CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. 



The Scope of the Book. 



This little book on tile drainage is to join the ranks of lit- 

 tle books, or practical science-) -rimers, on agricultural sub- 

 jects, written by such men as Prof. A. J. Cook, A. I. Root, 

 and T. B. Terry, and published by A. I. Root. It will feel 

 honored to appear in such company, and will try very hard 

 to be worthy of it. 



Please remember that the book is on tile drainage It does 

 not try nor wish to cover all drainage ; much less all related 

 subjects. There are several good reasons for this. One is, 

 that the size of the book is fixed by the publisher, and he 

 wishes it to be actually a u primer,' both in its size and in 

 the clearness and conciseness of its instruction. Another 

 reason is, that drainage is a progressive science and art. 

 Much has been learned in the past hundred years. The old- 

 er, larger books on drainage contain vast amounts of matter 

 that is as useless now as an eighteenth-century chemistry or 

 a last year's almanac. It is a mercy that the readers of this 

 little book need not plod through it. Tile drainage has su- 

 perseded all other kinds of underdrainage, as, for example, 

 that with poles, rails, slabs, brush, cobble stones, or with the 

 mole-plow. It is immensely better than any of these ; more 

 durable, more efficient, and really cheaper in the long run. 

 It is really cheaper, too, than open ditching, except for very 

 large receiving ditches, such, for example, as long, large 

 township or county ditches, to convey the surplus water of 

 hundreds or even thousands of acres of pretty level land, 

 owned by many farmers, in separate farms. 



