22 A Walk from 



way lie undertakes to answer them, beginning with the 

 last. 



About twenty years ago, he inaugurated the system 

 of under-draining the heavy tile-clay lands in Essex. 

 Up to his experiment, the process was deemed imprac- 

 ticable and worthless by the most intelligent farmers of 

 the county. It was more confidently decried than his 

 present irrigation system. The water would never find 

 its way down into the drain-pipes through such clay. 

 It stood to reason that it would do no such thing. Did 

 not the water stand in the track of the horse's hoof in 

 such clay until evaporated by the sun? It might as 

 well leak through an earthenware basin. It was all 

 nonsense to bury a man's money in that style. He 

 never would see a shilling of it back again. In the 

 face of these opinions, Mr. Mechi went on, training 

 his pipes through field after field, deep below the sur- 

 face. And the water percolated through the clay 

 into them, until all these long veins formed a con- 

 tinuous and rushing stream into the main artery that 

 now furnishes an ample supply for his stabled cattle, 

 for his steam engine, and for all the barn-yard wants. 

 His tile-draining of clay-lands was a capital success; 

 and those who derided and opposed it have now adopted 

 it to their great advantage, and to the vast augmenta- 

 tion of the value and production of the county. Here, 



