FARM DRAINAGE. 63 



laying, as this will enable you to lay them more easily, and 

 gives greater capacity for the material used. Some tile-makers 

 make tile with a flat bottom. These are not only more difficult 

 to lay than the round, but are more likely to become obstructed, 

 as the broad, flat channel offers better facilities for the deposit 

 of sediment. 



There has recently been introduced a concrete tile which is 

 made in the ditch by a simple machine. This method of drain- 

 ing promises well, but has not yet been introduced or tested 

 sufficiently to enable me to pronounce upon it. The tile is made 

 of the best quality of hydraulic cement, lime, and coarse sand. 

 These are mixed so as to make a stiff mortar, which is fed into 

 the machine through a hopper, and comes out at the rear of the 

 machine a continuous pipe, smooth inside and out. By means of 

 a trowel made for the purpose, this is cut into sections of any 

 desired length, in such a way as to leave the bottom continuous, 

 and give sufficient crevices to admit the water. The pipe will 

 harden in a day so as to bear the weight of the earth used in 

 filling. When hardened this tile appears as durable as stone. 

 Neither the machine or material is expensive, and should further 

 trial show it to be as good as it appears, it will doubtless be 

 largely introduced. 



Open Ditches. While there are many disadvantages con- 

 nected with open ditches, and the farmer is fortunate whose 

 land is in such shape that he can do without them, it is often 

 necessary that they should be made to give an outlet for tile 

 drains. The large seed farms of D. M. Ferry & Co., near De- 

 troit, Michigan, are all drained into an open ditch which is lo- 

 cated along the avenue. This gave a sufficient fall to thoroughly 

 drain several hundred acres of land which could not have been 

 drained otherwise. 



When it is necessary to have an open ditch it should be 

 properly made or it will fail to answer the purpose for which it 

 it is intended and will become a nursery of weeds and briers, 

 seeding the farm and greatly disfiguring it. A ditch three feet 

 deep should be not less than twelve feet wide at the top with the 

 sides properly graded, and the earth taken out should not be left 



