TRANSACTIONS. 263 



the cold water begins to do its secret -n-ork upon the crops. 

 Like many of our best farmers, he feels the want of drain 

 tiles at a reasonable price. 



Why are Drain Tiles better than Stone or Wood? We 

 may answer briefly, they are better, because they are more 

 durable than any other drain, being so far as ascertained, 

 imperishable when properly laid. They are better, again, 

 because mice and other vermin cannot live in them, or 

 destroy them. They are better, because they drain more 

 evenly than anything else. The labor of excavating is much 

 less than for other drains, as the trenches may be very nar- 

 row. Finally if the tiles can be obtained at the fair price 

 of manufacturing, say $12 per 1,000, they are cheaper in 

 the first cost than stone lying on the farm, because they 

 are so much more cheaply laid. There are no tile works 

 in New England that I know of, except in one town in 

 Massachusetts, and the cost of freight from there or from 

 Albany, where some three millions are made every year, 

 nearly doubles the cost to us in New Hampshire. 



But let there be a demand and the supply will come. "We 

 have clay and capital, and men, and can have tile works, 

 whenever the farmers make known their wants. For one 

 I am determined to try the experiment of tile draining, 

 though at too great cost for profit perhaps, on my own 

 farm. The whole subject requires discussion. The old 

 fogies, if a cant congressional term is allowable, of course 

 will declare that this country does not require draining, 

 and that if it did stones are bestj but the young farmers 

 who have their living to get off of land that has been 

 skinned, will work deeper than their fathers, and a few 

 years will show a systematic course of thorough draining 

 with tiles, on good farms. 



