DRAINING LAND. 



23 



DRAIN IN A HOLLOW. 



The following details of the method of the construction of drains 

 may be found useful: 



CONSTRUCTION OF DRAINS. 



In draining land, there are two things to be decided : the first is if 

 the land requires to be drained ; and the second, the best kind of 

 drains to be put in. An easy way of deciding the first is to notice if 

 water will stand in a hole, two feet deep, for a week, at any time of 

 the year. If it does, the land requires drainage. There are several 

 kinds of drains. One kind, that is often very useful, is a perpen- 



diqular drain. This is used for drain- 

 ing hollows that cannot easily be 

 freed from water any other way, be- 

 cause of the depth of the necessary 

 cutting. A. pit is dug down to sand 

 or gravel, and is filled with large 

 stone up to the surface, which is 

 raised by filling in the earth dug out of the pit of course keeping the 

 surface soil on the top. Two things are gained by this: the ground 

 is freed from water, and the surface of the hollow is raised. In 

 pastures where there is no other water, a pump may be put in 

 such a hollow. Where there is plenty of stone 

 or coarse gravel on the land, drains may be 

 made very cheaply by filling in with these 

 materials to within a foot of the surface. 

 Some stone drains, well made, are better than 

 tile drains, because the stone is imperishable ; 

 but if a stone drain is not well made, it will 

 soon be useless ; and so will a tile drain, more 

 particularly if the tiles are not thoroughly 

 burned, so as to ring when struck. The best 

 stone drain is made of flat, narrow stones, 

 bedded firmly at each side of the ditch, and 

 covered by broad, flat stone, stretching across ; 

 rough stone may be put on the top of these. DKAIN WITI * PUMP. 



Where only round stone is to be found, a special way of placing them 

 must be used. (This is shown very plainly in the accompanying 

 illustrations.) In making drains of gravel, all that is necessary is to 

 dig the ditch as if tile was to be put in that is, thirty inches or 

 three feet deep ; eighteen inches wide at the top, and four or six 

 inches wide at the bottom and fill in the gravel eighteen inches. 

 Stone or gravel drains are better for very wet lands and for swamp 



