12 GARDENING FOK PLEASURE. 



obtained at a reasonable price, the best and most durable 

 draining is that done by tiles. It makes but little differ- 

 ence whether the tile used is the round with collars, or 

 the horse-shoe. We rather prefer the latter, particularly 

 if the bottom of the drain is "spongy," when we use a 

 board for the bottom of the drain, as shown in figure 2. 

 Here, again, great care must be used in covering up the 

 tile with sods, shavings, or other covering, so as to pre- 

 vent the soil being washed into the crevices and choking 

 up the drain. This board is a common one of hemlock 

 or spruce, cut in four pieces. It is ripped through the 

 middle, and then these parts split in two, making boards 

 of five inches wide by half an inch in thickness, thus 



Fig. 3. TBIAHGULAK BOARD DBAIN. 



making the common hemlock board stretch out to a 

 length of fifty feet. It is often a very troublesome mat- 

 ter to get the few drain tiles necessary to drain a small 

 garden, and in such cases an excellent and cheap substi- 

 tute can be had by using one of boards. Take ordinary 

 rough boards, pine, hemlock, or spruce, cut them into 

 widths of three or four inches, and nail them together 

 BO as to form a triangular pipe, as represented in fig- 

 are 3, taking care to " break the joints" in putting the 

 lengths together. Care must also be taken that the boards 

 are not nailed together too closely, else they might swell 

 so as to prevent the water passing into the drain to be 

 carried off. These drains are usually set with a flat side 

 down, but they will keep clear better if put with a point 

 down, though it is more trouble to lay them. Drains 

 made in this way will last much longer than might be sup- 

 posed. In excavations recently made we found wooden 



