GROUND OPERATIONS. 



241 



and execution of the drains, and only the best 

 materials are used; but so soon as the nearest 

 waterway is reached the drains are run into it, 

 very often on the level, and not seldom under it. 

 Many times it is in flood, and, of course, unless the 

 water has free course from the mouth of the drains, 

 the drains themselves are useless. They are not 

 merely stopped for the time being, but disorganised 

 throughout their entire course. For flooded drains 

 become weak as mud, and almost as difiicult to keep 

 level or on an even fall. Hence, so soon as the flood 

 permits them to run they often get out of level, and 

 are thus rendered totally useless. 



The Tools for Making Drains.— These are 

 both special and numerous. The spade is the chief 

 or only tool needed to make stone drains. A deep 

 furrow was taken out with a broad-moulded plough, 

 and from this part the spade did the work, cutting 

 it down square and even, and to a depth of two 

 or more feet throughout, narrowing to a foot or 

 eighteen inches at the base. But with the introduc- 

 tion of tiles a whole family of draining tools has 

 sprung forth. The purport of most of these is to 

 cut or scoop out the drain as deeply as wanted, 

 while keeping it as narrow as possible. To this 

 end spades little wider than chisels are used in some 



Fir^. 20.— Draining Tools. 



Another great fault in regard to outlets is that 

 they are so often left without any grates or guards. ■ 

 Those who have had experience of the enormous 

 injury inflicted on drains by rats and other vermin 

 that find lodging and breeding-grounds there in dry 

 Weather, and by their persistent efforts burrow their 

 way under or out of them, to the partial or complete 

 disruption of the drains, will be sure to protect any 

 outlet that comes to the light with wire or other 

 vermin-guard. Where drains discharge from the 

 side of a high bank, a very simple mode of protec- 

 tion consists in running a long tile some way beyond 

 and clear of it. These projecting tiles baulk the 

 rats ; but they are in danger of being broken off or 

 pulled out by hedge-trimmers or other accidents. 80 

 that on the whole there is nothing, perhaps, to equal 

 wire guards or iron gratings for the outlets of drains. 



It is also most import.int to keep these outlets 

 elear of silt and other weeds, as either or both fre- 

 quently cause serious and most injurious blocks. 

 16 



parts of the drain, and scoops or spoons with long 

 handles follow these into deep narrow spaces, where 

 no man could find room to stand or use a spade, 

 however narrow. No. 1 (Fig. '^0) is about the widest 

 spade used in draining. It is mostly made more or 

 less bent, but this is not matei-ial, and a common 

 spade might just as well be used. No. 2 is a most 

 useful spade to follow the first, and is succeeded by 

 Nos. 3 and 4. No. 5 represents a round-pointed 

 shovel, turned up at the edges, which is very handy 

 for getting out the crumbs, that is, the pieces that 

 fall off the full spadeful in the lifting. No. 6 

 is a similar tool mounted on a long handle, to bo 

 used under the work. No. 7 is one of the narrowest 

 spades used in drainage, and is bent in so much at 

 the sides as to form almost a semicircle, and Nos. 8 

 and 9 are similar-shaped scoops or spoons placed at 

 different angles. There are several others occa- 

 sionally used; but these will suffice to give those 

 interested in the practical performance of drainage 



