82 Our Farming. 



just the same, breeding frogs and miasma. That was not all, 

 though, for the cattle were driven or went there winters to drink 

 out of a hole cut in the ice. Yes, mine did the first winter ; I 

 could not do better. A horrid, filthy drink ; wonder it did not 

 kill the cows and us too. The cheapest outlet for this place was 

 across land of a neighbor, west and out by side of highway. We 

 had to go about six feet deep through the neighbor's field, for a 

 few rods. This was quite a ditch for a raw hand, but we worked 

 with a will. By the way, the previous owner of farm had hired 

 that depression tile drained and never came near to see how it was 

 done. It never worked, I think, as the tiles were laid up over the 

 hill, about at a uniform depth, as though one was putting in a 

 syphon rather than a drain. Perhaps this is exaggerated a little, 

 but they were not put in so they did any good. We cut through 

 the bank, making a ditch two feet wide on top, where it was deep, 

 and dug down and graded until we drew all the water off and it 

 flowed with a nice uniform current. The centre of swamp was 

 soft a long way down, as I found by running down a pole. Now 

 I might have laid tiles up through the middle on boards and 

 drained the place, but I would prefer not to do this. It isn't a 

 lasting foundation and would eventually settle and make trouble. 

 What I did was to take a sharp stick and probe the mud all 

 around the outside of swamp, finding and marking as I went just 

 how far in I could lay tile on hard clay bottom. This was, per- 

 haps, ten feet in from bank, on the average, and the depth down to 

 clay through the mud was about two feet. I did not think it 

 necessary to lay deeper, as the swamp would gradually fill up by 

 tillage; in fact, we scraped some soil in with horses after plowing 

 first time. Having established this line, I went to the lower end 

 by the road side and brought up through two cuts, with 1 4-inch 

 spade, which makes about two feet. Then a groove was cut in 

 the bottom to place tiles in and I laid 3- inch ones to the swamp 

 and then 2-inch ones in the two drains that went around the out- 

 side and came together into the 3 -inch one. It was an awful 

 nasty job, but the tiles were laid on a clay bottom, and by being 

 very careful in laying and filling we knew they would be all right 

 after the mud once got dried out and settled. You may rest 

 assured we did not step on the tiles after laying, nor near them. 

 All the particulars about laying tiles will be given in another 

 chapter. I might say that the digging in neighbor's lot was 

 partly in sandy loam that was inclined to cave and was somewhat 

 dangerous. We were careful not to stoop down. Buried standing 

 we could hardly be hurt. At noon we had the ditch about ready 

 for the tiles. I did not stop for dinner until they were all laid 

 through the bank and slightly covered so as to be safe. And 

 when I went out after dinner tons of earth had caved in. To 

 avoid stooping I laid the tiles from the top of bank with a long, 

 pole as I will describe later. 



