DRAINING MY OWN. 65 



four more, which sprang from the base of a higher 

 shelf of the hill near the middle of what is now my 

 farm. Add to these that the brook which brawled 

 and foamed down my hill-side near my south line as 

 aforesaid, had brought along an immensity of pebbles 

 and gravel of which it had mainly formed my five 

 acres of dryer lowland, had thus built up a pretty 

 swale, whereon it had the bad habit of filling up one 

 channel, and then cutting another, more devious and 

 eccentric, if possible, than any of its predecessors 

 and you have some idea of the obstacles I encoun- 

 tered and resolved to overcome. One of my first 

 substantial improvements was the cutting of a 

 straight channel for this current and, by walling it 

 \\jith large stones, compelling the brook to respect 

 necessary limitations. It was not my fault that some 

 of those stones were set nearly upright, so as to veneer 

 the brook rather than thoroughly constrain it : hence, 

 some of the stones, undermined by strong currents, 

 w r ere pitched, for ward into the brook by high Spring- 

 freshets, so as to require resetting more carefully. 

 This was a mistake, but not one of 



My Blunders. These, the natural results of inex- 

 perience and haste, were very grave. Not only had 

 I had no real experience in draining when I began, 

 but I could hire no foreman who knew much more of 

 it than I did. I ought to have begun by securing an 

 ample and sure fall where the water left my land, 

 and next cut down the brooklet or open ditch into 

 which I intended to drain to the lowest practicable 



