272 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



which ran along the lowest part of the ground. His system 

 has also been called 'furrow or frequent draining', as the 

 drains were generally laid in the furrows from two to two-and- 

 a-half feet deep at short intervals. Even then the tributary 

 drains were at first filled in with stones 12 inches deep, as 

 they had been for centuries, and sometimes with thorns, or 

 even turves, as tiles were still expensive ; and the main was 

 made of stonework. However, the invention of machines for 

 making tiles cheapened them, and the substitution of cylin- 

 drical pipes for horse-shoe tiles laid on flat soles still further 

 lowered the cost and increased the efficiency.^ In 1848, Peel 

 introduced Government Drainage Loans, repayable by twenty- 

 two instalments of 6| per cent. This was consequently an 

 era of extensive drainage works all over England, which sorely 

 needed it ; but even now the work was often badly done. In 

 some cases it was the custom for the tenant to put in as many 

 tiles as his landlord gave him, and they were often merely 

 buried. At Stratfieldsaye, for instance, where the Iron Duke 

 was a generous and capable landlord, the drains were some- 

 times a foot deep, while others were 6 feet deep and 60 feet 

 apart,2 although the soil required nothing of the kind. 



Vast sums were also spent on farm-buildings, still often old 

 and rickety, with deficient and insanitary accommodation ; in 

 Devonshire the farmer was bound by his lease to repair * old 

 mud and wooden houses', at a cost of 10 per cent, on his 

 rent, and there were many such all over England. Farm- 

 buildings were often at the extreme end of the holding, the 

 cattle were crowded together in draughty sheds, and the 

 farmyard was generally a mass of filth and spoiling manure, 

 spoiling because all the liquid was draining away from it into 

 the pool where the live stock drank ; a picture, alas, often 

 true to-day. It was to bring the great mass of landlords and 



^ Cylindrical pipes came in about 1843, though they had been recom- 

 mended in 1727 by Switzer. 

 '^ R.A.S.E. Journal (ist series), xxii. 260. 



