1857.] Chronicles of a Clay Farm. 491 



From "Talpa." 



CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



CHAPTEK IV.— A COIN VERT,— AND A HERETIC, 



(Continued from page 441.) 



We have read — and a little oftener than is pleasant — of victories 

 gained in the field and lost in the cabinet. The civil war that has 

 waged so long between the partisans of the deep and of the shallow 

 drain presents an experience the converse of this. Long after peace 

 had been proclaimed — upon pa-per — and most of the printed author- 

 ities had begun to pull together in favor of the deep drain — I say 

 most, for even to this day a parting shot is now and then heard for 

 the old system ; — long after the shallow advocates had written them- 

 selves round to the other side, the battle was still waging fiercely 

 out-of-doors. Truly may the draining-tile be said to have " fought 

 its way downward inch by inch." The benefit derived even from a 

 drain eighteen or twenty inches deep under the furrow which was 

 still retained, was so manifest and immediate, that the very improve- 

 ment itself prevented further improvement. A man who had shal- 

 low-drained one field, and found that even this did good, imagined 

 himself furnished with a practical argument against deep draining 

 though he had never tried it; like those who condemn books they 

 have never read, on the authority of opposite-thinking Reviewers 

 which they have read. 



This was precisely the sort of reasoning that lay fast and strong in 

 the skull of my old mas<e?--drainer; for master I saw he was determined 

 to be. The evidence of a hundred spirit-levels would have been 

 nc answer to " for<-y.years' experience " in ditching. Of this I was 

 quite sure: so we were at a dead pass. One or the other must give 

 way " and be forever fallen." It was easy to wish him forty years' 

 more experience — elsewhere — and " good morning;" but this would 

 be only cutting the knot, and probably entailing another in succes- 

 sion. (" Providence never interferes unless necessary") He was a 

 good workman, and his authority over his men not a thing that it 

 would be wise to shake, even had that been possible. A thought 

 occurred to me, a very bold thought, all things considered. I knew 



