98 Our Farming. 



He is now living in Iowa, and if lie should see this I want him to 

 accept my earnest thanks for teaching me to be thorough in every 

 little particular. 



In digging in our bowlder clay one will now and then come 

 across a bigstone right in the way. I got it out if easily done ; if not, 

 dug around so as to make an easy curve, and laid the tiles around. 

 I always select, when unloading, the most crooked tiles, and keep 

 them to use on curves. 



Although I always use water to grade with when I can, I 

 have got into places where I could not, as when laying those 

 drains without any outlets. If I used water I had to dip it out 

 at lower end. A good level to use in such a case is a triangle of 

 light strips, about half an inch thick and two inches wide. The 

 base should be half a rod long, or mine is that long, then I put 

 a cross-piece on like that on -a letter A. Then set the triangle 

 on a floor perfectly level and hung a string from the top and put 

 a weight on lower end near bottom, and when this plumb line 

 became still, I marked on the cross-piece exactly under it. Then 

 I raised one end of triangle half an inch (one inch fall to rod) 

 and marked under string, etc. With this, one can tell just the 

 fall he is getting. It is cheap and home made and accurate, if 

 you have level to try floor with. But it is a bother to use it if wind 

 blows. A little level such as is fastened on a square by carpenters 

 could be used on cross-piece and marked for right grade. But 

 water is safest and least trouble generally. 



The illustration of the tools we use is from a photograph. 

 The spade shown is a 1 2-inch one, a size smaller than what we 

 use in regular draining. Our 1 4-inch ones were too much worn 

 to sit for their pictures. Notice the iron to put on your boot. 



