Ill 



used in digging were round and square pointed shovels, long 

 and short handled spade, picks, and a long-bladed, narrow- 

 spade made expressly for draining. The drains were dug two 

 feet wide at top and six inches at bottom, and from two to six 

 feet deep, three and one-half on an average ; I should say the 

 smallest fall being three inches, the greatest three feet in one 

 hundred feet. 



At the mouth of the main drain was dug a trench, ten feet 

 long, three wide, and three deep. This was filled with small 

 stones, and the end of main pipe allowed to come out on it. I 

 did this, thinking there would be less danger of the outlet 

 throwing by the frosty the pipe being covered one and one-half 

 feet deep at outlet. At the mouth of the drain is a brick 

 enclosure two feet square, and two and one-half deep, pro- 

 tected with wire netting. 



Finished laying tile November 16th ; filled up all of ditches 

 with the Town's road scraper, which is one on wheels ; in this 

 manner they were filled very quickly. The ditches were 

 rounded up well in the middle to prevent the water standing 

 over the drain. I intended to plough the land and back 

 furrow, to fill up the open drains, but was prevented by the 

 weather, it snowing that night and all the day following; 

 there was no chance, however, for water to run off the land 

 except by way of the tile. During the winter the water 

 seemed to settle away as it never did before, the drains run- 

 ning most of the time. As soon- as spring opened and the 

 frost came out, could drive a horse team over any part of the 

 field, the land being as dry as most high land, although before 

 draining, for a month after the frost was out of the ground, 

 in parts of the field, a horse would go nearly to his knees. 

 The ground ploughed very well, and has worked much better 

 the past season than ever before. In the spring and early 

 part of summer, we had some heavy rains and the land was 

 flooded, but only for a short time, the drains taking the water 

 off very quickly. 



