302 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5. 



hill-side trenches, and to empty it into the main 

 carrier. Surface ditches, as called from their de- 

 sign to take oil the rain wate* 1 from the 

 are generally cut with a spade, either ol : 

 (with the fall) or at right i i to the m rgin 



ditch, and . o the main trier, the ob- 



ject ot' which id to receive the w 

 and to empty it into the margi 1 di ch. T 

 are cross (urrows, made by the plough an 1 hoe. 

 along an indentation across the 

 which is, to receive the water of he 

 water furrows, and to empty it in 

 ditches. The trenches, or vv i 

 made with the plough, and scraped out with the 

 hoe between the beds, and 1 as a re- 



ceptable of the w 



to empty it into the i. Pits, or • 

 are holes ma le wi h 

 ground to sink the water by 

 passage, when it is retained by a strat 

 when there is no convenient 

 usually made in basins or ponds. When the stra- 

 tum of clay -is cut through, inks into 

 the land. Places have been drained in this way, 

 where success could not be had in any other. 

 Pond ditches are those which an i solely 

 to drain off pond water, and should always be cut 

 through and below the bottom of the pond. Hill- 

 side ditches or trenches, when made near 

 of the hill, are designed to take the water 

 falls on the hill-sides, and tops of the hills (rom the 

 flats, and to convey it by ou 1 its, as in Fig. 1. into 

 the margin ditches; so that the water 

 first (alls on the surface of the beds, runs into the 

 water furrows; out of the water tin-rows into the 

 grips; out of the grips into the s 

 out of the surface ditches in'o then. 

 out of the margin ditch into the main 

 of the main carrier into the old channel; 

 old or natural channel, into the ocean. But the 

 farmer must not think that now he has gotten en- 

 tirely rid of his sup rfl s water — thai 

 forever, and lost in the ocean. Though but a drop 

 in that "bottomless abyss," it will come back 

 again, it may be the very next day, in the form ol 

 drops falling on the very spot from whence it 

 started. "The sun riseth, (saith the wise man) 

 and the sun goeth down, and pants for the place 

 from whence he arose. * * * Ail rivers run 

 into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the 

 place whence the rivers come, thither they return 

 again." Out of the ocean it goes into the air, 

 drawn up in exhalations by the heat of the sun, 

 (or rather the heat removing the pressure of the 

 atmosphere on the surface of the ocean, the water 

 rises, being divided into small particles by absorb- 

 ing heat, by its specific levity into the air;) out. ot 

 the air it goes into the clouds, or rather it assumes 

 the form and appearance of clouds; clouds beintr 

 nothing more than these watery particles made 

 visible by becoming denser. Then conies the 

 wind, and blows them back over the place from 

 whence they came, and being condensed by cold 

 (the absence of heat) and by gravitation, are pre- 

 cipitated in drops of rain, hail, or snow, to the earth. 

 Nor do they stop here: the same law which pre- 

 cipitated them to the earth, continues to roll them 

 on its surface, which is spherical, again into the 

 furrow from whence they started. Thus a con- 

 stant circulation is kept up. The sun is the grand 

 cause of this circulation of waters, (as he is of the 



tides) and the winds, which blows them back upon 

 the land, and how strange soever it may appear, 

 is the ; of- the wetness of the land, 



and ili- ' ream, to whose attrac- 



tive force, and uenee of whose heat, 



. re may be traced. 



But to return. In the foregoing remarks we 



have en . that the operation of 



draining n principle: that the nature 



of the watei out the nature of 



y toe it off o£ the land; 



s-added, of the land, 



. We will now show 



les to practice, bya 



more here is 



- nl aque- 



le. In this 



i Inch runs 



i the land ropriety of a main 



, A B C, a iter oi the 



tl trmaking 

 le old en this operation 



was performed on the land in question, spouts of 

 after a rain, might be seen all up and down 

 s of the ditch, ! om the 



section of a vein. The rain v, ater which tails on 

 the second low grounds, and the springs at the 

 margin of the first low grounds, point naturally to 

 ditches. The rain water 

 which falls on the surface of the ground, between 

 the margin ditch and main drain, call lor the con- 

 • furrows or trenches, between 

 : i intei cl them, and 

 . ; i a recepta- 

 i connects 

 train, and which near- 

 is part of the s, into 



em] ■ iy. On a< count 



. are made on the sides of 

 i to run the 



lei with the 

 ditch, to avi v of deep and expen- 



sive- c lets, or terminations ol 'aches, 



li banks in the first in- 

 stance, .should "never be formed, but the earth scat- 

 tered at a distance over the ground. There 

 w of these surface ditches as possi- 

 ble. They are only necessary as outlets, for the 

 ■ and trenches, when the margin ditch and 

 main carrier are not convenient. When they are 

 emptied into the first of these, it should be done 

 by the medium of a grip, which may be called a 

 parallel grip. The beds, and of course the trench- 

 es, however, should, if the fall admit, run parallel 

 with the main drain. Next, the rain water which 

 falls on the hill-side the propriety of a 



conductor at the foot of the hill, O P Q II, to turn 

 the water from the second low grounds below, on 

 'i it would empty: and the size of the hill, or 

 a numbdr of hills together, and the quantity of 

 water collected in it, show the necessity of occa- 

 sional outlets, T U V W X Y, into the margin 

 ditch. Pond water, if composed of rain water 

 collected into sunken places, only require straight 

 ditches cut through them, sunk below the bed of 

 the pond, to drain them; (unless it be such as the 

 margin pond of springs before mentioned,) such as 

 the ponds S, S, S, &c, through which the main 

 drain passes. When an outlet is inconvenient, 

 or expensive to cut, and the wader held by a re- 

 tentive bottom, it points to the necessity of perlb- 



