164 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
May. 
vegetables and fruits, of imported varieties, is ow¬ 
ing to a want of thorough drainage more than to 
any unfavorableness of climate. Orchardists have 
not failed to observe the poor quality of the fruits 
of acknowledged excellence, when raised on cold 
damp soil. 
Not only the surface of the ground should be 
drained, but some plan must be adopted which will 
effectually remove all unnecessary moisture from the 
subsoil, to the depth of at least two feet. Open 
drains or ditches should not be entirely dispensed 
with. They are necessary to furnish a rapid pas¬ 
sage for the surplus waters in the spring, and to 
prevent the flooding of cultivated fields by the over¬ 
flow of upland swamps. An open channel is also 
necessary when some lawless brook is required to 
forsake the crookedness of his ways, and flow in a 
direct line. The smaller drains should be covered, 
to afford an unbroken surface to the plow. 
A cheap method employed in Europe is as follows. 
An ordinary ditch is made about two feet deep and 
fourteen inches wide at the bottom. A channel 
eight inches in width and depth, is cut in the bottom 
of the ditch. A rope of straw slightly twisted, and 
of sufficient size to fill the channel, is placed in it; 
the earth is then shovelled in, and the drain is com¬ 
pleted. The offsets between the two channels, are 
intended to aid in sustaining the superincumbent 
earth. The water will continue to filter through 
long after the straw is decayed. Could not the 
channel be filled with coarse clean gravel, as a sub¬ 
stitute for straw? 
If a larger quantity of water is to be discharged, 
a good drain may be made of pine or hemlock 
boards. Slit them to a suitable width, say nine in¬ 
ches, then with a common paint brush, cover them 
on both sides with tar and rosin melted together; 
nail them in the form of a prism, place them at the 
bottom of the ditch, and cover with earth, as alrea¬ 
dy described. Or the passage may be made by pla¬ 
cing a row of brick edgewise, on each side of the 
ditch, and cover over with a layer of brick placed 
crosswise, which would require one hundred bricks 
to the rod; or if a layer of bricks is required at the 
bottom, it would take 150. 
The draining tiles lately introduced, are a deci¬ 
ded improvement j Each farmer will of course de¬ 
cide upon the material to be employed,—whether 
wood, brick, glass, tiles, or iron. But let your 
fields be thoroughly drained by some method, as the 
first point to be attended to in successful farming, 
and then by careful plowing, improved manures and 
a proper succession of crops, you will receive the 
reward which the bountiful earth bestows upon in¬ 
telligent labor. D. D. C. Geneva, April, 1850. 
Draining. 
Eds. Cultivator-—I am not ignorant of the use 
of stone and tiles in draining. Without meaning to 
decry the use of either, and admitting that, in some 
circumstances, they are the most eligible materials 
for this purpose, I yet wish to describe another 
mode with which I am familiar, and which I have 
practiced with great success. The main material 
of my plan is hemlock lumber, in the shape of board 
and scantling. 
1. The ground to be operated upon. —My upland 
grounds are sandy, and slope off into a swamp with 
a clay and clay-gravel subsoil, which also probably 
underlays the upland, as, just upon the brow of the 
side-hill, the water oozes out from beneath the sand, 
making the low land very wet, since, from the na¬ 
ture of the subsoil, the surplus waters cannot sub¬ 
side readily. The object of my draining is to carry 
oft the water from the side-hill across the low ground. 
2. General course of the Drains .—I first made 
main drains from the hill, starting usually in some 
gully or natural ravine, and following the lowest 
ground, and so across the field. I tried to make 
other drains, intersecting these, and at nearly right 
angles, on the brow of the hill, but, from the spon¬ 
gy nature of the soil, I was only partially success¬ 
ful. Some of these last drains needed to to be tap¬ 
ped in the centre, by running a branch directly 
down the hill to the nearest point of the main drain, 
to prevent a fatal dripping down the brow of the hill. 
3. Mode of Construction. —I dug my ditches 
from two to three feet deep, so as to have them be¬ 
low the frost and the subsoil plow. Sometimes it 
was needful, in crossing some point of land that 
made out into the desired course of the ditch, to dig 
much deeper for a short distance. 
They were usually made about one foot wide at 
the bottom. Where the ground was soft, I frequent¬ 
ly could dig but a rod at a time, before it was need¬ 
ful to lay the drain to prevent the sides from falling 
in. Occasionally it was convenient to begin the 
ditch at the upper end. Suppose a considerable por¬ 
tion of ditch dug, I laid my materials thus. If the 
ground were much descending, or the bottom were 
of loose sand or filled with sticks, I made it as 
level as possible and then laid down my boards, end 
to end fitting the ends pretty accurately. But if 
the ground were nearly level, and a firm clay or 
hard-pan, I used no board in the bottom. Upon 
this board or hard-pan I placed my scantling, which 
were sawed 2—{—4, and were set in the narrowest 
side. I was careful to have the scantling break 
joints with the boards, as this would prevent the 
work from settling unequally. These scantling were 
placed, for the widest drains, 6 or 8 inches apart, 
and for narrower, three or four. They were tacked 
at the ends with nails to hold them firm. The top 
board was then laid on, and nailed with about six 
nails if twelve feet in length. Care should be ta¬ 
ken always to' have the top board sound and free 
from bad shakes, as it has to sustain a considerable 
weight. The water way also should be carefully 
cleared of all sticks and loose stones. Where the 
amount of water is large, and especially when the 
drain descends a hill, I leave the ends of the scant¬ 
ling a half inch apart, and saw them off sloping, so 
that an orifice is left open pointing up hill. A grass 
sod should be laid close to the scantling below this 
orifice. In case the end of a drain is at a spring or 
bed of quick sand, it will be needful to guard it, 
otherwisesome beds ofquicksandwill discharge large 
quantities of sand in a short time. This guard may 
consist of loose brush fixed firmly around the opening. 
Generally, I take no pains to lead the ordinary 
water along the course of the drain into it, as it is 
sure to find its way through the chinks between the 
boards and scantling. Side drains are united to the 
main one by sawing out a few inches of scantling 
on one side of the main drain, and bringing up the end 
of side drain snug. Where a drain is laid deep, and 
in very heavy soil, I prefer not to throw back the 
soil just as it came out, but to mix muck with it to 
make it porous. 
Results. —I have laid, during the last five years 
nearly two hundred rods of such drain, and have 
had but a single failure. That was of a side branch 
running down a steep hill. The meadow moles had 
dug in at the head during the winter under the snow, 
which melting in the spring, deluged the drain, and 
carried so much sand down to the junction as to 
stop it up. It was readily and cheaply repaired. 
