SOFT AND HARD-BURNED TILES. 43 



be any advantage in draining, with ordinary cultivation between 

 the drains. 



Col. Waring. I think there would, sir. I think all of us 

 who advocated subsoil ploughing so strenuously ten or fifteen 

 years ago, must feel a little humiliated, in view of the fact that 

 there are no subsoil ploughs used now. I don't believe sub- 

 soiling amounts to much. I believe you will deepen your loam 

 more by draining than by subsoiling ; and although there are 

 undoubted benefits to be derived from subsoiling, I don't believe 

 they are sufficient to pay for the expenditure of time and labor 

 involved. You want to plant ; you don't want to spend time 

 in subsoiling. 



Secretary Flint. Is it not a mistake to get tiles that are too 

 hard burned ? Are not tiles that are soft-burned much better ? 



Col. Waring. Tiles that are soft-burned are liable to imper- 

 fections that hard-burned tiles are not, and I think it is question- 

 able whether even glazed tiles, made perfectly impervious, are 

 not good as others, because the joints afford ample opportunity 

 for the water to get in. I forget the exact figures, but I think 

 it has been shown in England that with drains laid forty feet 

 apart, the fall of an inch of rain in an hour would be com- 

 pletely removed by the admission of two-thirds of a table-spoon- 

 ful per minute at each of those joints, and that is a small 

 quantity of water to leak through such a joint as you will have. 

 The tiles I have vised for the last three or four years have been 

 entirely impervious; as much so as if glazed. I think they 

 have answered a perfectly good purpose. They are much 

 stronger and much more uniform in shape than soft-burned 

 tiles. Soft tiles are apt to be bent and dented here and there, 

 and so lessen the flow of water ; but the tiles that I use, made 

 by Boynton, of Woodbridge, N. J., are perfectly straight, pressed 

 tiles. 



Dr. Loring. The question that has been asked here, as to 

 the difference between stone and tile drains is an interesting 

 one, and it seems to me that it can be answered somewhat by 

 observation, and somewhat through the experience of others. 

 I have tile drains and stone drains on my farm. The tile drains 

 were laid in 1857, and the stone drains were laid in 1861. 

 There is not a stone drain open to-day ; there is not a tile drain 

 which is stopped up. 



