LAYING TILE DRAINS. 213 



Mr. Feench. I think a person accustomed to use a mowing 

 machine would avoid all open ditches, if he possibly could. I 

 think nobody who has had any experience in ditching would 

 leave an open ditch, if he could have the surface smooth. 

 There is once in awhile a large meadow where you are obliged 

 to have an open centre ditch ; but it is not often that there Ilj a 

 place where five-inch tiles, or two perhaps, laid side by side, 

 will not carry all the water off. It is not often, therefore, that 

 you are obliged to have an open ditch. All this land which 

 lies full of open ditches, can be covered up as even as this 

 floor. You had better take up the earth by the shovelful, from 

 the general surface, than dig it out of the ditches. 



The way I would drain is this. In the first place, get a centre 

 ditch through the middle of the lot. That may be an open 

 drain, if you cannot do any better. Then you want to run 

 your side-drains up the slope, without much regard to anything 

 else. Don't undertake to cut off the water as it comes down 

 the hill, but run into the hill ; then you are always lower than 

 the water. Have some regard to system, because you want 

 maps and charts of your drains, so that you can find them. 

 Use tiles, if you can get them. I have generally put in a board 

 at the bottom where the ground is soft. You will avoid this 

 necessity, if you can strike the bottom of your peat, as you 

 generally can by going four, five or six feet deep, and by getting 

 one drain below the bottom of the peat, you will sink the whole 

 meadow so tliat it will be compact enough to bear your tile. 

 But I have never seen any land so soft that tiles would not lie 

 well enough upon a board six or eight inches wide. You can 

 use any kind of old boards that you happen to have, put them 

 in in that way, and cover them up. The objection to using 

 stone, besides the expense, is, that you cannot make perfect 

 joints, especially in land that is soft ; you will leave open places 

 where you can put your fingers in. You cannot help it. You 

 might with brick and mortar, but otherwise you could not 

 exclude the mud and silt that comes in with the water, and the 

 moment that gets in, your drain is done. With tiles, where 

 the ends are fitted carefully together and the joints covered, 

 you have something that will exclude the mud, and you can 

 ordinarily keep the drains open ; and I should very strongly 

 recommend to gentlemen to buy, as I and my neighbors are 



