rapidly, and are not liable to become obstructed if properly protected
at points of discharge by gratings, so that vermin cannot enter. They
should not be laid near willow, elm, and other trees of like
character, or else the fibrous roots will penetrate and fill the
channel. If one has a large problem of drainage to solve, he should
carefully read a work like Geo. E. Waring's "Drainage for Profit and
for Health;" and if the slope or fall of some fields is very slight,
say scarcely one foot in a hundred, the services of an engineer should
be employed and accurate grades obtained. By a well-planned system,
the cost of draining a place can be greatly reduced, and the water
made very useful.

On my place at Cornwall I found three acres of wet land, each in turn
illustrating one of the causes which make drainage necessary. I used
stone, because, in some instances, no other material would have
answered, in others partly because I was a novice in the science of
drainage, and partly because I had the stones on my place, and did not
know what else to do with them. I certainly could not cart them on my
neighbors' ground without having a surplus of hot as well as cold
water, so I concluded to bury them in the old-fashioned box-drains.
Indeed, I found rather peculiar and difficult problems of drainage,
and the history of their solution may contain useful hints to the
reader.

In front of my house there is a low, level plot of land, containing
about three acres. Upon this the surface water ran from all sides, and
there was no outlet. The soil was, in consequence, sour, and in
certain spots only a wiry marsh grass would grow. And yet it
required, but a glance to see that a drain, which could carry off this
surface water immediately, would render it the best land on the place.