DRAINAGE. 105 



use and merits. From this moment inventions and im- 

 provements huddle in upon us faster than we can describe 

 them. Collars to connect the pipes, a new form of drain, 

 tools of new forms, particularly one by which the pipe 

 and collar are laid with wonderful rapidity and precision, 

 by an operator who stands on the top of the drain and 

 pipe-and-collar-making machines (stimulated by repeated 

 prizes offered by the Royal Agricultural Society), which 

 furnish those articles on a scale of unexampled cheapness. 

 For all these inventions and adaptations we are mainly in- 

 debted to Mr. Parkes. The economical result is, a drain 

 4 feet 6 inches deep, excavated and refilled at from l%d. 

 to 2rf. per yard the workmen earning 12s. and upwards 

 per week; and 333 yards of collared 1^-inch pipes for 

 18s. being 12s. per thousand for the pipes, and 6s. per 

 thousand for the collars ; larger sizes at a proportionate 

 advance. We shall best exemplify the improvements to 

 our readers by describing the drain. It is wrought in the 

 shape of a wedge, brought in the bottom to the narrowest 

 limit which will admit the collar by tools admirably adapted 

 to that purpose. The foot of the operator is never within 

 20 inches of the floor of the drain ; his tools are made of 

 iron plated on steel, and never lose their sharpness, even 

 when worn to the stumps ; because, as the softer material, 

 the iron, wears away, the sharp steel edge is always promi- 

 nent. The sloping sides of the drain are self-sustaining, 

 and the pressure on its floor is reduced to a minimum ; the 

 circular form of the pipe and collar enables them to sus- 

 tain any pressure to which they can be subjected ; the 

 adaptation of the bed in which they lie to their size pre- 

 vents their wriggling. They form a continuous conduit, and. 

 whose continuity cannot be broken except by great violence. 

 However steep the drain, the water running in the pipe 

 can never wash up its floor. They offer almost insuperable 

 impediments to the entrance of vermin, roots,* or anything 



* I am afraid that I must materially modify this expression, as far as 

 roots are concerned. The words " almost insuperable impediments" are 



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