A "PRACTICAL" BEGINNING. 37 



upon a field, which, without this precaution, might 

 indeed be called, as it had been called, undrainable ; 

 and here I was, fairly planted, at the first onset. 

 Every inch of depth was of real value at the mouth 

 of so long a line of drain. "Three feet deep at 

 the outlet" was the modest extent of my demand ; 

 and there I stood, watching the tiles thrown in 

 pele-mSle to a depth of eighteen inches, which I 

 was given to understand was " about two feet deep," 

 with as cool an indifference to the other foot, as if 

 Two and Three had been recently determined, by 

 the common assent of mankind, to mean the same 

 thing. 



"But I must have it three feet deep!" 



"Oh it's no use : it'll never drain so deep as that 

 through this here clay ! " 



" But I tell you it must be ! There can be no fall 

 without it." 



"Well, I've been a-clraining this forty year, and I 

 ought to know summut about it." 



From that moment I date my experience in the 

 trials and troubles of farming ; at that instant my 

 eyes began to open to the true meaning of those 

 "practical difficulties" which the uninitiated laugh 

 at because they have never encountered them ; 

 and which the man of science despises who has 



