1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 217 



In other respects the land received the same treatment during the 

 whole of this time. There is at present a fine plant of Dutch clover 

 in the ground, which promises to prove an excellent crop. 



Extracts from the Speech of Daniel Webster, of U. S. Senate, at 

 the agricultural meeting in Boston, 13 January, 1840. 



Mr. Webster proceeded to state, that one of the things which now 

 attracted much attention among agriculturalists in Eugland, was the 

 subject of tile draining. This most efficient and successful mode of 

 draining is getting into very extensive use. Much of the soil of 

 England, as he had already stated, rested on a clayey and retentive 

 sub-soil. Excessive wetness is prejudicial and destructive to the crops. 

 Marginal drains, or drains on the outside of the fields, do not produce 

 the desired results. These tile drains have effected most important 

 improvements. The tile itself is made of clay, baked like bricks; 

 about one foot in length, four inches in width, three fourths of an 

 inch in thickness, and stands from six to eight inches in height, being 

 hemispherical, or like the half of a cylinder, with its sides elongated. 

 It resembles the Dutch tiles sometimes seen on the roofs of the old 

 houses in Albany and New York. A ditch is sunk twenty-four 

 inches in depth, and these drains are multiplied, over a field, some- 

 times at a distance of only seven yards apart. The ditch; or drain, 

 being dug, these tiles are laid down, with the hollow side at bottom, on 

 the smooth clay, or any other firm sub-soil, the sides placed near to 

 each other, some little straw thrown over the joints to prevent the 

 admission of dirt, and the whole covered up. This is not so expen- 

 sive a mode of draining as might be supposed. The ditch, or drain, 

 need only be narrow, and tiles are of much cheaper transportation 

 than stone would be. But the result is so important, as well to justify 

 the expense. It is estimated that this thorough draining adds often 

 twenty per cent, to the production of the wheat crop, A beautiful 

 example came under his observation in Nottinghamshire, not long 

 before he left England. A gentleman was showing him his grounds 

 for next year's crop of wheat. On one side of the lane, where the 

 land had been drained, the wheat was already up, and growing luxu- 

 riantly ; on the other, where the land was subject to no other disad- 

 vantage, than that it had not been drained, it was still too wet to be 

 sowed at all. It may be thought singular enough, but it was doubtless 

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