104 AGRICULTURE. 



part.* When the Regent's Park was first drained, large 

 conduits were in fashion, and they were made circular by 

 placing one horseshoe tile upon another. It would be 

 difficult to invent a weaker conduit. On re-drainage, in- 

 numerable instances were found in which the upper tile 

 was broken through the crown, and had dropped into the 

 lower. Next came the Q form, tile and sole in one, and 

 much reduced in size a great advance ; and when some 

 skilful operator had laid this tile bottom upwards we were 

 evidently on the eve of pipes. For the ft tile a round 

 pipe moulded with a flat-bottomed solid sole _O_ is now 

 generally substituted, and is an improvement ; but is not 

 equal to pipes and collars, nor generally cheaper than they 

 are. 



Almost forty years ago, small pipes for land-drainage were 

 used concurrently by the following parties, who still had 

 no knowledge of each other's operations: Sir T. Wich- 

 cote, of Asgarby, Lincolnshire (these we believe were 

 socket-pipes) Mr. B. Harvey, at Epping Mr. Boulton 

 at Great Tew, in Oxfordshire (these were porcelain 1- 

 inch pipes made by Wedgwood, at Etruria) and Mr. John 

 Read, at Horsemonden, in Kent. Most of these pipes 

 were made with eyelet-holes to admit the water. Pipes 

 for thorough draining were incidentally mentioned in the 

 Journal of the Agricultural Society, for May 1843, but 

 they excited no .general attention till they were exhibited 

 by John Read (the inventor of the stomach-pump) at the 

 Agricultural Show at Derby in that year. A medal was 

 awarded to the exhibitor. Mr. Parkes was one of the 

 Judges, and brought the pipes to the special notice of the 

 Council, and was instructed by them to investigate their 



* The tile has heen said, by great authorities, to be broken by con- 

 traction, under some idea that the clay envelopes the tile and presses it 

 when it contracts. That is nonsense. The contraction would liberate 

 the tile. Drive a stake into wet clay; and when the clay is dry, observe 

 whether it clips the stake tighter or has released it, and you will no 

 longer have any doubt whether expansion or contraction breaks-the 

 tile. Shrink is a better word than contract. 



