be the place for the deposit of water the drain was to go directly
through the centre.

If you ever have a piece of draining to do the problem may not be so
simple as this. You may find several natural drainage areas. Then you
must lay drains through these. Or instead of separate drains make side
ones which empty into a main drain.

Going back again to the "sighting" for the drain bed level--the boys
have driven a stake into the ground. It stands five feet above the
ground level. If a tree had been in line with the drain line this might
have been used and saved driving the stakes. Across the stake, at right
angles to it, a board with a perfectly straight edge was nailed. This
board was about four feet long, one end pointed at the drain line. At
the other end Jay placed his eye looking across this to where Albert had
driven stakes.

One stake had been driven into the ground at the beginning where the
drain was to be dug; another at the extreme end or outlet of the drain.
Albert stood at the first stake and ran a little piece of paper slowly
up and down the stake until Jay raised his hand. This meant that the
paper was on the same line with the sighting board. Then Albert ran to
the other stake and did the same. The difference in these two points
gives the difference in level of the ground. Albert measured from the
ground to his mark on the first stake, and, doing the same in the case
of the other stake, found the difference to be eight inches. This was
too great a drop. Then the boys drove two stakes in between these others
and did the same work of level finding. From stake 1 to 2, or for the
first twenty-five feet there was no difference in level. For the first
fifty feet there was four inches drop; for the next twenty-five feet,