708 



FARMERS' REGISTER- DRAINING. 



deep, which is to be well and closely beaten down 

 with heavy wooden ranuners, bclbre the balance is 

 thrown in. If any partsof the ditch are more than 

 thirty inchesdeep, the earth should be there thrown 

 on at three different times, and each liiyer well 

 rammed. The diiferent oj)erations of laying down 

 the rails, end to end — then the boards on the rails — 

 pulling in the earth, and ramming it — may all be 

 going on together : and if the ditch has been pro- 

 perly dug, the fdling will be so quickly done as soon 

 to secure the work from accidents. Care should 

 be had that no hollow is left over the ditch, in 

 which the next heavy rain may settle, and thence 

 find a passage down the side of the digging into 

 the pipe. If, in this or any other manner, the rain, 

 or surface water, finds its way into the pipe, it will 

 be soon choked with earth washed down, and the 

 whole work ruined. Hence the necessity of good 

 ramming. A single spot left unfinished by care- 

 lessness, may serve to destroy a drain, perfect in 

 all other respects. 



But however well the earth may be rammed, 

 cracks will afterwards be apt to show along the 

 sides of the ditch, and through which, rain water 

 may possibly penetrate to the pipe. But if the 

 land is dug up, or ploughed, soon after the drain is 

 completed, and cidtivated that year, there will be 

 no such cracks allowed to form, and no danger 

 from that source. 



This kind of filling, without any variation, suits 

 Avhen the springs come in at or near the bottom of 

 the ditch. But when a spring, or an ooze, comes 

 in ten or twelve inches above the timber jtipe, 

 some open materials should l)e laid over (stone, 

 gravel, or wood,) so as to lead th.e water down to 

 the pipe, and notletitflow across, in itsoldcourse. 

 The less of the open work, however, that will 

 serve, will be most durable: for soon or late, the 

 perishable materials nmst rot, and then a large 

 open channel would certainly be choked by the 

 falling in of the covering earth, when a very small 

 channel would remain open like the natural pas- 

 sage of a spring under the earth. I have now a 

 covered drain which was twelve years ago con- 

 structed in this manner, and has in no respect fail- 

 ed, though the location admitted of butjittle fall. 

 The bottom of tlie drain was firm, and the cover- 

 ing earth of clay. In other cases, from neglect- 

 ing some of the directions here given, the drains 

 have either never operated, or faUcd in a few 

 weeks. 



There is another mode of filling that is cheap, 

 and I believe effectual, though I have only made 

 one recent trial of it. This is with straight slen- 

 der pine poles (such as our worn lands, under the 

 second growth, furnish abundantly,) and small 

 green branches of the same. This particularly 

 suits where the oozy places are at various heights 

 on the ditch side, and where higher filling with 

 open materials would therefore be necessary. The 

 green poles, of any length, and their boughs close- 

 ly trimmed off, should be laid in the bottom of the 

 ditch, as close together as possible, and two or 

 three layers thick. The bottom layer of poles 

 should be kept in advance of the next, and that, 

 still ahead of the last layer — so that notwithstand- 

 ing all the variations of size in the poles, they may 

 be fitted closely together. There will be no need 

 of keeping open a i)ipe as a passage for tlie water, 

 as the poles camiot be laid so close as to impede the 

 stream — and six or seven poles together will be 



enough, both to pass, and to cover the water. On 

 ■he poles the boughs should then be laid, every top 

 pointing down the stream. The green leaves of 

 j)ine, thus laid on, make a far better cover to admit 

 water and exclude earth, than straw or grass; and 

 it is believed that it will be also the most durable. 



When a covered drain is well made, there will 

 be no more trouble with it, as long as the materials 

 will last, or the passage remain open — and how 

 long that may be, my experience does not enable 

 me to say. But if this time, on the average, should 

 not exceed ten years, the plan would be much 

 cheaper than open side ditches, at least in most 

 cases. It is not only to avoid the j)erpetual clean- 

 ing out, which open ditches need, and toefifectually 

 draw off the water, which open ditches rarely do 

 completely, and for many months together — but a 

 still greater gain is obtained in cultivating across 

 the route of the drain, so as to show no trace of its 

 existence, and to reap rich crops of grain, instead 

 of having a lost space on each side of an open ditch 

 for ploughs to turn on, and which will soon be- 

 come a thicket of shrubs and briers, or requiring 

 more annual labor to prevent that growth, than 

 would cultivate it, after hollow draining. The 

 spaces thus gained for cultivation will make an 

 important addition to a piece of lowground. In 

 addition to the loss of labor, and of crop, caused by 

 the margin of a ditch being covered by a thicket, 

 another great objection is, that the passage is sure 

 to be sooner obstructed by the leaves and fallen 

 branches; and these obstructions being concealed 

 from observation, are not discovered until the chan- 

 nel is so choked as to cause evident and conside- 

 lable injury. The necessity of clean margins to 

 the main carrier is greater than for the side ditch- 

 es ; though it is only the latter that can be covei'- 

 ed, and cultivated across. 



Cross ditches (such as O P,) are required to 

 discharge the water from the side ditches into the 

 main stream; and as they serve as obstructions to 

 the passage of ploughs and carts, they should be as 

 few as will serve, and the location as convenient 

 as possilde. Cross ditclies should be made either — 

 first, where the side ditch approaches nearest to 

 the main carrier — or, second, through some basin- 

 shaped depression, in which water would other- 

 wise remain — or, third, where the passage of a 

 land stream, or a washing torrent from rains, in- 

 terrupts the continuous course of the side drain. 

 These ditches should be straight, and in such di- 

 rections as to suit well with the ploughing, and 

 also to discharge their water easily, avoiding an 

 abrupt change of direction, both in receiving and 

 discharging the water. By making use of suita- 

 ble seasons, the j)lough may greatly aid the con- 

 struction and preservation of cross ditches — and to 

 them most of the observations will apply, that 

 were submitted in my first communication, re- 

 specting the proper and improper management of 

 higldand drains, and which will thei'cfbre not be 

 repeated here. If the cross ditch passes through a 

 depression, the subsequent cleaning out of the 

 ditch may serve to make the surface more level. 

 If much sand or mud is brought down into such a 

 ditch, and it has a sutlicient descent throughout its 

 course, the cleaning out may be almost confined to 

 that part of its course where the margin needs 

 raising: and if this is done before the sediment 

 stands long enough to become consolidated, the ordi- 

 nary stream, or certainly the next flood of rain, will 



