apart over the 

 whole field. If the lot lies like mine in the form of a par 

 allelogram, sloping to the south, the 

 channels may be arranged as in the cut. 

 The road runs parallel with the north side 

 of the lot. The water comes in through 

 the wall at .4, and follows the main chan 

 nel until it discharges at B. This chan 

 nel is made about eighteen inches broad 

 at the top, and about a foot deep. It is kept nearly level 

 where it runs east and west, so that small notches in the 

 brim will pass the water off in nearly equal streams. These 

 small streams are partly absorbed by the soil, in running 

 eight rods to the channel below, where they are caught 

 and mingled with the muddy water again, and again pass 

 ed off through small cuts in the brim, and so on until the 

 whole field is irrigated. The fall is about two feet in the 

 eight rods, but the channels could be easily worked with 

 much more fall, as the water would only run a little faster 

 from C to D and in the parallel courses. 



u Irritation of the land ! &quot; exclaimed Kier Frink, as he 

 looked out of his coal cart, where he has stopped to hear 

 what was said by the company. &quot; What does he mean 

 by that ? I never heern of that even in the Whiteoaks, 



