126 AGRICULTURE. 



gratification of quoting from his letter the following testi- 

 mony " I do not think that the article admits of improve- 

 ment by addition, certainly not by omission." Sir Robert 

 then suggests that drawings of some of the necessary 

 draining tools should accompany the reprint. We have 

 selected from a sheet of patterns, furnished to us by Mr. 

 Walter Adams Lyndon, of Birmingham, those tools with- 

 out which, in our opinion, 4 or 5 feet drains cannot be 

 neatly or economically executed. 



A suggestion made by Sir R. Peel in the letter to which 

 we have referred, will carry most weight if given in his 

 own wards : " Many of those who drain extensively neg- 

 lect to have a plan of the draining of each field made at 

 the time that the work is done. A hint as to the advan- 

 tage of this might be advisable." The plough soon oblite- 

 rates all superficial traces of the drains ; and we know by 

 experience how soon every one concerned either forgets, or 

 remembers very inaccurately, their precise position. 



The very inappropriate and unpleasing name of cesspool 

 has been given to a device for securing at all times an easy 

 inspection of the working of drains, at points in their inter- 

 mediate course. At the confluence of two or more drains, 

 or at any suspicious point in an important drain, a perpen- 

 dicular drop of 2 or 3 inches is made in the floor, and (as 

 we have seen at Drayton Manor) an earthenware article, of 

 length proportioned to the depth of the drain, and shaped 

 like a chimney-pot, is introduced. It is made with such 

 holes as may be requisite for receiving the nose of a pipe 

 from each delivering-drain at the higher level, and the nose 

 of the discharge-pipe at the lower. In lieu of the chimney- 

 pot, a hole a foot square, bricked up (with the same ar- 

 rangement of the noses of the pipes) to the surface of the 

 ground, will answer the same end. The top in either case 

 may be covered with a stone flag or wooden lid. Lift up the 

 lid, and a glance shows you whether the drains concerned 

 are doing their duty. These peep-holes are very cheerful 

 things. Nothing gladdens the heart of an agriculturist more 



