sect. t. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 



stones. This mode, being cheap, may be use- 

 ful to a tenant who has only a short lease. But 

 as it cannot be durable or permanent in its ef- 

 fects, it ought to be discouraged, except where 

 stones cannot be got. 



In some instances, when stones cannot be 

 procured, the following method has been prac- 

 tised. A cut is made three feet wide, and from 

 two and a half to three feet deep, as circumstan- 

 ces may require. Then along the bottom, and 

 right in the middle of this, another cut is made, 

 a foot or 15 inches deep, 15 inches wide at the 

 top, and a foot wide at the bottom. The sods 

 taken off the surface, if they can be got of a 

 proper thickness, and if the sward be sufficiently 

 tough, are laid at full length across the lower 

 cut, with the green side down, so as to fill the 

 whole width of the upper cut. After which 

 the earth is thrown in and the drain filled up; 

 If the sods, taken from the place where the drain 

 is made, are not answerable, others, proper for 

 the purpose, are taken where they can be most 

 conveniently got. Those are best, which are 

 rendered tough and adhesive by the roots of 

 rushes, bent, or other strong coarse grasses. 



Persons, who either have of their own, or can 

 readily procure, the weedings of young planta- 

 tions, such as are commonly used for pailings, 

 have it in their power to make a very material 

 improvement on this plan. Let the weedings, 

 when from two and a half to three inches dia- 

 meter, be laid along the middle of the lower 

 cut, supported by pieces of wood of sufficient 

 strength laid across at the distance of six feet 

 from one another, and sunk so far into the 

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