DRAINING GENERALLY. 71 



I think it will soon satisfy him that such draining 

 pays. 



Y. I do not insist on tile as making the only good 

 drain ; but I have had no success with any other. 

 The use of stone, in my opinion, is only justified 

 where the field to be drained abounds in them and 

 no other use can be made of them. To make a good 

 drain with ordinary boulders or cobble-stones re- 

 quires twice the excavation and involves twice the 

 labor necessarily expended on tile-draining ; and it is 

 neither so effective nor so durable. Earth will be 

 carried by water into a stone drain ; rats and other 

 vermin will burrow in it and dig (or enlarge) holes 

 thence to the surface ; in short, it is not the thing. 

 Better drain with stone where they are a nuisance 

 than not at all ; but I predict that you will dig them 

 up after giving them a fair trial and replace them 

 with tile. In a wooded country, where tile were 

 scarce and dear, I should try draining with slabs or 

 cheap boards dressed to a uniform width of six or 

 eight inches, and laid in a ditch dug with banks in- 

 clined or sloped to the bottom, so as to form a sort 

 of Y ; the lower edge of the two side-slabs coming 

 together at the bottom, and a third being laid widely 

 across their upper edges, so as to form a perfect cap 

 or cover. In firm, hard soil, this would prove an 

 efficient drain, and, if well made, would last twenty 

 years. Uniformity of temperature and of moisture 

 would keep the slabs tolerably sound for at least so 

 long; and, if the top of this drain were two feet 



