18 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



which without this precaution might indeed be called, 

 as it had been called, undrainable ; and here I was, 

 fairly planted, at the first onset. Every inch of depth 

 was of real value at the mouth of so long a line of 

 drain. "Three feet deep at the outlet" was the 

 modest extent of my demand; and there I stood, 

 watching the tiles thrown in pele-mele to a depth of 

 eighteen inches, which I was given to understand was 

 ' about two feet/ with as cool an indifference to the 

 other foot, as if Two and Three had been recently 

 determined by the common assent of mankind to 

 mean the same thing. 



' But I must have it three feet deep !' 



' Oh it's no use : it'll never drain so dip as that 

 through this here clay V 



' But I tell you it must be ! There can be no fall 

 without it.' 



'Well, I've been a-draining this forty year and I 

 ought to know summut about it.' 



From that moment I date my experience in the 

 trials and troubles of farming: at that instant my 

 eyes began to open to the true meaning of those 

 ' practical difficulties ' which the uninitiated laugh 

 at because they have never encountered them; aii(l 

 which the man of science despises who has said to 



