142 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



" I'm sure of it ! But I thought you was all for 

 the deep drain? I heerd so, long afore I tried it." 



"And that's why these were laid at three. This 

 lower part, up to yonder oak-tree, is the first field I 

 drained : and if you had seen the work I had, to get 

 down three feet " 



" Oh ! ay, ay ! I remember now you mention it. 

 Well, I like the four-foot. But not too wide, mind ! 

 I'll allow any man to tell me how deep to drain, if 

 he'll leave me, on my own sile, to say the width. It's 

 a pity to spare a line or two o' tiles, to run a risk." 



1 ' Well : this is three feet, by twenty-one in width : 

 down the old furrows, in fact. And the worst of it 

 is, it drains extremely well." 



" ' The best/ you mean ?" 



" The worst ! The good done by the shallow drain 

 has been, in practice, the longest enemy of the deep 

 one. A man who finds his field improved by the 

 shallow drain, holds that as a fact. When you tell 

 him that double the depth would have more than 



doubled the improvement, he treats that as a a 



theory. A DREADFUL thing, that Theory ! I wonder 

 how many who use the word ab-use it rather know 

 the meaning of it. But what say you to the dibbing ?" 



"Well, they're very rcglar: hardly one missed. 



