London to John O Groat's. 15 



though he passes most of his time in summer at Tiptree. 

 But his foreman, who enters into all the experiments 

 and operations which have made the establishment so 

 famous, with almost equal interest and enthusiasm, took 

 me through the farm buildings, and all the fields, and 

 showed me the whole process and machinery employed. 

 Any English or American agriculturist who has read of 

 Alderman Mechi's operations, would be inclined to ask, 

 on looking, for the first time, at his buildings and the 

 fields surrounding them, what is the great distinguish- 

 ing speciality of his enterprise. His land is poor ; his 

 housings are simple ; there is no outside show of un- 

 common taste or genius. Every acre is tile-drained, to 

 be sure. But that is nothing new nor uncommon. 

 Drainage is the order of the day. Any tenant farmer 

 in England can have his land drained by the Grovern- 

 ment by paying six per cent, annually on the cost of 

 the job. His expenditure for artificial manures does 

 not exceed that of hundreds of good farmers. He 

 carries out the deep tillage system most liberally. So 

 do other scientific agriculturists in Europe and America. 

 Of course, a few hours' observation would not suffice for 

 a full and correct conclusion on this point, but it gave 

 me the impression that the great operation which has 

 won for the Tiptree Farm its special distinction, is its 

 irrigation with liquid manure. In this respect it stands 



