126 ' TILE DRAINAGE. 



elements of mttuw . I enjoy coming out ahead too. Where 

 the water persisted in breaking over into the old channel, I 

 covered the embankment with tin scraps from the tinshop. 

 These were tramped into the clay and gravel. In fact, I 

 first made a horse-path right along the bank, and then a 

 wagon-road ; and with the aid of the tin, the dam has become 

 so solid and compact, that, even if the water goes over it in 

 a very high freshet, it does not move it away. At the same 

 time, I kept cleaning out the straight channel a little deeper. 

 It is now wide enough so we can take the big team and a 

 good plow and plow furrows the whole length in the center 

 of the channel up and down, during the first dry time in the 

 spring. Then men come along with shovels and throw the 

 dirt upon the bank, or carry it where it is needed to strength- 

 en the sides of the ditch. But after this, another trouble 

 came in. The water, during each freshet, persisted in cut- 

 ting the ditch a little wider, and it was encroaching upon 

 my valuable creek-bottom land. To stop this encroachment 

 I bought cedar posts and set them on each side of the creek, 

 in a line six feet apart. The posts were slanted back toward 

 the bank so that the pressure of the earth outside of them 

 should not be too great. Then the tops were secured by a 

 heavy piece of galvanized wire put around each post near 

 the top, the other end being made fast to a stone imbed- 

 ded in the embankment. This was to hold my fence bar- 

 ricade from being crowded over into the stream, and also 

 to keep the j osts in place, should a heavy washout occur 

 during a time of freshet. The posts were cut off in a line 

 where I wished the top of the bank to come, and the pieces cut 

 off were long enough to set in again, so each post made two. 

 Hemlock boards were nailed securely to the posts, and a 2 x 4 

 cap put on top. Then the dirt was banked back of it. The 

 wagon-road for gathering our crops was close up to this fence 

 or barricade. This work was done last spring. It has en- 

 dured some very heavy freshets, and yet stands now as 

 sound and solid as when it was put in. Did it pay ? Well, 



