DRAINAGE. 463 



ence in England as a renter, with regard to draining, which 

 induces me to adopt the same plan here in my adopted country, 

 and on land of my own. 



Good drainage removes from the surface stagnant water 

 which sours all vegetation and rots sheep. It also utilizes the 

 water, making a running stream for sheep or stock to drink 

 from, and rendering the farm more pleasing to the eye. 



I have known drainage to be done in various ways, with 

 willow or brush, where stone or tile could not be had. Stones 

 picked up in the fields and put in the drain, four inches in the 

 bottom and sixteen inches high in a drain of three and a half 

 feet deep, are considered better than tiles, where field stones 

 are plenty, as in some kinds of soil the tile are liable to get full 

 of sediment in a few years. I saw tile draining in England 

 in 1854 and 1855. In 1864 I visited that country again, when 

 some of the drains were choked with sediment. I returned 

 to England again in 1875 and 1876, and those drains were still 

 ijrowinsr worse. This sediment is the accumulation in the tile 

 from the yellowish water, and the tile becomes filled with roots. 



I drained one hundred and five rods last Summer and 

 adopted the following mode : I commenced at the lower end 

 so that the water could run off. I dug about ten rods and put 

 in three inch tile as evenly as possible, with grass or wild hay 

 on top, around. Then I cut down the sides of the ditch, being 

 soft and porous ; then part of the surface soil, then clay, topping 

 off with soil ; and so on with fifteen rods more, to the end. Near 

 the lower end I put in a large watering trough, and carried the 

 water along through it, running over the lower end and dropping 

 off into the drain again. I dug out a place for the stock to go 

 down, and as the outlet drain is as low as the trough, it keeps 

 dry if stoned up, and makes a splendid watering place, cool 

 in Summer and warm in Winter. It has run all Summer. 



It cost thirty cents a rod for digging three and a half feet 

 dee[) The three inch tile cost fifty cents per rod. The haul- 

 ing of the tile nine miles, laying and filling, twenty cents per 

 rod. Total cost one dollar per rod. I should have drained 

 before, but when I could buy eighty acres cheaper than I 



