94 Our Farming. 



are mostly used standing in bottom of ditch and are so made. I 

 took mine to the fire and heat and bent the shank until it is just 

 right to use from the bank. I can do a nicer job pushing than 

 pulling, and do not have to walk on groove after it is cut. But 

 everyone to their notion. If it pushes very hard I get my right 

 hand at end of handle against my right knee, which helps some. 

 Scooping from the top I can walk back and forth until I get it 

 just right. If water is not flowing (which is very rarely the case 

 when I drain), I draw some in barrels on a stone boat to grade with. 

 When water runs all right I know I am right. I have never laid 

 . any regular drain without it. It is the simplest way to be certain, 

 and best for me, although I have tried the various grading devices. 

 Water runs down hill. You are laying a drain to take it off. Go 

 by it and you can never make a mistake. Of course, on land where 

 there is a uniform and good fall, one might dig and lay tiles in a 

 dry drain and get them about right. But you see the water run 

 and then you know. No half way- work or guess work or eye 

 work for me in grading a tile drain. 



Now, you are ready to lay the tiles. Some begin at the 

 upper end, when drain is all dug through at once. There is less 

 danger of getting anything into the tiles, but I have always begun 

 at lower end. It "is more natural, and then I have done draining 

 in bad, freezing weather, when what we dig each day must be 

 closed up. Then it was necessary to begin at lower end. Draw 

 tiles, and lay along on top of subsoil, looking at and through each 

 one as you lay it down. If it isn't sound and hard enough, 

 throw it away. Now and then there may be something inside of 

 one. To lay, I use a pole, say, 7 or 8 feet long, and about I 1 /? 

 inches in diameter. One inch from the bottom end I bore a five- 

 eighths-of-an-inch hole, and drive in a pin about 10 inches long, at 

 right angles tq pole. The tiles are picked up, one at a time, from 

 the bank, on this pin, and placed in position in the groove. After 

 a little practice, one can handle them nicely and rapidly in this 

 way, standing on bank. They can be tamped down with end of 

 pole, which may have a ferrule on. I laid those four-inch tiles 

 from top of bank with a long pole when draining that pot hole in 

 ditch 10 feet deep. I would not have stooped down to lay them 

 by hand for $1,000. The risk was too great. They may be laid, 

 in ordinary draining, by hand, while walking on the tile, on hard 

 foundation, but it is easier and pleasanter for me to stand up and 

 do it. It may bother you a little at first, but you can do every- 

 thing needed with your stick. You can knock tile close at joint 

 by striking a little with pin in tile; you can turn, to make it fit, 

 quickly by a side upward motion. If you cannot fit one tile, take 

 it out, and try another. They should fit closely, at the top, any- 

 way. You can almost always turn them until they do. In burn- 

 ing, they are often drawn a very little out of shape. They lie 

 best and joints fit best, generally, with the hollow side down. 



