70 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



generally small stones have been tipped in promiscuously 

 from the cart, and levelled by throwing the largest to the 

 bottom. The ditches have been dug from two to three feet 

 wide at the top, and from one to two feet at the bottom, and 

 two and a half to three feet deep, the width and depth varying 

 according to the nature of the soil and the undulations of the 

 surface, an even and gradual descent always proving the 

 most effectual. Where the soil was soft and loose, as in sand 

 or muck, the ditches were dug three feet wide at the top, and 

 two feet at the bottom. If dug narrower, the mud and sand 

 would work in, and soon stop the water. In hard-pan, two 

 feet wide at the top, and one foot at the bottom, is all that is 

 necessary. These ditches were filled with two feet of stone 

 and one foot of earth. In a few cases, litter or swamp hay 

 has been used to cover the stones before the dirt was put on, 

 but generally it was filled in with a common road-scraper, 

 without any covering. 



Drains constructed in this way in 1849, are to-day as 

 effectual as when first made. The upper end of blind ditches 

 should never be left open, nor should there be any other 

 opening to receive running streams, or periodical surface- 

 water ; for, if so, they will soon fill with sediment and be 

 rendered of no account. In only three instances have these 

 drains failed. The first was where the fall was so slight, that 

 in high water they were clogged by sediment setting back 

 from the brook. The second was where either the frost or 

 meadow moles, or both, caused leaks in the sides of the ditch, 

 where located on the side-hill, allowing the water to follow 

 their tracks instead of the line of the ditch. This has occurred 

 only where the fall was made very slight, in order to carry 

 the water high up on the dry land for the purpose of irrigating 

 as large an area as possible. The third was where too large 

 stones were used in a narrow ditch, and it soon clogged. 



Lot No. 1 is a rock-maple swamp of about ten acres, used 

 for a pasture and for mowing litter. The attention of the 

 Committee is more particularly called to this lot, for an 

 opportunity to see the immediate effect of draining. In this 

 lot there are one hundred and sixty-two rods of open ditches, 

 and in 1875 twenty-seven rods of open drains were con- 

 structed, and three acres thoroughly reclaimed and seeded 



