London to John O 1 Groat's. 17 



prevent any sediment in the great reservoir, or to make 

 an even mixture of the liquified manure, a hose is 

 attached to the engine, and the other end dropped into 

 the mass. Through this a constant volume of air is 

 propelled with such force as to set the whole boiling and 

 foaming like a little cataract. One man at the engine 

 and two at the hose in the distant field perform the 

 whole operation. The chapped and " baky " surface of 

 the farm is thus softened and enriched at will, and ren- 

 dered productive. 



Now, this operation seems to constitute the present 

 distinctive speciality of Alderman Mechi's Tiptree Farm. 

 Will it pay? ask a thousand voices. In how many 

 years will he get his money back ? Give us the 

 balance sheet of the experiment. A New Englander, 

 favorably impressed with the process, would be likely 

 to answer these questions by another, and ask, will 

 drainage pay ? Not in one year, assuredly, nor in five ; 

 not in ten, perhaps. The British Government assumes 

 that all the expenditure upon under-drainage will be 

 paid back in fifteen or twenty years at the farthest. It 

 lends money to the landowner on this basis ; and the 

 landowner stipulates with his tenant that he shall reim- 

 burse him by annual instalments of six or seven per 

 cent, until the whole cost of the operation is liquidated. 

 Thus the tenant-farmer is willing to pay six, sometimes 



