102 AGRICULTURE. 



the conduit. Such soils are generally very firm. A narrow 

 slab or inch board, fitting the bottom of the drain, will be 

 a secure foundation for stone, a foot in depth, laid in the 

 form which its nature may suggest. We will answer for 

 the board. In taking up considerable lengths of drains 

 5 and 6 feet deep, and so laid more than sixty years ago, 

 we have seen no instance in which either oak, alder, birch, 

 or willow has been materially decayed ; twigs and sticks, 

 from similar depths, have been equally sound and tough. 

 In the comparatively rare cases to which we have referred, 

 we permit, without approval, the use of a stone conduit. 

 We know no instance in which it is worth while (as Smith 

 recommends) to quarry and break stones to form a con 

 duit. 



We shall shock some and surprise many of our readers, 

 when we state confidently that, in average soils, and, still 

 more, in those which are inclined to be tender, horseshoe 

 tiles form the weakest and most failing conduit which has 

 ever been used for a deep drain. It is so, however; and a 

 little thought, even if we had no experience, will tell us 

 that it must be so. A doggrel song, quite destitute of 

 humour, informs us that tiles of this sort were used in 

 1760 at Grandesburg Hall, in Suffolk, by Mr. Charles 

 Lawrence, the owner of the estate. The earliest of which 

 we had experience were of large area and of weak form. 

 Constant failures resulted from their use, and the cause 

 was investigated; many of the tiles were found to be 

 choked up with clay, and many to be broken longitudinally 

 through the crown. For the first evil, two remedies were 

 adopted ; a sole of slate, of wood, or of its own material, 

 was sometimes placed under the tile, but the more usual 

 practice was to form them with club-feet. To meet the 

 case of longitudinal fracture, the tiles were reduced in size, 

 and very much thickened in proportion to their area. The 

 first of these remedies was founded on an entirely mistaken, 

 and the second on no conception at all of the cause of the 

 evil to which they were respectively applied. The idea 



