12 



GARDENING FOE PLEASURE. 



or the horse-shoe ; we rather prefer the latter, particu- 

 larly if the bottom of the drain is " spongy ; " we then 

 use a board for the bottom of the drain, as shown in fig- 

 ure 2. This board is a common one of hemlock or 

 spruce, cut in four pieces ; it is ripped through the mid- 

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

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

 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, and cut them into 

 widths of three or four inches, nail them together so as to 



Fig. 3. — TRIANGULAR BOARD DRAIN. 



form a triangular pipe, as represented in figure 3, taking 

 care to " break the joints " in putting the lengths to- 

 gether ; care must 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 supposed. 

 Last season I came across some wooden drains that I 

 had put down over twenty years before, and they seemed 

 sound enough to last twenty years longer. 



