On Thorough- Draining. 
45 
yet in no work on draining; has this simple process been mentioned. 
It is a fresh instance of a truth which is not confined to farming;, 
that we often seek in vain for something new and uncertain, while 
what is good and real is lying neglected at the door. The mode 
of ploughing out drains is clearly stated in Mr. Hill's paper, and 
is there shown to be carried still further by the use of a plough 
made for the purpose, with, I sup])ose, still further economy. His 
drawings will enable any one to follow the good example of the 
eastern counties ; and I strongly recommend this practice upon 
heavy lands, as at once the cheapest and most certain to act. The 
only objection is its want of permanence ; but it lasts from twelve 
to twenty years. Now where a whole farm requii'es to be 
drained, and the means both of landlord and tenant are limited, 
there can scarcely be a doubt which is best for both of them — to 
drain 100 acres for forty years, or 300 acres for twenty years. 
Besides, Mr. Rham has suggested that tiles might be used as car- 
riers to the earth-drains ; aind I have no doubt these would add ten 
years to the durability of the draining : for the earth-drain does 
not fall in throughout, it only becomes choked in spots, so that by 
cutting a few new drains across the old ones, it is found that the 
field becomes once more dry. If an earth-drain be 300 yards 
long, a single obstacle may check the water to the full length ; but 
if it be crossed by three tile-drains, each earth-drain will have a 
run of 50 yards only, and that length alone can be blocked by a 
single stoppage : so that the field would only receive one-sixth of 
the damage that would otherwise have arisen from a given amount 
of decay in the drains. 
On looser soils, however, earth-drains will not stand, and here 
we must have recourse to tiles, the expense of which has hitherto 
been a serious obstacle to their employment. In the last Number 
I mentioned the great difference in their price in different parts of 
England, and I am glad to find that a reduction is taking place. 
Mr. A'Court Holmes informs me that last winter tiles cost 55^. 
and soles 30^. per 1000 in the Isle of Wight, while in Hunting- 
donshire the same articles were selling at 225. and 10^'., at the 
same price of coals : large, however, as is this reduction, I have 
great pleasure in announcing to the Society a still further abate- 
ment of one-third below the Huntingdonshire scale ; and, which 
is remarkable, from three different counties, by means of four 
different machines. I have taken pains to inquire into their 
merits, and the subject is so important that I need not hesitate to 
lay before the Society such accounts as I have obtained. 
The first account was from Suffolk. The kind of tile is pecu- 
liar, being a pipe. The price of the pipe is 20s. per thousand 
(coals at 20s. per ton) ; and as no sole of course is required, we 
have at once a saving of 10^. in 32s. As the water can only 
