TILE DRAINING. 



I have preferred to head this article as I have, rather than 

 to say simply " draining " or "under-draining," because I 

 believe in the use of tiles under all circumstances when it 

 is possible to procure them, and because the making of stone 

 drains is understood by every farmer who lives in a region 

 that is blessed with wet land and stone. 



At the same time, I would not be thought to undervalue 

 the usefulness of stone drains. Neither the stone nor the 

 tile has any influence, in itself, on the fertility of the soil. 

 Any material by the use of which we can make a passage- 

 way through the soil will make a perfectly good drain, as 

 long as it keeps tlie passage open. 



The question is to be decided simply by the consideration 

 of cost and durability ; and here the tiles have an immense 

 advantage. 



In the first place, they are very much cheaper than stone ; 

 and in the second, the drain which they make is very much 

 more likely to be permanent. 



It will, I am aware, strike many farmers whose land is 

 encumbered with stones, as a singular proposition that it is 

 cheaper to pay twenty-five or thirty dollars per acre for tiles, 

 when there are stones on the place that it would be an ad- 

 vantage to get rid of, But it is a fact, nevertheless. The 



