Report to ILE.U. the President 



5 ^ 



is still room for further improvement 

 in giving to the drain a w?i//^brm incline. 



The award, therefore, of the jury 

 was honourable mention. Since 

 that trial I have thought it right 

 to make further inquiry into the 

 work of the draining plough. In 

 the first place, the trial drains were 

 opened and laid bare from end to 

 end. Straightness is of course one 

 requisite, and the pipes were laid 

 straight; closeness of contact an- 

 other, and they were perfectly 

 joined. In level, the point on 

 which the jury doubted the per- 

 fection of the work, there was 

 some deficiency, which, on en- 

 tirely flat ground such as this, 

 was a decided fault. That fault, 

 however, has since been remedied 

 for clay land at least. As the 

 plough was shown last year at 

 Exeter, it could not possibly lay a 

 level drain, because, its under and 

 upper parts being fixed at an un- 

 varying distance, any unevenness 

 of an undulatory surface must be 

 faithfully copied by an undulating 

 drain below. This year the two 

 parts were so connected that the 

 workman, by turning a screw, can 

 raise or lower the underground 

 snout which burrows out the drain. 

 But at the trial the use of this 

 screw depended on the workman's 

 judgment, which cannot give the 

 drain absolute accuracy. A ba- 

 lanced level, however, has now 

 been added to the plough, by 

 which the changes of surface are 

 made plain to his eye. Other im- 

 provements have also been made 

 in the implement. The horse- 

 power required has been reduced 

 by a fourth, and the windlass at 

 which the horses work need now 



