Three persons are required to finish the bottom of the ditch; one to sight across the tops of the boning-rods, one to hold the plumb-rod at different points as the finishing progresses, and one in the ditch, (see Fig. 30,) provided with the finishing spade and scoop,—and, in hard ground, with a pick,—to cut down or fill up as the first man calls "too high," or, "too low." An inch or two of filling maybe beaten sufficiently hard with the back of the scoop, but if several inches should be required, it should be well rammed with the top of a pick, or other suitable instrument, as any subsequent settling would disarrange the fall. [Illustration: Fig. 31 - SIGHTING BY THE BONING-RODS.] Fig. 31 - SIGHTING BY THE BONING-RODS. As the lateral drains are to be laid first, they should be the first graded, and as they are arranged to discharge into the tops of the mains, their water will still flow off, although the main ditches are not yet reduced to their final depth. After the laterals are laid and filled in, the main should be graded, commencing at the upper end; the tiles being laid and covered as fast as the bottom is made ready, so that it may not be disturbed by the water of which the main carries so much more than the laterals. *Tile-Laying.*—Gisborne says: "It would be scarcely more absurd to set a common blacksmith to eye needles than to employ a common laborer to lay pipes and collars." The work comes under the head of _skilled labor,_ and, while no very great exercise of judgment is required in its performance, the little that is required is imperatively necessary, and the details of the work should be deftly done. The whole previous outlay,—the survey and staking of the field, the purchase of the tiles, the digging and grading of the ditches—has been undertaken that we may make the conduit of earthenware pipes which is now to be laid, and the whole may be rendered useless by a want of care and completeness in the performance of this chief operation. This subject, (in connection with that of finishing the bottoms of the ditches,) is very clearly treated in Mr. Hoskyns’ charming essay,(19) as follows: