Preparation of Soil by Drainage. 65 



canal, and my wife was in terror lest the children should be drowned in it. 

 Now something had to be done, and I called in the services of Mr. Cald- 

 well, city surveyor of Newburgh, and to his map I refer the reader for a 

 clearer understanding of my tasks. 



Between the upper and lower swales, the ridge on which the house 

 stands slopes to its greatest depression along its western boundary, and I 

 was shown that if I would cut deep enough, the open drain in the lower 

 swale could receive and carry off the water from the upper basin. This 

 appeared to be the only resource, but with my limited means it was like a 

 ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The old device of emptying my 

 drains into a hole that practically had no bottom, suggested itself to me. It 

 would be so much easier and cheaper that I resolved once more to try it, 

 though with hopes naturally dampened by my last moist experience. I 

 directed that the hole (marked B on the map) should be oblong, and in the 

 direct line of the ditch, so that if it failed of its purpose it could become a 

 part of the drain. Down we went into as perfect sand and gravel as I ever 

 saw, and the deeper we dug the dryer it became. This time, in wounding 

 old " Mother Earth," we did not cut a vein, and there seemed a fair pros- 

 pect of our creating a new one, for into this receptacle I decided to turn my 

 largest drain and all the water that the stubborn acre persisted in keeping. 



I therefore had a "box-drain" constructed along the^western bound- 

 ary of the place (marked C) until it reached the lowest spot in the upper 

 swale. This drain was simply and rapidly constructed, in the following 

 manner : a ditch was first dug sufficiently deep and wide, and with a fall 

 that carried off the water rapidly. In the bottom of this ditch the men 

 built two roughly faced walls, one foot high and eight inches apart. Com- 

 paratively long, flat stones, that would reach from wall to wall, were easily 

 found, and thus we had a covered water-course, eight by twelve inches, 

 forming the common box- drain that will usually last a life- time. 



The openings over the channel were carefully " chinked " in with small 

 stones and all covered with inverted sods, shavings, leaves or anything that 

 prevented the loose soil from sifting or washing down into the water-course. 



At the upper end of the box-drain, just described, a second and 

 smaller receptacle was dug (marked D), and from this was constructed 

 another box-drain (E), six inches square, across the low ground to the end 

 of the canal in which we had found the well (F). This would not only 

 drain a portion of the land but would also empty the big ditch (G), and 

 prevent the water of the well from rising above a certain point. This 

 kind of stone-work can be done rapidly ; two men in two short winter 

 days built thirteen rods with a water-course six inches in the clear. 

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