TILE AND PIPE DRAINING. 



Ill 



6. MAGNIFICENT AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS, AND THEIR 

 MORAL RESULTS. These may be considered as the general 

 principles of draining ; and, as I have before remarked, it must 

 be placed almost at the head of British agricultural improve 

 ments. Much as it has already done in connection with subsoil- 

 ploughingj it may be said only to have begun its work ; and it 

 seems destined to double, in many cases to quadruple, the agri 

 cultural products of the kingdom. The scale on which it has 

 been carried on, by some distinguished improvers, may well 

 excite surprise on the other side of the water. The Duke of 

 Portland, it is stated, had some time since completed more than 

 7000 miles of drainage on his estates, although much of this was 

 done before the system of subsoil-ploughing was introduced. 

 The Duke of Bedford informed me that he made about 200 

 miles of drainage on his estates in a year, and about 50 

 miles in his Park grounds. This was all executed in the most 

 excellent manner.* Lord Hatherton at Teddesley Park, whose 



* The Duke of Bedford was kind enough to give me, while enjoying the unaf 

 fected and princely hospitalities of Woburn Abbey, an account of his draining 1 

 operations for three years, which I shall here subjoin. It will interest an intel 

 ligent reader, by showing him the extent to which agricultural improvements are 

 carried in this country ; and it will illustrate another point, to which I have more 

 than once referred, the accuracy with which, on such estates, the farming accounts 

 are kept a matter which cannot be too much insisted on. 



&quot;*#n, Account of Draining on the Duke of Bedford s Bedfordshire Estates, in the 

 Years 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844. 



&quot; Note. The greater cost per acre of draining in the Park than upon the 



