TILE DBAINAGE. 95 



show grade, then the span-level should be carefully applied 

 to each eight feet of the groove where there is any possible doubt; 

 or, water may even be brought in small quantities and poured 

 into a stretch of the groove before the tiles are laid. If it 

 runs off properly then, it will do so ever afterward. I think 

 you feel a little more certain you are right when the groove is 

 actually tested with water than with either the sighting-rods 

 or span-level, or both. But it saves time to use these first, 

 and finally use the water. 



LAYING THE TILES. 



Where the sides, bottom, and top of the ditch are not too 

 very muddy I prefer to stand in the ditch and lay each tile by 

 hand, making sure that it will not roll or rock, forcing it up 

 close to those already laid, with a slight backward swing of 

 the boot-heel, and with your whole weight pressing each tile 

 firmly into its groove and final resting-place. If the ditch is 

 very muddy, the tile-hook (Fig. 20) may be used. This work 

 should last for centuries if well done. It will not work well 

 two years if badly done. It pays to do it well. Doctors are 

 (slanderously?) said to "bury their worst mistakes." The 

 owner of a farm can not afford to do the same in tile draining. 



COVERING THE TILES. 



I usually (unless I have a real expert working for me) 

 lay the tiles myself, and have laid most of the 80,000 on 

 my farm. I also prefer to fill the first course of earth myself, 

 using fine damp clay (not big chunks), even if I have to slice 

 down the (lain]) ditch-sides to get such clay. I thus fill in 

 about six inches and tramp it hard^with the feet. This forces 

 the water to seek the tiles through the natural pores of the 

 undug sides of the ditch, and to enter at the sides and bottom, 

 instead of washing large holes down through the loose soil, 

 and filling up the drains. After the bottom course is thus 

 filled and tramped, the rest may be filled in by man or team, 

 and heaped up along the line, and trusted to settle with the 

 rains of winter and spring, and rolled down with ajfaeavy 



