her side. There is a lifting apparatus at the end of the
machine, by which the cutting-wheel may be raised or lowered, according
to the unevenness of the surface, in order to secure a uniform fall in
the bottom of the drain. The whole process is carried on at the rate of
about four feet per minute, and it results, on suitable soils, in
cutting a drain from three to five feet deep, leaving it in a finished
state, with a level bottom for the tiles to rest upon. We give the cut
and statement from the Cyclopaedia of Agriculture, and if the machine
shall prove what it is represented to be, we see but little more to be
desired in a ditching machine. The principle of this implement appears
to us to be the correct one, and we see no reason to doubt the
statement of its performance.

Routt's drain plow is designed for surface-draining merely. We give,
from the _New England Farmer_, a statement of its merits, as detailed by
a correspondent who saw it at the exhibition of the U. S. Agricultural
Society at Richmond, in 1858:

"One of the most attractive implements on the Fair ground, to the
farmer, was A. P. Routt's patent drain plow. This implement makes a
furrow a foot deep, two feet and a half wide at the top, and four inches
wide at the bottom, the sides sloping at such an angle as to insure the
drain from falling in by the frost, the whole being perfectly completed
at one operation by this plow, or tool. Those who have tried it say it
is the very thing for surface-draining, which, on wet lands, is
certainly very beneficial where under-draining has not been done. The
manufacturer resides in Somerset, Orange County, Va. The plow is so made
that it opens a deep furrow, turning both to the right and left, and is
followed by a heavy iron roller that hardens the earth, both on the
sides and the bottom of the surface-drain, thus doing very handsome
work. The price, as heretofore stated, is $25, and with it, a man can,
with a good pair of team horses, surface-drain 60 acres of land a day."

CHAPTER XII.

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR OPENING DRAINS AND LAYING TILES.

Begin at the Outlet.--Use of Plows.--Levelling the Bottom.--Where
to begin to lay Pipes.--Mode of Procedure.--Covering
Pipes.--Securing Joints.--Filling.--Securing Outlets.--Plans.

In former chapters, we have spoken minutely of the arrangement, depth,
distance, and width of drains; and in treating of tools for drainage, we
have sufficiently descri