212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the main thing, but it often happens that in addition to that it is 

 necessaiy to have certain side ditches, so as to lead the water at 

 a distance to the main drain ; and in order to avoid inconven- 

 ience in ploughing and handling the land, it is desirable that 

 these side ditches should be covered, if possible. Now the ques- 

 tion in my mind is, how we can most economically construct 

 these side ditches to lead into the broad, open ditch on a wet 

 meadow. Supposing a man had a sufficient quantity of large 

 flat stone, as is the case on the formation which geologists call 

 gneiss, near at hand, which can be easily handled, and which 

 sometimes a man wants to get out of the way, would it be prac- 

 ticable or economical to lay these flat stone at the bottom of a 

 ditch, supposing it to be of soft mud, and then set up stone 

 edgewise, one upright and another leaning obliquely upon it, 

 the way we naturally would in building a drain ? Whether 

 there would be much liability to sink ; whether that method 

 would be practical and economical as compared with the attempt 

 to lay tile drains ; or, if tiles would be better, what would be 

 the best way of laying tiles under such circumstances ; whether 

 they should be laid on scantling or not, or in what other way, 

 so as to secure their permanent efficiency ? 



Mr. French. My first proposition, in answer to the inquiry, 

 would be, that I would never use stone if I could get tiles at a 

 reasonable price. I never would use stone on my farm if I 

 could obtain two-inch tiles for $15 or -^16 a thousand, delivered. 

 If the stone lay on the ground, I would haul them away and 

 use the tiles instead. I could demonstrate to any person who 

 would give me his time and follow my mathematics, that it is 

 cheaper for him to pay $1Q a thousand, or a little more than 

 a cent and a half a foot for the tiles, than to use the stone that 

 are lying scattered on the field ; that he can pick up the stone 

 and take them away cheaper than he can open ditches, lay the 

 stone and cover them in, because tlie labor of excavating a 

 ditch for a stone drain is more expensive tlian the whole expense 

 of excavating and putting in tiles, and the labor of laying stone 

 is much greater than that of laying tiles. 



Mr. Flint. That would be the case on hard soil ; but on 

 peat soil, you would have the material, wliich you would want 

 to use. Tliat objection would not hold so strongly where the 

 farmer wanted the material for top-dressing. 



