532 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



the noble lion in his cage. His eye flashed, and his 

 form grew erect and trembled, as he spoke of the 

 impending crisis in our national affairs, and of his 

 burning desire to be again on duty. He appeared 

 much interested in the exhibition, and conversed 

 freely upon the merits of the various breeds before 

 us as we passed along. 



New entries of stock and implements continue to 

 be made, so that up to this evening, there has been 

 428 entries of neat stock, and about the same number 

 of horses. If the weather continues favorable to- 

 morrow, there will undoubtedly be an increased 

 number of visitors, and the receipts may become 

 sufficiently ample to meet the expenses, which have 

 been very large. To-morrow is the principal day, 

 when the Banquet is to take j^lace, and the great 

 display of horses. 



1 shall make further note as I have opportunity. 

 Very truly yours, SiMON Broavn. 



Joel JVourse, Esq. 



For the New England Farmer, 



DRAINING WITH TILES. 



BY 11. F. FRENCH. 



Enough has been said, and written, and observed, 

 to convince all enlightened farmers that a great 

 proportion of the lands in New England which 

 prove in the end most valuable, require to be first 

 relieved of surplus water. This is true of all our 

 low meadows, and a great deal of upland, especial- 

 ly springy hill-sides. 



Thorough draining with tiles is, without doubt, 

 the cheapest and best mode of doing this, and, al- 

 though I remarked in a recent article, that we 

 have not yet arrived at the luxury of using drain 

 tiles, I find that our farmers are resolving that they 

 will act in this, as in other matters, on the princi- 

 ple that what is Morth doing, is worth doing well ; 

 and will not be satisfied till the best mode of drain- 

 ing is adopted. To keep up with the spirit of the 

 age, I have myself opened some hundred rods of 

 drains, on mj farm, and procured tiles all the way 

 from Albany to lay in thera. This being my first 

 attempt, I can only speak now from observation, 

 and the infoi-mation I have gathered from men and 

 books, on the subject. As this subject must occu- 

 py the attention of our farmers more than any oth- 

 er, for many years to come, it being the next great 

 step to be taken in the march of improvement on 

 all our old farms, it will be deemed excusable to 

 begin at the beginning in our discussion. Though 

 milk be "for babes," it cannot injure full grown 

 men to taste it occasionally. So let us first answer 



WHAT ARE DRAIN TILES? 

 Drain tiles are made of clay, similar to brick 

 clay, moulded by a machine into tubes, usually 

 fourteen inches long, and burnt in a kiln, or fur- 

 nace, to be about as hard as what are called hard 



burnt bricks. They are of various forms and sizes. 

 Some are round, with a sole or flat bottom, mould- 

 ed with the tile, others are horse-shoe formed, open 

 at the bottom, to be laid on the hard bottom of a 

 ditch without a sole, or in soft places with a sole or 

 flat bottom, of the same material with the tile. 

 The size varies from l-i to 6 inches calibre, accord- 

 ing to the quantity of water to be conveyed. It is 

 a question of expediency, whether to use very large 

 tiles, or to lay two or more courses of smaller size, 

 side by side, when the flow of water is very great. 



now ARE TILES LAID? 



Trenches are opened to the requisite depth, as 

 narrow as convenient for men to walk in. Green 

 hands at ditching will declare they cannot trench 

 three feet deep, without breaking the ground 2^ 

 feet wide, but with proper tools, I have found no 

 difficulty in going 4^ feet deep in a trench but two 

 feet wide at top. The English books say that men 

 who work by the rod, always open very narrow 

 trenches. My tools are, first, a common shovel ; 

 next, a common spade, and lastly, a long-handled 

 spade, cut down at a machine shop with shears, to 

 3i inches width at the point, with a true taper 

 from the heel, making a wedge shaped spade. — 

 With this the ditch is finished, with just comforta- 

 ble room to lay the tiles straight, and lay in a chip 

 of brick or stone on each side, where a joint is too 

 open. Then having laid the tiles end to end, with a 

 true descent in the trench, commencing at the top, 

 cover them first with something that will exclude 

 sand, which I take to be the worst enemy to 

 contend with. I use spent tan as a convenient and 

 very perfect strainer. The books say turf with the 

 grass down is commonly used. Hay, straw, or 

 pine or hemlock boughs are also used. Having 

 thus covered the tiles, put into the trench next that 

 part of the earth thrown out, which lets the water 

 pass through most readily, as sand or gravel, or in 

 a clay soil, the top soil. It is perhaps possible with 

 pure clay puddled in, to stop water from getting 

 into the tiles, and no person of common judgment 

 would put pure wet clay immediately on to the 

 tiles. Finally, fill the trenches and make all level, 

 making allowance for what the earth over the drain 

 may settle. The first question that is asked by a 

 novice in the art of draining with tiles always is, 



now DOES THE WATER GET INTO THE TILES? 



The answer i.<, it gets in at the joints, and through 

 the pores of the burnt clay. Professor Mapes says 

 that if you cork up both ends of a common drain 

 tile, and put it under water empty, it will fill by 

 water passing through the pores in two minutes, A 

 Scotchman with Mhom I recently conversed, who 

 is familiar with the practical operations of tile 

 draining, said that you might stop one end of a 

 tile, and pour in a quart of water every day in the 

 year, and it would all go through. There need be 



