great portion, if not all, of its fertilizing materials. But the principal objects of this paper is to tell "how to drain," rather than to argue the benefits of drainage. There are two classes of drains, one the open ditch or trench, and the other the closed or under-drain.

The drainage law of the State of Michigan makes provision for the compulsory construction of drains when a majority of those interested desire it. Legal safeguards are erected for individual rights in the forms and petitions that must be secured and posted as the law directs. Frivolous but legal technicalities have in some instances been allowed to overthrow the operation of this law. The law itself has a clause tending to nullify the captious opposition of dishonest attorneys, yet, despite that, in some counties the attorney fees have amounted to more than all other charges together, and even then some illegality would take away the power of collecting the cost by taxation of those benefited.

My own opinion is that the remedy is not to be found in any amendment of the law, but rather in the election of intelligent drain commissioners. The law at present is as simple as it well can be and guard individual rights. Some essential conditions are required, and these conditions are all reasonable and necessary. In the first place those desiring the drain are to petition the drainage commissioner. He is to examine the land, and if he thinks it feasible he is to have a survey. As a description of the ditch is required in the first petition to the drain commissioner it is safer to have that resigned after a surveyor has located the ditch. Then the commissioner should proceed as required by the law. If his work is done intelligently and justly it is hardly possible to be overthrown by the worst shyster lawyer in the state.

In most countries this law has given satisfactory results in its operation, and although at times there may have been made unjust assessments and hard feelings, yet on the whole it has done more to improve the health and prosperity of our people than any single law ever before passed. By its help large marshes have been drained, lakes have been lowered, and immense tracts of unhealthy, disease-breeding swamp converted into excellent meadows, or in some cases into arable land.

The open ditches constructed under authority are to be dug as the officer in charge requires, but usually they have a width on the bottom depending on the area to be drained, and a uniform slope to the sides of 45°, or one foot horizontal to one foot in depth,-a slope somewhat flatter would no doubt be better. The standard railroad slope of 1 feet horizontal to one in depth would be none too much to secure permanency of the drain. It would however be more difficult to construct in boggy or grassy ground.

When the ground will admit the use of teams, open ditches can be constructed very cheaply, and given a very flat slope, with the plow and scraper. The practice of leaving the waste earth close to the banks of open ditches is a very pernicious one. This earth should be thrown well back from the ditch, and so leveled off or distributed as not to prevent the surface water from reaching the ditch. If it is left on the bank of the ditch its weight tends to cave the ditch in, it is also liable to be worked in by rains.

The construction of open ditches is less affected by variations from grade than a line of tile under-drains since the ditch is permanently open, obstructions to the flow of water can be seen and removed at any time. In practical work of construction, it has been found that good results are secured if stakes showing the depth are placed only once in twenty rods. In long lines of open ditches it is essential that a level of the line be taken, as in most cases the fall that can be secured is slight. This level is required in all town or county drains.

The least fall of large bodies of flowing water may be very small indeed. The average fall for the Amazon river is only six inches per mile. The average fall of the Lower Nile, seven inches per mile; the Lower Ganges, four inches; the average for the whole Mississippi, seventeen inches, below Cairo, twenty-eight inches; the Ohio, six inches. The Rhine is the most rapid large river in the world, its fall from Geneva to Lyon being eighty inches per mile, and from Lyon to its mouth, thirty-two inches per mile.

The flow of water, or strength of current, depends as well upon the volume and depth, as upon the slope. This fact has probably been noticed by all, that the flow through the same stream is much stronger at times of high water or freshets, than at low water. From observation of the action of the laws of nature in rivers, much can be learned in regard to the form and slope of open ditches.

From the fact that the strength of current depends upon the volume as well as the depth, this general law is observed, that the larger the drain the smaller the grade necessary to secure efficient working. The even, regular banks and direct course are also of advantage to the artificial, as compared with the natural stream. The least slope for ditches three or four feet wide across the bottom, should not average less than one foot per mile, although occasional stretches may be much less, provided a good body of water is flowing. Changes in the grade line, however, should be as slight as possible, otherwise material taken up by the water where the current is strong, will be deposited where it is slack. The action of a stream, itself, tends to a uniform grade line. There is also a maximum fall as well as a least fall. It is evident that the current should not be so great as to corrode and eat away the banks. The open ditch serves its purpose completely as an outlet for large swamps

and lakes, or underdrains, in fact, as an artificial water course of too great a size to be carried under ground with the means at present at our command. Its use is never to be commended when an underground drain can be substituted. It is open to the objections of being but a temporary construction, dangerous and inconvenient to cross, usurping valuable land, inefficient in its action, as the water reaches it rather by washing in at the surface than by percolation.

The open ditch has its part to play in the drainage works of a country, and in many places can never be replaced by the underdrain. It is, however, at best, a temporary construction, unless a heavy body of water flows through it; for every rain carries particles from its banks to its bottom, and every winter's frost exerts its power to fill it up, so that the construction of an open drain implies a continual bill for annual repairs, or else a gradual lessening of its efficiency.

THE UNDER-DRAIN.

Under-drains are the only ones that can in any way be considered as permanent, and these are not permanent unless properly constructed.

The outlet must be the first consideration in locating under-drains. It must be sufficiently low to allow a free flow of water from the drains. It is often a difficult thing to secure a good outlet, especially in a low, flat country, but it must be done before any successful drainage system can be carried out. The construction of township and county ditches has often to be resorted to before good outlets for tile drains can be secured.

