84 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



reach from wall to wall, were easily found, and thus we had 

 a covered water- course, eight by twelve inches, forming the 

 common box-drain that will usually last a lifetime. 



The openings over the channel were carefully ^' chinked " 

 in with small stones and all covered with inverted sods, shav- 

 ings, leaves, or anything that prevented the loose soil from 

 sifting or washing down into the water-course. 



At the upper end of the box-drain just described, a sec- 

 ond and smaller receptacle was dug (marked D), and from 

 this was constructed another box-drain (E), six inches 

 square, across the low ground to the end of the canal in 

 which we had found the well (F). This would not only 

 drain a portion of the land but would also empty the big 

 ditch (G), and prevent the water of the well from rising 

 above a certain point. This kind of stone-work can be 

 done rapidly ; two men in two short winter days built thir- 

 teen rods with a water-course six inches in the clear. 



To the upper and further end of the canal (G), I con- 

 structed another and cheaper style of drain. In the bot- 

 tom of this ditch (H), two stones were placed on their ends 

 or edges and leaned together so as to form a kind of arch, 

 and then other stones were thrown over and around them 

 until they reached a point eighteen inches from the surface. 

 Over these stones, as over the box-drains also, was placed a 

 covering of any coarse litter to keep the earth from washing 

 down ; and then the construction of one or two short side- 

 drains, the refilling the ditches and levelling the ground com- 

 pleted my task. 



It will be remembered that this entire system of drainage 

 ended in the excavation (B) already described. The ques- 

 tion was now whether such a theory of drainage would " hold 

 water." If it would, the hole I had dug must not, and I 

 waited to see. It promised well. Quite a steady stream 



