226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



More than ninety miles of drain tiles have been laid, at dis- 

 tances of four yards apart, and from thirty-two inches to five 

 feet deep. The soil is stiff and retentive, with a loamy sub- 

 soil, and without draining not very productive. The depth of 

 the more recently laid drains is mucli greater than those laid 

 when the operations were begun twenty years ago, experience 

 having taught that the deep drains, often five or six feet, are 

 the most effective. But Mr. Mechi thinks that ordinarily in 

 strong tenacious soils four or five feet is enough, the distance 

 between the drains being about thirty-three feet. In making a 

 five feet drain the opening at the top is but eighteen inches, 

 thus saving the labor of digging any unnecessary amount of 

 earth. The pipe most frequently used is one inch bore, that 

 being sufficient to remove the water under any ordinary 

 circumstances. For every three hundred yards of drain he 

 thinks there should be a leader or main drain, and an open 

 ditch for every seven or eight acres. 



Mr. Mechi believes in thin sowing, after his lands are prop- 

 erly drained and prepared. He sows but one bushel of wheat 

 per acre, but then thin sown wheat requires weeding, which is 

 done with a horse machine. All his wheat crops are drilled in, 

 which makes it very easy to weed and stir the soil often. The 

 wheat, when I was tliere, was as stout and good as I ever saw, 

 and the foreman said he should get sixty bushels per acre on one 

 or two of the lots, and from fifty-six to sixty on all. For barley he 

 sows from six to eight pecks, and for oats two bushels per acre. 



I could not help observing that every thing about the prem- 

 ises looked as if designed for use and profit, rather than for 

 show. Nothing, or very little, appeared as if designed for 

 mere fancy. There was an air of work about the whole which 

 was hardly to be expected on an English farm. Steam is made 

 to do a great variety of things, and I had an opportunity of 

 seeing tlie processes of grinding grain, cutting and pulping 

 roots, sawing, <fcc., while all the threshing, the irrigation, and 

 many other operations are carried on by means of steam-])()wer. 



Among the growing crops were large fields of beans, and I 

 noticed that tliis formed an important, almost a staple cro[) in 

 many parts of England. This crop ought, probably, to be 

 mnch more generally cultivated and fed to stock by us than it 

 is, for it is excellent, especially as a feed for sheep. By raising 



