TILE DRAINAGE. 63 



relations*' of the rich and the "skeletons in the closets'' 

 of the high-born and aristocratic, these " cat-swamps," 

 " swales, 7 ' and the like, thrust themselves upon our notice 

 every " 'bout 1 ' we plow, cultivate, or reap. Like the ghost 

 of Banquo they " will not down." But you can "down" 

 them by putting their surplus water " down" some 80 inches 

 into well laid tile drains, and can thus make them the most 

 productive parts of your whole farm. 



But the question where to drain also includes many prac- 

 tical questions as to the exact location and direction of the 

 main drains and the laterals or collecting drains of a system. 

 It is a good rule here to follow nature, but not blindly nor 

 too closely. Adam was put into the garden "to dress it." 

 Man by his intellect has, or may have, a real though limited 

 dominion, not only over the beasts and birds and fishes, but 

 over the earth and its processes of production. And so while 

 we "follow nature" we should lead her not follow blindly, 

 but with constant improvements. 



THE LOCATION OF MAIN DRAIN*. 



In general they should follow the "dry brooks; " that is, 

 take the general direction and location which the water 

 takes, in a wet time, to get off from the land ;. for water, 

 taking its own course along the surface, naturally takes what 

 scientists call "the path of least resistance." But man can 

 improve upon this for railways, roads, tile drains, etc. Kail- 

 ways follow the rivers and creeks up the mountain side, or 

 even on more level land ; but they constantly straighten the 

 course and lengthen the curves, and improve the grades by 

 cuts and fills and tunnels so as to get a path of less resist- 

 ance under high speed and with heavy loads for the traffic of 

 the road. Just so the main drains in a system should in 

 ycni'ml follow but straighten the dry brooks of a field, length- 

 ening the curves and correcting the grades and making 

 them uniform. Fig. 5, page 14, illustrates this ; also Fig. 8, 

 page 31. No one should undertake to tile a field without 



