EXPERIMENTS IN DRAINING. 275 



any fixed rules, as the depth must depend upon 

 the formation of the land and nature of the soil. 

 The rule adopted by me, is first to select a good 

 outlet for the water, then to dig a ditch so deep 

 as to find a hard bottom, on which to lay the 

 tile ; yet I have laid many tiles on clay, and they 

 have done well ; on my farm this depth is gene- 

 rally found at two and a half to three feet in depth, 

 and I believe no drains ought to be less than two 

 and a half feet in depth. The distance between the 

 drains is regulated by the character of the soil; if 

 it is open or porous, drains three or four rods apart 

 may thoroughly drain it, while on more tenacious 

 soils, two rods apart may be needed. In most cases, 

 where my fields lay nearly level, it has been found 

 necessary to construct the drains nearer to each 

 other, adopting as a rule, that the drains should 

 always reach the point of the field where water is 

 indicated to rise, and that is always at or near the 

 highest part of the field, although that may only be 

 observed when there is much water in the earth 

 and the springs full, and when the field is in wheat 

 or clover ; at such elevations, I put my drains 

 deeper and nearer each other to make sure to keep 

 the water all under ground, using smaller tile lead- 

 ing to the main or sub-main drains. 



