AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 417 



their way overland to Russia, and cost from five to fifty dollars 

 per pound. 



INIr. Wm. Lawton was of opinion that tea was a most valuable 

 articde, peculiarly favorable to health, generous in its efforts, and 

 lie referred the Club to Ure's analysis of tea. 



Mr. Meigs remarked the great difficulty experienced in France 

 and elsewhere in obtaining sound tea nuts. It was supposed 

 that the Chinese never suffer a nut to go abroad without first 

 boili7ig it to destroy its vitality. 



Mr. Pell— We found a like difficulty in obtaining sound mul- 

 ticaulis seeds from Italy. The silk trade df^sired no competition 

 abroad. 



Mr. Geo. E. Waring — Under-draining, as an art, has made 

 great advances among the better class of farmers, especially 

 in England, since the introduction of draining tile, or, per- 

 haps we should say, since the modtrn use of the tile, for prior 

 to 1G20 the garden of the monastery at Maubeuge, in France, 

 was drained with earthen tile, placed at a depth of about 

 four feet; and so late as 1850, when the conformation of 

 the surface was changed to make a park, this garden was 

 famous for the excellence and abundance of its productions, 

 and the people of the district had been at a .loss to account for 

 its astonishing fertility until the grading spoken of exposed a 

 thorough system of drain;>ge, which had evidently been made 

 earlier than interments daling at 1G20. 



The tile is an innovation — a new idea; it is a revolution in the 

 art of draining; but it is at the same time a silent and timid one, 

 producing but slowly the change of system which its first coming 

 predicted, and which its long use (since about 1841) has steadily 

 advanced. It conforms so easily to popular ideas, and makes 

 itself so useful in nearly all cases, that its distinctive features 

 and strong points of advantage are not so readily seen as if it 

 had no other features or advantages. The old stone and brush 

 drains acted as permeable spaces to relieve the soil of the excess 

 of water which it might receive from rains or springs; and such 

 drains sei^e a very fair purpose, sufficient, in the absence of 

 other materials, to command respectful attention; but, as they 

 rarely offer more than a channel for the slow percolation of water, 

 they can by no means compare with tile, which forming, when 

 properly laid, a perfect conduit, that can be entered only by water 

 and air, and which is, therefore, not liable to obstruction, remains 

 as a free outlet for whatever excess of moisture the soil may con- 



