FARMERS' REGISTER— DRAINING. 



389 



shortest and best course throup;h all the extent of 

 lowground to be drained. With this view, the 

 shape of the ground, and the force and size of the 

 floods should be well considered, and the new 

 course for the stream determined accordingly. In 

 general, it will be cheapest to adhere nearly to 

 the straightest course — which in a crooked bottom, 

 will cause the line to touch the projecting points 

 of highland, first on one side, and then on the other. 

 But desirable- as are long straight stretches, we 

 must take care to change their direction very gra- 

 tlually, when a change is necessary. In a long 

 straight course, with sufficient descent, the water 

 acquires a force which enables it to keep its direc- 

 tion, in spite of considerable obstacles — and will 

 rush across, and fill up with its deposite, any part 

 of its channel which turns off at an angle, or with 

 a short curve. To avoid this danger, it will be 

 sometimes proper to begin a gentle curve before 

 reaching the point where it would necessarily be 

 made. There is another case in wliich straight 

 courses should be departed from — that is, when 

 with no great variation of direction, or increase of 

 distance, the main carrier may be made to keep 

 along the side of the lowground for a considerable 

 distance, which will so far serve to avoid the trou- 

 ble of another side drain, and also preserve the 

 lowground in one unbroken body, at tliat place. 

 But desirable as it certainly is to have the stream 

 kept at the side of the lowground, it should 

 not be done unless the location is good with a view 

 to perfect drainage. A ditch at the junction of 

 the low and highland, is far more subject to be 

 filled with rubbish and earth brought by rains, 

 than if in the body of the lowgrounds — and, there- 

 fore, if so situated, its course must not be too 

 crooked, nor the force of the current too small, 

 to guard against that danger. 



When the line for the ditch has been fixed, it 

 should be marked off by stakes, wherever not 

 plainly enough exhibited by some existing marks. 

 It will be generally found that the line will divide 

 the lowground into large pieces, shaped something 

 like segments of circles, the straigiit sides of 

 which will be the new line for the stream, and the 

 curved sides made by the hollow bends of the in- 

 closing highland. The new line will j)robably 

 cross in many places the serpentine bed of the 

 stream. The work should be commenced in the 

 dry season, and on the dryest parts of the land, if 

 any are too wet for tlie operations required. 



On a part of the new line, say from 50 to 200 

 yards in length, and extending from the old stream 

 at one place of crossing, to another, lay off with a 

 plough, well and deeply, a land of about 12 feet 

 wide, the closing water furrow of which will be 

 the centre of the intended canal. This width of 

 ploughing will be sufficient, if a passage for the 

 water six feet wide and 2^ feet deep will serve: 

 but the larger the canal is desired, the wider should 

 be the ploughing. Such a stretch as is here spoken 

 of, is supposed to pass through the body of low- 

 ground. As soon as the plough has cut a few fur- 

 rows, laborers with broad hoes begin to draw out 

 the loosened earth, and to deposite it, with very lit- 

 tle regard to accuracy, on the land outside of the 

 ploughing. When the plough has closed its work 

 and formed a deep water furrow, it begins again 

 and goes over the same land, whether the hoes 

 have finished ahead or not. A third time the 

 same operations may be repeated, or until the 



ditch is either nearly deep enough, or the bottom 

 has become loo miry for the horses to walk on. 

 In this manner, the greater part of the digging and 

 removing of the earth may be done at a very small 

 cost, compared to spade work. Still there remains 

 something for the spades to finish. After the last 

 ploughed earth has been drawn out, the ditch of 

 the desired width (say 5 to 7 feet) should be ac- 

 curately laid off by a line, ami by the stakes first 

 set up to mark the course. A single spade's depth 

 will generally give sufficient depth, and the work 

 will be very easy to perform. There is no need, 

 generally of digging low enough to divert at once 

 the stream to the new course. It will be sure to 

 take the new and straighter course at every rise of 

 water, and will naturally deepen the new, and at 

 the same time be filling up the old channel. This 

 operation may be hastened by opening well the 

 upper end of the new channel at each crossing 

 place, and obstructing somewhat the old passage 

 just below, by the top of a tree or other rubbish, 

 which though serving to impede the floods, will 

 not prevent the passage of the stream in common 

 times. It would be improper to stop the water 

 entirely from its old cjiannel, as that would prevent 

 its being filled up, and it would remain in the way 

 of cultivation. But if a current has choice of two 

 channels, united above and below, the one straight, 

 and the other crooked and twice as long, the effect 

 will certainly be, sooner or later, to deej)en and 

 enlarge tiie first, and to deposite its mud and sand 

 in its slower passage tiirough the second, until it is 

 entirely filled. It is much cheaper to let nature 

 thus aid your draining operations, than to dig the 

 carrier at once as deep as desirable. 



When the first rough part of the excavation, by 

 ploughs and hoes, is finished through one stretch, 

 it may be begun on some other — either adjoining, 

 or distant, as may be most convenient. As the 

 old channel for a long time will continue to convey 

 the stream, it serves to keep the new work in dif- 

 ferent dry sections, to be opened as may be con- 

 venient. Adjoining sections sliould be connected 

 as soon as possible (and by the spade if necessary) 

 so as to have the benefit of any flood of rain that 

 may occur. 



When the main carrier is intended to be made 

 for some distance along the maigin of the high' 

 land, the earth must be thrown by the plough al- 

 together towards the lowland. For this purpose, 

 it will be cheapest to use a hillside plough, which 

 by shifting the mould-board, turns the furrow 

 slice to the same side, whether going up or down. 

 If a common plough is used for such places, it 

 must cut only when driven down the course of the 

 valley, and be dragged back empty, to begin 

 another furrow, at tlie upper end of the stretch. 



If the owners of lowgrounds would act accord- 

 ing to their true interest, this plan would be ex- 

 tended as far as the nature of the land required it, 

 without regard to who might b^ the owner of any 

 particular spot. Then each proprietor would be 

 benefitted by the drainage of the land below, serv- 

 ing as an outlet or vent for his own. But that 

 is not now to be counted on, and each person must 

 expect his drains to end witii the lower termina- 

 tion of his land. If there is nmch fall in the stream 

 at that place, the injury from this stoppage will 

 not be considerable, except perhaps to the next 

 land below. There, the water increased trebly in 

 velocity by its clear passage above, and finding no 



