26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Cnpt. Moore. All the water •that comes into the tile 

 comes ill at the bottom, if it is well laid. You don't want 

 any surface water drawn in at the top of your drain, for 

 that is what fills your drain up. 



Mr. W. R. Sessions, of Hampden. I do not agree with 

 those who claim that tile drains are better than stone drains, 

 in all cases, because men who live among the hills have 

 pieces of land to drain that are by no means level ; they are 

 sometimes quite precipitous. I do not need to tell any one 

 that a drain where there is plenty of Ml will not fill up, 

 and in those cases a stone drain is just as good as a tile 

 drain, and gives you an opportunity to dispose of the 

 stones, which are a nuisance. I know of stone drains in 

 my own town, — not laid stone drains, but ditches filled 

 within about a foot of the surface with small stones tipped 

 out of a cart, — that have been there for some twenty-five 

 years, and they are as efScient as any drain can possibly be. 

 They are in a close soil, and there is plenty of pitch to 

 carry the water off. 



Let us be careful about undertaking to lay down an ar- 

 bitrary rule that shall prevent our taking advantage of our 

 circumstances. Let us be careful about laying down as an 

 axiom a rule that has its exceptions. I believe that the 

 essayist recommended stone drains where there were stones 

 to be disposed of, which would offset the difference in ex- 

 pense between stone and tile drains ; I don't think he put 

 stone drains first because they were the best, by any manner 

 of means. 



Mr. Pierce. I hope I have not been misunderstood on 

 this point. Mr. Sessions states my meaning. My essay 

 was designed for the class of practical farmers, who wish to 

 improve their farms and secure the best crops they can with 

 a limited outlay. I spoke of irrigation from public sources 

 of Avater supply as being desirable where men had valuable 

 land for market gardening and sufficient means to carry on 

 such operations ; and in case of those who had not the 

 means, or were not so situated that they could resort to 

 irrigation, I spoke of tillage as a substitute. But in regard 

 to drainage, there are many farmers who, like myself, have 

 a great many stone heaps and stone walls, very difficult to 



