s for them
as may lie within our reach, selecting one or another according as
material is convenient.

PLUG-DRAINING

has never been, that we are aware, practiced in America. Our knowledge
of it is limited to what we learn from English books. We, therefore,
content ourselves with giving from Morton's Cyclopedia the following
description and illustrations.

"_Plug-draining_, like mole-draining, does not require the use of
any foreign material--the channel for the water being wholly formed
of clay, to which this kind of drain, like that last mentioned is
alone suited.

"This method of draining requires a particular set of tools for its
execution, consisting of, first, a common spade, by means of which
the first spit is removed, and laid on one side; second, a
smaller-sized spade, by means of which the second spit is taken
out, and laid on the opposite side of the trench thus formed;
third, a peculiar instrument called a bitting iron (Fig. 11),
consisting of a narrow spade, three and a half feet in length, and
one and a half inches wide at the mouth and sharpened like a
chisel; the mouth, or blade, being half an inch in thickness in
order to give the necessary strength to so slender an implement.
From the mouth, _a_, on the right-hand side, a ring of steel, _b_,
six inches long and two and a half broad, projects at right angles;
and on the left, at fourteen inches from the mouth, a tread, _c_,
three inches long, is fitted.

[Illustration: Fig. 11.]

"A number of blocks of wood, each one foot long, six inches high,
and two inches thick at the bottom, and two and a half at the top,
are next required. From four to six of these are joined together by
pieces of hoop-iron let into their sides by a saw-draught, a small
space being left between their ends, so that when completed, the
whole forms a somewhat flexible bar, as shown in the cut, to one
end of which a stout chain is attached. These blocks are wetted,
and placed with the narrow end undermost, in the bottom of the
trench, which should be cut so as to fit them closely; the clay
which has been dug out is then to be returned, by degrees, upon the
blocks, and rammed down with a wooden rammer three inches wide. As
soon as the portion of the trench above the blocks, or plugs, has
been filled, they are drawn for