# farmeks'miscellany. 89 



will look very well, and be no great impediment to business ope- 

 rations on the farm. That makes the ditch a permanent affair, by- 

 preventing the banks from slipping in and filling it up. Whenever 

 it needs cleaning or deepening, the earth from the bottom will 

 afford an excellent top dressing for the grass ground in the vicinity. 

 In fact, I consider one of the advantages of draining consists in 

 bringing up the subsoil and mixing it with that of the surface. 



OF DIGGING AND FILLING DRAINS. 



After having fixed on the site for a drain and staked out one side 

 of it, begin at the lower end and stretch a line between the first 

 '•two stakes, then have the ditches with the spade cut through the 

 sod by the side of the line, then set over to the other side of the 

 i'!*ended drain and renew the operation there. The w^ork is then 

 rig-.tly begun, which is half the battle. The sod is now to be 

 thrown on one side of the ditch and the loose earth on the other, 

 because we want the sod after the stones are in, to place grass side 

 down upon them, to prevent the loose earth from getting in before 

 the covering of the ditch can sod over. 



In regard to the size and shape of the drain, I prefer having 

 them three feet wide at the top, three feet deep, and not to exceed 

 fifteen inches wide on the bottom ; but that breadth of bottom does 

 not admit of trunking the drain, or in other w^ords, making a 

 bridge for the Wt*^er, neither do I want that it should for my 

 method of filling, \ bich is this : Get flat stones, or those that are 

 flat on one side at least, and set against the sides of the drain with 

 the thinnest ends or sides down, and the flattest sides against the 

 banks of the drain ; they should be from eighteen inches to two 

 feet high as they stand in., the ditch, and are kept firmly to their 

 places by a third stone between them, as round or dumped as w'e 

 can get it, and of a size to wedge in, and thus crowd the flat stones 

 against the banks of the ditch, but it must not go near the bottom 

 of the drain unless it has a thin edge down, which w'ould do no 

 harm. The water course is beneath the keystone. But of all 

 this I can give a better idea by the annexed cut or figure of the 

 drain, (being an end view,) and its filling. 



VOL. 1. — NO. 1 . M 



