6 TILE DRAINAGE. 



employment of a civil engineer to establish grades and lev- 

 els in all complicated cases; also always, if possible, the 

 employment of a real, practical expert at digging, grading, 

 and laying tiles, at least for a few days at the first, until the 

 farmer shall himself learn from him just how to handle the 

 various necessary tools, establish the grade, cut the true 

 groove for the tiles, and lay and cover them properly. That 

 is how I learned. 



For quite a number of years I have written considerably 

 upon the subject of tile drainage for various leading agri- 

 cultural weeklies, chiefly 7 Vie Country Gentleman, The Ohio 

 Farmer, The Rural New-Yorker, and the National Stockman 

 and Farmer. In this little work I shall not consciously bor- 

 row, even from my own articles there, except in the way of 

 occasional direct quotations wilh due credit. Those articles 

 were on particular parts of the subject, and often in answer 

 to specific questions from readers. This primer tries to be a 

 brief but complete and systematic discussion of the entire 

 subject; and it tries to present the underlying scientific 

 principles involved v so clearly that its readers not only may 

 but must understand them. 



A single caution : It will be necessary, often, to use the 

 two similar words tiling (tile-draining) and tilling (cultivat- 

 ing). When the writer uses the first he begs that neither 

 printer nor reader will substitute the other for it, or vice 

 versa. It kills the meaning every time. Also the two words 

 undrained and underd.raincd look alike, but mean the exact 

 opposite of each other. Do not confound them. 



