Tile Draining Swales, Cat Swamp, etc. 89 



swamp. There was a hill between, so one could not carry water 

 from this by tiles into the regular main from D to K. I did not 

 want an open outlet there in the pasture, and so laid the tiles 

 regularly, only used large tiles for a few feet at the lower end in 

 the swamp. It was laid just as though I was going to leave an 

 open outlet, but, instead, it was all filled up. The \vater runs 

 down there just the same as though the lower end was open, and 

 then soaks away in the muck, down to the level that the swamp 

 is surface drained to. This would not work, of course, with any 

 large flow of water. I used larger tiles at the end, so if sediment 

 was carried down it would take longer to fill them. I have a 

 number of little spots drained in this unusual way, and they are 

 dry and all right, and have been for quite a number of years. In 

 one or two cases water \vas taken through the rim of a clay saucer 

 into more porous subsoil below, and now soaks away. The 

 largest drain of this kind was put in two years ago. In Lot 2, 

 about 10 rods back from the road, nature left a " pot hole " on 

 our farm. It was quite deep, so draining in an ordinary way 

 \vould be very expensive. It was never a " cat swamp." Water 

 always soaked out in time. When the field was in grass there was 

 no trouble. But put in a crop of potatoes, and a heavy shower 

 would cause water to flow down from the higher land around 

 until a pond w r as made that would not soak down for days, and in 

 a wet time it might stay for weeks. Of course, this was a great 

 eyesore, and it was very unhandy to cultivate the field when there 

 was a pond or mud hole there. And we never failed of having a 

 rain in May or June that would fill it. I made two or three 

 experts large offers to drain it no cure, no pay. But no one 

 would try it. I remember my friend, Rev. K. D. Vance, once 

 said to me, " Why, Terry, I would conquer that if I had to 

 pump the water out with an engine." My wife said she would 

 drain that, if she were running the farm, if it cost a thousand 

 dollars. This was merely her way of saying pretty strongly that 

 she would like to see the last of it. She is more slow to spend 

 money than I. For years I was not waiting on account of cost 

 so much as from uncertainty as to whether I could make a suc- 

 cess of it at any cost. The great question was whether the sedi- 

 ment washed down would not hold the water long enough to ruin 

 a crop, tiles or no tiles. The regular outlet for this place was 

 through the drain O P, on south side of road. But there was a 

 hill to go through, 10 feet deep, to get to O, and drain O P 

 already had all the water it could carry. It would have to be 

 taken up, and relaid with larger tiles (a big job), if more water 

 was turned in. In the hill, between pot hole and O, I knew there 

 was gravel after getting down some feet, so I laid my plans and 

 began. I dug straight towards O to the north side of highway. 

 The last 100 feet was in gravel and just at water level. But this 

 was in the spring in a wet time. The drain was carried level, of 



