TILE DRAINAGE. 5 



It may not be out of place for me to say that I have been 

 a practical student of drainage for fully forty years, having 

 dug and laid for my father my first cobble-stone drain forty 

 years ago this spring, and having laid more or less tile drains 

 nearly every year for the past 26 years. With my own hand, 

 on my own farm, I have laid nearly fifteen miles of tiles, 

 giving thorough drainage to nearly 65 acres; .that is, with 

 main drains wherever they were needed, and with laterals 

 chiefly two rods apart; but on l.s acres, three rods apart; 

 also that I have done this work while in debt, in order to get 

 out of debt, with necessarily strict economy, and with real 

 pecuniary advantage. I am not, therefore, likely to advise 

 extravagant or unwise expense. I have also carefully ex- 

 amined the drainage systems of many of the best farms in 

 the land, including those of John Johnst n, the pioneer in 

 tiling in America ; that of his son-in-law, Robt, J. Swan, 

 both of Geneva, N. Y. ; T. B. Terry, of Ohio ; Sisson Bros , 

 of Illinois ; the Agricultural College farms of Iowa and 

 Michigan, and had charge of the thorough drainage of the 

 new State Fair-grounds, Columbus, O., 90 acres. This little 

 book is not, therefore, a compilation of matter drawn from 

 other books or cyclopaedias, but, it is hoped, a clear, concise, 

 and systematic statement of important facts t and principles 

 drawn chiefly from its writer's own actual experience or ver- 

 ified knowledge. It is conscientiously written by a practical 

 farmer for practical farmers who really heed to u tile-out" 

 certain portions of their farms, and to do it at the lowest 

 cost consistent with accuracy and thoroughness. It is writ- 

 ten with the strong hope that it may show more clearly why 

 we tile at all, where it will pay, and when and how it may be 

 done most economically and best ; also in the hope that it may 

 remove some of the needless difficulties and mysteries 

 thrown around the subject by experts and engineers in order, 

 it would seem (alas that it need be said !) "to bring grist to 

 their own mills/' 



And yet, as will be seen further on, the writer advises the 



