durm<y the last Four Years. 173 



o 



more interesting for a country gentleman than to occupy a farm 

 ready made to his hands because it is the one nearest his dwelling. 

 I am sure a strenuous effort ought to be made for attaining this 

 object. All cannot be done at once ; but injustice to our tenants, 

 we ought to begin in earnest, not regarding with indifference farms 

 poached with watei', but considering the want of drainage on any 

 part of our property as a defect, and in some degree a discredit. 

 Every land-steward should survey his employer's estate with this 

 special view, lay the result before his employer, and suggest matured 

 plans for drying the soil. 



The best materials for draining are tiles : indeed, where the 

 fall is slight, the water does not flow through broken stones ; and 

 if the stones must be brought from a distance, the labour of 

 drawing them is too heavy. Hitherto, however, the cost of tiles 

 has been a great check to their employment ; but two years ago 

 we discovered that while 406"., 50.y., and even 606". per thousand 

 were paid for tiles in the south of England, Mr. Beart, of God- 

 manchester, five years before had invented a simple machine by 

 which he had reduced the price of tiles from 406'. to 22s. through- 

 out Huntingdonshire. His statement was as follows : — 



'* The price of furrow-draining tiles has fluctuated here from 20?. to 

 22s. per 1000 : at these reduced prices the consumption of tiles has in- 

 creased greatly. As a proof of that increased consumption, and of the 

 great quantity manufactured, it was publicly stated at a late meeting of 

 agriculturists at Huntingdon, that one tenant-farmer last year consumed 

 520,000 draining-tiles. I wish to point out to tile-makers, that whether 

 the making of draining-tiles be performed by machinery or by hand- 

 labour only, they may be made at prices much below what they now 

 cost in many parts of the country, and thus enable the makers so to 

 reduce the price of tiles that the consumption will augment as it has in 

 this county. Though the profit on a single thousand of tiles will be 

 less, still the quantity they would sell would be so increased that the 

 profits of their works would be larger. By the introduction of machi- 

 nery, which led to the change of system in this county, a reduction of 

 15^. per 1000 was effected in one season, and during the las I Jive years 

 the number of tile-works has been doubled.'''' * 



The price of tiles depends partly on that of the coals used in 

 burning them. Mr. Beart states that in Huntingdonshire, where 

 coals cost 23s. per ton, tiles are sold for 22s. ; and that with one 

 ton of coals he burns 3500 tiles. Where coals then cost 16.9., 

 tiles would cost 20s. ; and where 376., 265. per thousand. At 

 our Bristol meeting a new tile-machine was shown by Mr. Irving; 

 it is praised by our Judges, and described in this Journal by 

 Mr. Ford, whose estimate of the cost of labour in tile-making 

 agrees closely with Mr. Beart's. Lord Tweeddale's most inge- 

 nious machine is also now reduced in size, so as to be worked by 



* See account of Mr. Beart's machine, Journal, vok ii. p. 93. 



