736 FRANKLIN COUNTY, OHIO. 



lay the tile down stream, but I have learned from experience 

 that the opposite of this is best. Always begin at the 

 lower end and lay your tile as the ditch is dug ; stand on the 

 tile in laying them, and turn them until the joints fit, hitting 

 them after with your boot-heel so as to keep them close to- 

 gether ; lay broken pieces of tile over the joints where they 

 do not fit, and cover the tile as you lay them with a few inches 

 of clay out of tlie bottom of the ditch, to keep the loose soil 

 from washing in at the joints ; after which fill in as much top 

 soil as possible ; it will facilitate the descent of the water. 



On leaving the drain at any time, put a board or flat stone 

 at the upj)er end so as to keep rubbish from washing in, and on 

 finishing the drain at the upper end it must be well closed. The 

 last tile at the lower end should be twice as long as the others, 

 having holes through the end, not over an inch apart, with 

 wires so as to keep all animals out of the drain ; and there 

 should be a stone wall built across over the mouth of the 

 drain, laid up with lime and sand, or cement, so as to keep the 

 muskrats from digging holes up along the tile. I have known 

 them to dig holes on top of the tile to a distance of thirty feet, 

 which would form a water-course in time of a freshet, and 

 wash the dirt from off the tile. 



To know the size of the tile needed, learn all you can 

 about drainage, and use your own judgment. One eight-inch 

 tile will carry off as much water as an open ditch four feet 

 wide and two feet deep, and is sufficient for an outlet for fifty 

 acres. Never continue tile of the same size all the way. 

 Whenever a lateral comes in, a smaller tile will do from that 

 point on, and so on. It must be borne in mind that the tile is 

 taking water all the time, at every joint. The tile at the end 

 that has holes in it should be a size larger than the others, as 

 the wires will impede the flow of the water to some extent. 



HOW TO GRADE THE DRAIN^. 



This is the most important feature of drainage, and should 

 always be done with water, as there is no level for this purpose 

 equal to water. I have learned from experience that it is 



