DRAINAGE. 21 



Open ditch drains are not to be recommended, as they 

 only conduct the water away, and scarcely, if at all, produce 

 the effect of under-drainage, and, besides, are in the way of 

 plowing or similar operations, readily fill up, and their sides 

 become a regular garden of weeds. Where small stones 

 are plenty, trenches dug out to the requisite depth, and 

 filled in a foot deep with stones, overlaid with sod, the turf 

 side down, will answer a useful purpose. But no sort of 

 drain is equal to, and in the end is so economical as It inch 

 round draining tiles, with collars for the laterals, connect- 

 ing with 2i inch tiles for the mains. These tiles are laid 



jointed together, the water percolating through the joints 

 and passing off through the tiles. The proper depth to lay 

 them is three feet, if the drains are twenty feet apart, and 

 four feet deep, if the drains are forty feet apart, with a fall 

 of six inches to the hundred feet, although less will do ; but 

 then they will require very great care in the laying of them. 

 The drains should run parallel with each other if possible, 

 and down the deepest descent of the land. In laying them, 

 care must be had to have the bottom of the trench as truly 

 level and firm as possible, in order to prevent sagging or 

 undulations, as, if laid unevenly, the silt will settle in the 

 lower portions and choke the drain. 



It is not so much the distance apart of the drains, as 

 their depth, which affects their efficiency hence, drainings 

 laid four feet deep and forty feet apart will be as effica- 

 cious as those laid three feet deep and twenty feet apart. 

 The character of the subsoil must determine this. In 

 heavy, stiff soils, they should be placed twenty feet apart 



