8 ENGINEERING FOR LAND DRAINAGE. 



should perform the work well without unnecessary cost. 

 He should know how the work should be done, or be 

 able to employ some one with sufficient skill and pro- 

 fessional honesty to do the work for him. There is no 

 mystery connected with the Iheory and practice of land 

 drainage, as some would have us believe, neither is an 

 instinct born in men which will relieve them from the 

 necessity of acquiring knowledge of this work in the 

 old-tnue way. 



Drainage practice must be adapted to the needs of 

 each tract of land to be improved. In other words, 

 each farm, and in many cases each field, presents a 

 special problem in drainage. IIow much more diverse, 

 then, must be the practice in different States and lati- 

 tudes? The land-drainer should not think that a method 

 which has proved efficient in one locality will necessa- 

 rily be the best in another, or that when he has suc- 

 cessfully drained one tract or farm he can drain any 

 other by the same plan. Yet the principles are the 

 same for all; it is only the application of them that 

 varies. 



Some ultra-practical men discourage the farmer from 

 attempting to learn the history and progress of land 

 drainage, urging that the present state of the practice 

 is sufficient. Life is not too short for a man to avail 

 himself of the experience of others along any line of 

 w^ork in which he is interested, and he acts wisely when 

 he seeks to acquire all information pertaining to his 

 business. It is not proposed, however, in these pages 

 to give such a history but to outline in plain language 

 the best practice at the present time. 



The subject will be treated from an engineering 



