foot pole was easily
thrust down out of sight, perpendicularly, into it! Here was a dilemma!
How could a heavy wall and building stand on that foundation? A skillful
engineer was consulted, who had seen heavy brick blocks built in just
such places, and who pronounced this a very simple case to manage. "If,"
said he, "the mud cannot get up, the wall resting on it cannot settle
down." Upon this idea, by his advice, we laid our wall, on thick plank,
on the clay, so as to get an even bearing, and drove down, against the
face of the wall, edge to edge, two-inch plank to the depth of about
three feet, leaving them a foot above the bottom of the wall. Against
this, we rammed coarse gravel very hard, and left the bottom of the
cellar one foot above the bottom of the wall, so that the weight might
counterbalance the pressure of the wall and building. The building has
been in constant use, and appears not to have settled a single inch.

The cellar was first used only for manure, and for keeping swine. It was
quite wet, and grew more and more so every year, as the water found
passages into it, till it was found that its use must be abandoned, or
an amphibious race of pigs procured. It was known, that the most of the
water entered at the north corner of the building, borne up by the clay
which comes to within three feet of the natural surface; and, as it
would be ruinous to the manure to leach it, by drawing a large quantity
of water through it into drains, in the usual mode of draining, it was
concluded to cut off the water on the outside of the building, and
before it reached the cellar. Accordingly, a drain was started at the
river, some twenty rods below, and carried up to the barn, and then
eight feet deep around two sides of it, by the north corner, where most
water came in.

We cut through the sand, and four or five feet into the clay, and laid
one course only of two-inch pipe-tiles at the bottom. As this was
designed for a catch-water, and not merely to take in water at the
bottom, in the usual way, we filled the trench, after covering the tiles
with tan, with coarse sand above the level of the clay, and put clay
upon the top. We believe no water has ever crossed this drain, which
operates as perfectly as an open ditch, to catch all that flows upon it.
The manure cellar was then dry enough, but the other cellar was wanted
for roots and implements, and the water was constantly working up
through the soft clay bottom, keepin