ar exceed that of a tile drain,
with tiles at fair prices. The tiles, if well secured at the inlet and
outlet of the drain, will entirely exclude rats and mice, which always
infest stone drains to cellars. Care must be taken, if the water is
conducted on the surface of the cellar into the drain, that nothing but
pure water be admitted. This may be effected by a fine strainer of wire
or plate; or by a cess-pool, which is better, because it will also
prevent any draft of air through the drain.

The very best method of draining a cellar is that adopted by the writer,
on his own premises. It is, in fact, a mere application of the ordinary
principles of field drainage. The cellar was dug in sand, which rests on
clay, a foot or two below the usual water-line in winter, and a drain of
chestnut plank laid from the cellar to low land, some 20 rods off. Tiles
were not then in use in the neighborhood, and were not thought of, when
the house was built.

In the Spring, water came up in the bottom of the cellar, and ran out in
little hollows made for the purpose, on the surface.

Not liking this inconvenient wetness, we next dug trenches a few inches
deep, put boards at the sides to exclude the sand, and packed the
trenches with small stones. This operated better, but the mice found
pleasant accommodations among the stones, and sand got in and choked the
passage. Lastly, tiles came to our relief, and a perfect preventive of
all inconvenient moisture was found, by adopting the following plan:

The drain from the cellar was taken up, and relaid 18 inches below the
cellar-bottom, at the outlet. Then a trench was cut in the
cellar-bottom, two feet from the wall, a foot deep at the farthest
corner from the outlet, and deepening towards it, round the whole
cellar, following the course of the walls. In this trench, two-inch pipe
tiles were laid, and carefully covered with tan-bark, and the trenches
filled with the earth. This tile drain was connected with the outlet
drain 18 inches under ground, and the earth levelled over the whole.
This was done two years ago, and no drop of water has ever been visible
in the cellar since it was completed. The water is caught by the drain
before it rises to the surface, and conducted away.

Vegetables of all kinds are now laid in heaps on the cellar-bottom,
which is just damp enough to pack solid, and preserves vegetables
better, in a dry cellar, than casks, or bins with floors.

A little sketch of