DRAINAGE BY WELLS.

In several instances outlets have been obtained by digging large wells until water-taking strata are found, as shown in Fig. 3. As the construction of these wells forms an important method in drainage, and as I have much faith in their efficiency in many localities, I take time to describe in detail the method of constructing them.

Since, in order to be successful, watertaking strata must be found, this system is somewhat uncertain in its operation. There is no doubt that, in certain localities, water-taking strata are not to be found, or lie so deep as to render the sinking of wells to them impracticable. This uncertainty has, of late years, rendered this method of obtaining an outlet so unpopular that in practice it has seemed likely to be lost sight of. It has, however, been tried with success in Michigan, at Marshall, near Lake Superior, and in several other places on a small scale, and I have not heard of any trials in this State being unsuccessful.

Drain-well. Fig. 3.

This system is so inexpensive when it will work, that I would advocate its trial in the drainage of all large swamps where an open outlet cannot readily be obtained. The water-taking strata are usually of coarse sand or gravel, or sand and gravel combined. By driving a capped two-inch gas-pipe down a few feet at a time and withdrawing it, the character of the successive strata of earth can be accurately determined with little expense. The water-taking character

of the strata can be tested by pouring water down the pipe. The size of the well will depend on the area to be drained. It will probably be better to construct as many wells as may be needed, each with an internal diameter of six or eight feet, rather than try to make fewer wells of larger size. If the strata take water with great avidity, a two-inch drive-well might answer; but from considerations to be mentioned further on, such wells are not likely to be permanent.

How Constructed.

In the construction of these wells, certain important considerations are to be taken into account: First the well must have as large an area as possible in contact with the water-taking strata; second the water that enters the well must be as pure as possible. The first condition is secured by sinking a large well so deep into the strata that water will escape from the sides as well as from the bottom. The second condition is important, because the drainage water from all land, and especially from marshes, holds in suspension a fine dirt, termed silt, which is deposited when the water comes to a rest, covering

everything with a crust which would, in time, choke up the best drainage well ever made. We can prevent this dirt from getting into the well by the construction of settling or silt basins, which first receive the water and discharge it into the main well. The important thing in the construction of these silt basins is to make them large enough to hold considerable water, and to have the outlet of the outgoing pipe its diameter below that of the outlet of the incoming pipe. These settling basins may also receive the surface water. The construction is shown in Fig. 176, in which A is the settling basin and B the main drainage well.

More than one settling basin might be constructed on different sides of the well, if necessary. I would make the settling basin four feet in diameter, with a depth of three

Outlet of drain. Fig. 4. feet below the tile coming in.

The main drainage well should probably be filled with large, loose stones at least to the hight of the drain. However well drainage wells might answer, they can never be superior to a free outlet.

Protection to outlets.

The outlet to under-drains should be protected by some construction, as shown in Fig. 4, that will prevent the earth from falling in front of the drain. The best construction is a retaining wall of masonry laid in hydraulic cement. There should also be a coarse grating in front of a tile drain to prevent vermin from getting in. Coons, muskrats, and rats have been known to run up tile drains as far as they could go, and finally get lodged, and form an obstruction to the flow of water. The outlets should be free; that is, above the surface of still water, as standing water in a drain is liable to cause a deposit of silt. Common porous tiles should never be used for an outlet, as they are destroyed by freezing when wet. For the 16 feet nearest the outlet, either glazed tile or a triangular or diamond-shaped box of wood should be used. In nearly every kiln there are a few tiles burned so badly as to be in part vitrified. Such tiles, if of good shape and full size, would answer for outlet tiles.

THE LOCATION OF DRAINS.

So far as possible, drains should be located in such a manner that the water will flow with greatest velocity, provided, of course, the velocity is not so great as to injure the stability of the drain; this, I think, practically never happens. The greater the velocity the smaller the size of the pipe needed, and the less the cost of the work. The application of this rule would require the drains to run directly down all slopes, and that is about the only important principle to be borne in mind in locating drains, and should be applied whenever applicable. As an illustration I refer to Fig. 5, which is a sketch map not drawn to scale, of the drains actually constructed in the west part of the grounds of

the Agricultural College at Lansing, Mich. The outlet is protected by a stone wall at O, the main drain of four-inch tile passes up the valley, changing direction with it to E, a distance of 33 rods, having an average fall of two inches per rod. At this point the contour of the ground required an abrupt bend, and a silt basin, the construction of which will be described further on, was sunk at this point, principally to lessen friction from the abrupt bend, also to allow the workings of the drain to be examined, and retain silt from drains 12 and 13. From the silt basin a sub-main, marked 12 in the cut, was run, which received a number of laterals making an angle of forty-five degrees with the main, each terminating at the summit of the ridge.

From the main O D, a series of laterals, marked, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., were run directly up the slope; the angles made with the main drain being likely to make back currents, they were connected with the main by curves, as shown in the plan. Between drains 5 and the ends of 1, 2, 3, and 4 was a terrace, which it was impossible to pass through, and drains 5 and 6 were put in running diagonally down the slope. The sizes of the tiles used were, for main drain, four-inch; for drain No. 12, three-inch; for lower part of 13, three-inch; for the remainder of the drains, two-inch; area drained about twelve acres. The fall of the drain marked 12 was two inches per rod. The fall of the short laterals was often as much as four to six inches per rod. The foregoing example was chosen, not for its perfectness of detail, but as one which, although on