42 



HOW TO MAKE THE FAKM PAY. 



may thea be removed to tlie barn yard, from twelve to 

 eighteen inches of the top being useless for tiles. The simplest 

 method of cutting out the peats is to lay out a plot, say twenty 

 feet square on one side of the drain, then, with a sharp spade, 

 out this into strips, six inches wide from the drain, and these 

 crosswise again eighteen inches long; then commencing inside 

 the ditch cut out these peats at a depth of six inches. The peats 

 will thus be six inches square and eighteen inches long, but 

 will shrink in drying to about four by twelve inches. The 

 inside of these peats rcinst be hollowed out as soon as cut, 

 and carefully laid out on boards to dry, with the hollow 

 down. 



Fifr. IS.— Peat Cutter. 



Fig. 19.— Peat Tiles. 



An instrument for cutting peat tiles is shown at Fig. 18, 

 This cuts the peats and hollows them at the same time, Fig. 19, 

 and can easily be made from a stout piece of sheet iron. Drains 

 are sometimes made by piling brush in the bottom of the 

 trenches, and filling up with stones, but we doubt whether such 

 drains last long enough to pay for the expense of ditching. 

 They furnish a home to all sorts of burrowers, who soon 

 obstruct them. This brings us to speak of the Obstructions 

 TO Drains. As we have before hiated, aU sorts of burrowers 

 infest carelessly constructed drains. If the outlet is not pro- 

 tected; toads, frogs, snakes, muskrats, moles, and a host of 



