UNDERDRAINING. 121 



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drains, even had they lain immediately about the field, and 

 he will be able to judge of the comparative economy of the 

 two systems. And considering the character of the soil and the 

 level of the field, I have no doubt that stone drains would have 

 been ere this inoperative. I doubt if clay beds can be properly 

 drained by any such method. I have in my mind a beautiful 

 meadow which was drained nearly thirty years ago with stone 

 drains, and brought for the time into fine grass land, but which 

 is now rapidly returning to its original aquatic vegetation. The 

 drains are evidently obstructed. The work is evidently a 

 failure. And why ? 



In answering this question, I am brought to the consid- 

 eration of a point frequently brought forward in all discussions 

 upon thorough drainage with tiles. Place a tile into the hands 

 of any man, or show him a tile-drain laid and ready for cov- 

 ering, and he will almost invariably ask you how the water 

 enters the pipe. Mr. French in his work seems to adopt the 

 theory of Mr. Parkes, that five hundred times as much water 

 enters a drain at the crevices or joints, as through the pores 

 of the tile. This may be so. But one thing should be remem- 

 bered — that no crevice should be large enough to admit parti- 

 cles of earth with the water, if the water passage is to be kept 

 free from obstruction. The great advantage of tiles over stones 

 is, that they strain the water out of the soil without admitting 

 any earthy particles along with it — an operation impossible in 

 a stone drain. And unless the crevices or joints are close 

 enough to perform this duty, the drain must be a failure. 

 Now take any number of feet of two inch pipe properly laid, 

 with the joints carefully adjusted, and the space occupied by 

 the crevices is very small in comparison with cubic inches of 

 the bore. Yet from this pipe will be discharged at times a 

 stream of its full capacity. Would not crevices large enough 

 to admit this volume of water endanger the drain ? I have no 

 doubt that tiles act as strainers, all along their course. The 

 insinuating power of water in the soil is well known. It 

 pursues its course in obedience to the laws of gravitation with 

 a persistency almost unequalled. The drop that falls upon a 

 hill-side commences at once its journey to its level, and nothing 

 stops it. No soil is so hard that the hidden vein may not be 

 discovered winding its way through it on its mysterious errand. 

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