VI] CHEQUERED CAREER OF THE CLAYS 93 



A careful survey by the owner showed the ap- 

 parently level area really had a fall of nine feet, so 

 that systematic drainage was quite possible. This 

 was clearly the first step to be taken. Calculations 

 were made to show the amount of fall that must be 

 obtained in each field, and the men were set to work 

 to open up the trenches, so that the levels might be 

 taken previous to laying in the pipes. With so small 

 a fall it was necessary that the work should be 

 accurately done. 



But the whole idea was new to the labourers. 

 They had never seen telescopes and levels and they 

 were convinced that the farm was level and un- 

 drainable. "The morning after my head-drainer 

 had commenced operations I found him hard at 

 work cutting a drain about eighteen inches deep, 

 laying m the tiles one by one, and filling the earth in 

 over them as he went /..J began something in this 

 way — ' Why, my good friend, what on earth are you 

 about ? Didn't I tell you to lay the drain open from 

 bottom to top, and that not a tile was to be put in 

 till I had seen it and tried the levels? '...Every inch 

 of depth was of value at the mouth of so long a 

 drain. * Three feet deep at the outlet' was the 

 modest extent of my demand ; and there I stood 

 watching the tiles thrown in p61e-m61e to a depth of 

 eighteen inches, which I was given to understand 

 was ' about two feet ' with as cool an indifibrence to 



