ward, by means of a lever thrust
through a link of the chain, and into the bottom of the drain for a
fulcrum, until they are all again exposed, except the last one. The
further portion of the trench, above the blocks, is now filled in
and rammed, and so on the operations proceed until the whole drain
is finished."

[Illustration: Fig. 12.--PLUG DRAINAGE.]

MOLE DRAINING.

We hear of an implement, in use in Illinois and other Western States,
called the Gopher Plow, worked by a capstan, which drains wet land by
merely drawing through it an iron shoe, at about two and a half feet in
depth, without the use of any foreign substance.

We hear reports of a mole plow, in use in the same State, known by the
name of Marcus and Emerson's Patent Subsoiler, with which, an informant
says, drains are made also in the manner above named. This machine is
worked by a windlass power, by a horse or yoke of oxen, and the price
charged is twenty-eight cents a rod for the work. These machines are,
from description, modifications of the English Mole Plow, an implement
long ago known and used in Great Britain.

[Illustration: Fig. 13.--MOLE PLOW.]

The following description is from Morton's Cyclopedia:

"_Mole-Drains_ are the simplest of all the forms of the covered
drains. They are formed by means of a machine called the mole plow.
This machine consists of a long wooden beam and stilts, somewhat in
the form of the subsoil plow; but instead of the apparatus for
breaking up the subsoil in the latter, a short cylindrical and
pointed bar of iron is attached, horizontally, to the lower end of
the broad coulter, which can be raised or lowered by means of a
slot in the beam. The beam itself is sheathed with iron on the
under side, and moves close to the ground; thus keeping the bar at
the end of the coulter at one uniform depth. This machine is
dragged through the soft clay, which is the only kind of land on
which it can be used with propriety, by means of a chain and
capstan, worked by horses, and produces a hollow channel very
similar to a mole-run, from which it derives its name."

A correspondent of the _New York Tribune_ thus describes the operation
and utility of a mole plow, which he saw on the farm of Major A. B.
Dickinson, of Hornby, Steuben County, New York:

"I believe there is not a rod of tile laid on this farm, and not a