TILEJ)RA1NAGE. 135 



to see every one of them pouring its proper proportion of 

 water into the basin, while the main outlet leading from this, 

 carried the water away. Each line of tile seemed to be fully 

 adequate to take the water, even from the heaviest shower. 

 After you have worked and planned, perhaps many months, 

 on a piece of engineering like this, what a satisfaction it is to 

 see it a success in every particular ! Friend Smith had a 

 problem on his hands of more than usual difficulty, for his 

 field of forty acres is very nearly level, and it is also but 

 a very little higher than the water in the lake which is 

 all around him ; therefore his drains must be laid very ac- 

 curately, on an even, true grade ; for, as there was but little 

 fall to be secured, there could be no very great variation in 

 the way of ups and downs. 



DEPTH OF TILE, ETC. 



I quite agree with what friend Chamberlain says in regard 

 to the depth that tile should be laid. In our locality most of the 

 upland is a stiff retentive clay. If you dig a hole in the ground 

 any where, it will fill with rain water, and the water will stand 

 there a long time. On account of this, I think I have sever- 

 al times placed our tiles too deep to give the best results. It 

 has been suggested that, after a year or two, the water would 

 find its way down to them. This may be ; but, all things 

 considered, 1 think I should prefer them not lower than 2 

 feet from the surface, as a rule. In order to get an even 

 grade, I would, of course, go down in places, 3 or even 3- 

 feet ; and in other places we might lay them as near as 2 feet 

 from the surface. In my recent travels through Washing- 

 ton, Oregon, California, and Arizona, in going among the 

 fanners and fruit-raisers I have been greatly astonished to 

 find how little the teachings of one locality would answer for 

 another ; and not only is this true, but circumstances are so 

 different, sometimes, that, in traveling only thirty or forty 

 miles, their methods must be greatly modified and changed. 

 In the great West, underdraining is, as a rule, almost uii- 



