THREE INCH TILE. 69 



with, and I tliink that I got a better and more regular grade 

 than though the ground had been full of water. I thoroughly 

 drained another eighty in the same manner. Some of it was 

 very difficult to drain. Had to go six feet in some places in 

 order to get 2^ feet in others, — but we made it. My farm is 

 no model farm, but it pays on the investment. In other words 

 it is a money making institution, and that in this fast age is the 

 great desideratum. 



THE BEST WAY TO TILE A FABM. 



I will suppose a case, and then describe my mode of pro- 

 cedure. We will take, for instance, an eighty acre lot. 

 The first thing I do after deciding where to run the drains, is to 

 prepare a main outlet. If there is a natural one, such as 

 a ravine, or a very low place, so much the better ; if not, 

 I immediately dig a well about five feet across and say six 

 feet deep, and into that let one of the tile project a few 

 inches. After being walled up with brick or rock, it is at any 

 time easily cleaned out. I then, after digging the ditch, lay 

 in as large sized tile as I think necessary to carry the water off 

 rapidly, generally six inches at the outlet, tapering off towards 

 the head with fives, fours, and threes. 



1 NEVER USE LESS THAN THREE INCH: 



tile, and when necessary, I run an affluent, or prong, for 

 threes or fours, in any direction needed, by putting in a Y, or 

 tile made for the purpose. I never, under any circumstances, 

 allow any tile to be laid in any of my level fields, unless first 

 tested with water, and am very careful to have it ripple in 

 every part of the drain. Should the ground be very dry, as it 

 was last Spring, when we put in several hundred not to say 

 thousand rods, we have a large thresher's tank and rub- 

 ber hose, out of which we make a syphon, and thus let the 

 water into the ditch, moving along two or three rods at a time, 

 as may be necessary. Now remember, as we go up the grade, 



THE DITCH IS DUG AS NARROW AS POSSIBLE, 



generally two spades wide at the top, and a little narrower at 

 the bottom. The spade used is a narrow steel spade, about a 



