128 TILE DRAINAGE. 



this. In fact, he rather takes the ground that, where the 

 land is properly *mcfcrdrained, no arrangements need be 

 made for surface drainage. I have not found this to be the 

 case in market-gardening. As I look out of the window 

 while I write, I see about two acres of ground on a gentle 

 side hill. To prevent washes, I put in lines of tile only 20 

 feet apart. This usually takes away all surplus water about 

 as fast as it falls. With the heavy rains we have here in this 

 part of Ohio, my crops are often injured by being washed 

 out, notwithstanding this drainage. Of course, the tiles run 

 straight up and down hill, or as near it as may be ; but dur- 

 ing very heavy rains something in the way of surface drain- 

 age seems to be still needed. At one time last summer I 

 stood watching the ground from this very window. For an 

 hour or more the tiles seemed to carry all the water, even 

 though it rained in torrents. At last I could see by the 

 looks of the ground that it was fast reaching the point of 

 saturation. Then it began to burst through the furrows 

 here and there, and my nice, fine, heavily manured soil be- 

 gan to rush down into the ditch by the roadside. I had be- 

 fore taken the precaution to have the furrows run across the 

 hill instead of up and down, having previously tried the fur- 

 rows running up and down several seasons. In the middle 

 of the lot is a roadway. This roadway has been sunk down 

 to about the depth the plow goes that is, the good soil has 

 been removed from the road, and taken to fill up hollows or 

 depressions. Well, a small millrace of water went down 

 this roadway, and that saved the land for two or three rods 

 on each side ; but it seemed to me during that heavy rain, 

 that a roadway, say once in six or eight rods, would have 

 been an excellent investment. Then if the ground were 

 plowed so as to make it a little the highest between the road- 

 ways, so the furrows would slant from the center each way 

 to the roadway, we should have it. When I visited J. W. 

 Smith, of Green Bay, Wis., I found he had adopted just this 

 plan. His roadways were each right over an underdrain 



