ny, the prescribed method
of best drainage in Scotland, and some parts of England. The
increased cost of adding the stone above the tile is obvious; and
when the width of that drain is enlarged to receive them, the cost
is materially enhanced. Yet such has been my practice, at first,
under the impression of its necessity, and all the time from a
desire to put to use, and out of sight, the small stones with which
I was favored in such abundance. The entire cost of moving, and
bringing more than 2,500 heavy loads of stone, is included in the
cost of drains, as set down for the 1,745 rods.

Including this part of expense, which is never _necessary_ with
tile, and cannot be incurred in plain clay soils, or clay loams
free of stones, the last 700 rods cost an average of 97 cents per
rod completed. This includes the largest mains; of which, one of 73
rods was opened four feet wide at bottom of the trench, of which
the channel capacity is 18 x 18 = 324 square inches, and others 110
rods of three and one-half and three feet width at bottom, all
these mains being laid entirely with stone. The remainder of the
700 rods was laid with two-inch tile, which cost at the farm
eighteen dollars per 1,000. These last were opened four rods apart,
and lay dry about seventeen acres, at a cost, including the mains,
of $678, or $40 per acre. In this is included every day's labor of
man and beast, and all the incidental expenses, nothing being
contributed by the farm, which is under lease.

I infer that an intelligent farmer, beginning aright, and availing
himself of the use of team and farm labor, when they can best be
spared from other work--as in the dry season, after haying--or
paying fair prices for digging his ditches only, and doing the rest
of the work from the farm, can drain thoroughly at a cost of $20
per acre, drains four rods apart, and four feet deep; or at $25 per
acre, forty feet apart, and three feet nine inches deep.

My subsoil is very hard, requiring constant use of the pick, and
sharpening of the picks every day, so that the labor of loosening
the earth was one-third or one-half more than the throwing out with
a shovel. The price paid per rod, for opening only, to the depth of
three and a half feet (or, perhaps, three and three-quarters
average,