On the Drainage of Land. 



291 



exactly fitted to the channel of the drain, and formed of several 

 pieces of wood, each being- 6 inches long by 3^ wide at the top, 

 and If at bottom, connected by iron links, and drawn by a chain. 

 Upon this the clay which has been thrown out is replaced and 

 rammed down upon the plug into as solid a state as possible, 

 after which the plug is withdrawn and the operation repeated. 

 The process is comparatively cheap, but more difficult of perfect 

 execution than may perhaps be imagined, and cannot be recom- 

 mended as either effectual or permanent ; for it must evidently be 

 very subject to breaking and should any such accident occur, it 

 will not only stop the drain^ but that cannot be repaired without 

 its being entirely re-made, as the plug must be drawn out to its 

 very end, and cannot be lifted from the ground. Where it has 

 been successful it has, however, had such good effects, that land 

 which in wet seasons invariably rotted every sheep put upon it is 

 now stocked without any occurrence of such casualties ; and mow- 

 ing has commenced a fortnight or three weeks earlier than before 

 it was drained.* 



In order to correct as far as possible the imperfections in these 

 various modes, as well as in the rumbling drains to which allusion 

 has already been made, the system of tile-drainage was introduced 

 some thirty years ago, and has since been found so much more 

 effectual that it has almost universally superseded every plan 

 except that of stone -draining, and is now generally employed 

 throughout those wide districts which are still in v/ant of improve- 

 ment. On the commencement of tile-draining great objections 

 w^ere made to it, from the suspicion that the tiles would decay ; 

 and the outlay of money for their purchase startled both the land- 

 lord and his tenant. In process of time, however, it has been 

 found that drains thus constructed many years ago are now as 

 perfect in their operation as when first formed. It has, indeed, 

 been ascertained that good tiles do not perish in the drains ; and 

 it has been seen in the account of improvements on Lord Hather- 

 ton's property, as well as in the published statement of the drain- 

 age of the Nether by estate (on which some thousands of acres of 

 otherwise unproductive land have been rendered perfectly dry, 

 and fit for every operation of husbandry, by the process of tile- 

 draining), that when there is occasion to lift any of the drains the 

 tiles are found in the same perfect state as when they came out of 

 the kiln.f 



* See Farmers' Mag., N.S., vol. ii. p. 98, and vol. xv. p. 67, of the " Papers 

 of the Bath and West of England Society," in which it is stated that on a 

 farm where green crops formerly rotted on the ground 800 sheep are now fed 

 on turnips throughout the winter. 



t See "An Account of Draining by means of Tiles, as practised on the 

 estate of Netherby, in Cumberland, the property of Sir James Graham, 



Y 2 



