On the Drainage of Land, 



293 



jections : — that the drains require to be sunk deeper than those 

 of tiles; and that, in case of dead-levels/''' the fall must be made 

 greater than when performed with tiles ; also that vermin are apt 

 to burrow in them ; and, if the drains be set near to trees, the 

 roots are attracted by the moisture, and the fibres, inserting them- 

 selves between the stones, sometimes fill up the conduit. There 

 is also this great disadvantage attendant upon it ; — that, as the 

 operation is usually deferred until winter, when the ground is in 

 a wet state, the land becomes so poached by the cartage of the 

 heavy loads of stones which must be carried upon it, as frequently 

 to injure meadow, and to occasion in arable land a serious in- 

 crease of difficulty in the working. 



The main objection, however, is the expense of carriage, which 

 is frequently so burdensome as to occasion a preference to the 

 employment of tiles. It has, indeed, been stated by a very expe- 

 rienced drainer, that, " taking the cost of carriage at 5^. per day 

 for each man and horse, and supposing the materials to be equi- 

 distantly situated from the respective drains, so that one cart con- 

 veys five loads of tiles, and the other fiive loads of stones, in the 

 day, one cart, proportionally filled with 14 -inch tiles and soles, 

 will lay upwards of 100 yards of drain ; while one cart, or cubic 

 yard, of stones will only lay 18 yards of a similar sized drain, viz., 

 6 inches by 12 : being a saving of labour of six to one hi favour 

 of tiles:' f 



It may, indeed, be difficult to decide upon the comparative 

 merits of tile and stone drainage, and the expediency of either 

 must in most cases be governed by circumstances dependent upon 

 the facility of procuring either the one or the other. A prefer- 

 ence to the former is however not only given by the gentleman 

 who has been just quoted, but also by several other eminent pro- 

 fessional writers on the subject, who thus express themselves : — 

 " I conceive, were burnt tiles laid on thick soles, and covered with 

 turf, they would be preferable to stones, unless a sufficient quan- 

 tity be used, and found within a mile of the operations." A tile 

 and sole, with a few inches of stones, is the ne plus ultra of drain- 

 ing. I would recommend tiles to landlords who give any assist- 

 ance to their tenants in draining, because they scarcely can make 



* In the case of dead-levels,- tiles seem to be almost indispensable. I 

 have seen a tile-drain act well at a dead-level of 300 yards ; while a broken 

 stone-drain was choked in very wet land, by the abundance of water, in 20 

 yards, before it was completed. The stones were consequently taken up, 

 and replaced with tiles. — Ph. Pusey. 



'}• Carmichael, of Raploch Farm, on Tile-Draining. — Prize Essays of the 

 Highland Society, N.S., No. xxxviii. p. 97. 



% Stephens on Furrow-Draining. — Quart. Journal of Agric, N.S., vol. iii. 

 p. 293. 



