grass re-appears, the water again
stands on the surface, and it is ascertained, on examination, that the
drain is in some place packed solid with earth, and is filled with
stagnant water.

The fault is by no means wholly in the material. In clay or hard pan,
such a drain may be made durable, with proper care, but it must be laid
deep enough to be beyond the effect of the treading of cattle and of
loaded teams, and the common action of frost. They can hardly be laid
low enough to be beyond the reach of our great enemy, the mole, which
follows relentlessly all our operations.

We recollect the remarks of Mr. Downing about the complaints in New
England, of injury to fruit-trees by the gnawing of field-mice.

He said he should as soon think of danger from injury by giraffes as
field-mice, in his own neighborhood, though he had no doubt of their
depredations elsewhere!

It may seem to many, that we lay too much stress on this point, of
danger from moles and mice. We know whereof we do testify in this
matter. We verily believe that we never finished a drain of brush or
stones, on our farm, ten rods long, that there was not a colony of these
_varmint_ in the one end of it, before we had finished the other. If
these drains, however, are made three or four feet deep, and the solid
earth rammed hard over the turf, which covers the stones, they will be
comparatively safe.

The figures 24 and 25 below, represent a mode of laying stone drains,
practiced in Ireland, which will be found probably more convenient and
secure than any other method, for common small drains. A flat stone is
set upright against one side of the ditch, which should be near the
bottom, perpendicular. Another stone is set leaning against the first,
with its foot resting against the opposite bank. If the soil be soft
clay, a flat stone may be placed first on the bottom of the ditch, for
the water to flow upon; but this will be found a great addition to the
labor, unless flat stones of peculiarly uniform shape and thickness are
at hand. A board laid at the bottom will be usually far cheaper, and
less liable to cause obstructions.

[Illustration: Figs. 24, 25.--STONE DRAINS.]

Figure 25 represents the ditch without the small stones above the duct.
These small stones are, in nine cases in ten, worse than useless, for
they are not only unnecessary to admit the water, but furnish a harbor
for mice and other vermin.

Drawings, representing a filling of small