40 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



decompose slowly, these compost heaps become the 

 chief resource for keeping your land fertile, your 

 trees healthy, and your garden stuff abundant. 



Tile drains are always preferable to stone drains, 

 but they are often less economical in the long run. 

 If your land is stony you may use a large quantity of 

 stones in drains, always making sure that these drains 

 are large enough and that there are enough of them 

 to carry off the heaviest flushing of April weather 

 and the dashing of a summer shower. If your soil 

 is full of springs, as it is likely to be, tile drains will 

 be needed every twenty-five feet. Plant them at 

 least three feet deep and make sure that you know 

 just where they run, for you will need occasionally 

 to open them for repairs. I have had more or less 

 trouble in finding my ditches, especially when they 

 run through berry yards. 



If you have followed my advice about grading 

 and leveling and have only removed roughnesses you 

 will find that you cannot run all your ditches in one 

 direction. They will have to be gathered into mains, 

 that is, larger pipes, which will carry the wash either 

 into neighborhood drains or into the highway ditch. 

 The house drainage that runs into a compost pile 

 should not be of a character to wash out the fertiliz- 

 ing material, but rather to deposit what it brings. 



Let me tell you that these compost piles will not 

 be an annoyance, either to the eyes or the nose, for 

 we shall cover them all summer with squash vines or 

 pumpkin vines, while Nature slowly decomposes the 



