THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 155 



with small stones, and then about six inches of hard earth be well 

 trodden down on these stones, mice will never try to burrow in it, 

 and the water will have a free channel as long as water runs. 

 A row of tile laid beneath a stone fence would be the most 

 complete manner of making a permanent channel for water ; but 

 where stone is abundant, economy dictates that they should be 

 used for this purpose. "When stone walls are built up and down 

 a steep slope, with a stone drain beneath them where there will 

 be much water, flat stones should be laid in the bottom of the 

 ditch to prevent the water from gullying the bottom of the 

 ditch, and thus undermining the wall. Where there is much 

 flood-water, make a deep furrow on each eide of the wall in the 

 former part of summer, and seed it, so that a stream of water 

 will not wash it away. (See MANNER OF STONING DITCHES, Par. 

 422.) 



DITCHES ON BOTH SIDES OF A WALL. 



196. Many farmers seem to prefer to have a deep ditch usually 

 open on both sides of their stone walls, to having a ditch directly 

 beneath the wall, as has been recommended. The method pur 

 sued in such cases is, after the wall is finished, to cut a large 

 open ditch on both sides of the wall, say three or four feet wide 

 on the top, according to the depth of it, and about one foot on 

 the bottom, leaving sufficient space between the ditch and the 

 wall to receive all the dirt, so that when the ditch is finished the 

 embankment on each side of the wall will correspond with the 

 slope of the sides of the ditch. The sides are then sown with 



197. Although this style of stone fence is very common and 

 much admired, it is decidedly objectionable on account of the 

 expense incurred in cutting two such large ditches, and also the 

 amount of land occupied. If the two ditches are made three 

 feet wide on the top, and the spaces from them to the wall be 

 four feet on each side, and the wall three or four feet wide on the 

 bottom, and as we cannot plow nearer than about two feet to a 

 ditch, it will be perceived that the space occupied by such a fence 

 will be about twenty feet wide, or more, when less than half that 



