TILE DRAINS. 157 



are found effectual, especially if the operation of sub- 

 soiling, either by plough or spade, is at the same time 

 performed. Subsoiling by the spade is an excellent 

 operation, and can be very cheaply executed by con- 

 tract ; in some districts for £2 an acre, to a depth of 

 18 inches ; though anything below £3 an acre, for effec- 

 tive subsoiling to that depth, is believed to be an 

 excellent and remunerative expenditure. 



In the clay-slate districts of the west of Clare, west 

 of Limerick, Kerry, and North Cork, I should fear the 

 draining would not be perfectly efficient with drains at 

 a much greater distance apart than 24 feet. 



There are now tileries, in forty-seven different localities 

 in Ireland, where pipe-tiles of excellent quality are manu- 

 factured. To the increase of this branch much encou- 

 ragement should be given. I have no hesitation in 

 expressing my opinion of the superiority of tile over 

 stone drainage, especially on level land, and particu- 

 larly in regard to the better adaptation of the tile for 

 circulating air through the subsoil, the ameliorating 

 effects of which are now recognised as a most import- 

 ant adjunct to thorough drainage. 



The cost of progress inspections amounts to £l, 16s. 

 per cent on the expenditure, which is thought very 

 moderate, when it is considered that the works are 

 scattered over every part of the country, even to the 

 most remote of the western promontories, while the 

 inspectors had frequently to deal with proprietors who 

 were not men of business habits, with unskilful over- 

 seers, and, in the western districts, with labourers whose 

 spirit of industry and self-reliance had been deadened, 



