284 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
places. A heavy shower before the drain is filled will test 
the level; but if the weather be dry and the land very level, 
so as to render the fall uncertain, then make a wooden level, 
by taking two strips of board three inches wide and eight feet 
long and miter them together so as to form the letter A, with 
the base so much widened as to have the highest point only 
four feet from the ground. Along the base nail a strip three 
inches wide and sixteen feet long, and six inches above this, 
nail another strip two inches wide. Now hang a plumb line 
from the miter joint and place the level on two bearings 
nearly level, and mark where the plumb line crosses the two- 
inch strip, and also mark the bearings where the level rests; 
then reverse the level on the bearings and mark where the 
plumb line again falls. Midway between the.fwo marks is the 
true level; there place the true level mark, and the level is 
ready for use. With this, test the bottom of the drain, and 
if serious inequalities be found remedy them. 
MODE OF MAKING DRAINS. 
It will be necessary to determine the material of which the 
drains are to be made, so as to know the size necessary to dig 
them. The usual depths of all under drains should be at 
least two and a half feet; deeper than that would be better, 
but the labor will increase much faster than the increased 
depth. If tile are to be used, the drains may be dug fourteen 
inches at the top, and as narrow at the bottom as a person can 
work in. If the drains are to be filled with stone, placed so as 
to form the drain, they will require to be at least twelve inches 
wide on the bottom, and more if the stone are large. The 
large size required for stone drains, and the extra labor in put¬ 
ting them in, make them the most expensive, where the far¬ 
mer has all the labor to hire. If the drains are to be made with 
pine fence boards, as many in Wisconsin are, they should be 
dug sixteen inches on the top, and the width of a spade on 
the bottom, care being taken to dig them straight, except 
where an angle has to be made. When a person makes his 
