54 LA SALLE COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



in putting in the tile. I find it is a decided advantage, 

 after surveying and finding the amount of fall to the rod, to 

 plow six deep furrows with a common plow, then with a road- 

 grader that is in the shape of a ^, scrape out the loose ground 

 to the depth of eighteen inches ; thus in the start one-third of 

 the ditch can be made with horses. In this manner, two men 

 with two teams can plow and scrape out two or three hundred 

 rods a day. After laying down the tile carefully, and seeing 

 that each tile is bedded firmly, I cover them up with three or 

 four inches of earth. I then take a common ground plow, at- 

 tach the clevis in the staychain iron of the off-side horse's 

 whiffle-tree, and plow two rounds in this way. Then I place 

 the clevis in the center of the whiffle-tree, and keep plowing 

 round and round, until the ditch is completely covered. By 

 this plan one man and a team will cover two or three hundred 

 rods per day. The advantage of tile draining can be seen in 

 the next crop, and the superiority of the crop and the in- 

 creased yield makes this improvement one of the best that 

 the thrifty farmer can turn his attention to. 



Iji closing this article, I will say for my part, as a farmer 

 andv^stock raiser, I am conscious that the life of a farmer is not 

 a poetical one. There is always much work to do, however 

 convenient and handy every thing may be, but so long as I can 

 maintain the farmer's independent spirit, I ask nothing more. 

 I am satisfied to move down the stream of life in the vocation 

 which has made me a fortune, and given me a home which 

 I probably could not have duplicated had I followed any 

 other calling in life. 



