isfil.] 
A MERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
201 
more expensive than the common pipe tile. A 
continuous series of such bricks laid one upon 
the other, asr shown in fig. 15, will make a per¬ 
fectly effective drain, and one that will last for 
centuries, if made of good brick clay, thor- 
Fig. 15. —HOLLOW BRICKS LAID. 
oughly burned. Where machine-made pipe tiles 
are not yet accessible, it will often be practica¬ 
ble to have such bricks made at a brick-yard. 
Drain tiles proper, are tubes or pipes, made in 
various forms, and named round or pipe tiles , horse¬ 
shoe tiles , sole tiles , etc. These are now made by 
machines which press out the ground clay in 
continuous tubes, upon an endless apron, where 
they are cut up into the desired lengths, and car¬ 
ried to the drying sheds on long round-tined 
forks. After drying, they are burned in kilns 
the same as common bricks. These tiles are 
produced so rapidly by a good machine, that it 
oosts less to make them than ordinary hand¬ 
made brick, though they are more troublesome 
to dry and bum. Owing to the small number 
Fig. 16. —ROUND TILE. 
of machines yet in use in this country, the lack 
of experience, and the comparatively little de¬ 
mand, the price at the yards ranges from $8 to 
$12, per 1000 for the small sizes, and from that 
upwards to $15, $20, $30, $40, $50, and more, 
according to the size, form, eta (In England, 
where the demand is vastly greater, and labor 
cheaper, the price is scarcely more than a fourth 
ns much, and ere long the cost will be greatly 
reduced in this country.) Tiles are usually 
plump 12 inches in length after burning. The 
present price at Albany is about as follows: 
Round Tiles. 
V4 inch diameter $ 8 1000 
2K do. do. 12 IP 1000 
3)4 do. do. 40 H?> 1000 
Horseshoe Tiles. 
2)4 inches high $10 IP 1000 
3% do. do. 15 1000 
do. do. 18 V 1000 
Sole Tiles. 
2 inches rise of bore . $10 V 1000 
3 inches rise of bore ... . 10 =p 1000 
4 inches rise of bore. 30 ^ 1000 
The cost of collars for the round tiles is about 
half the price of the tiles themselves, so that we 
may reckon the cost of 1000 feet of pipe tiles, 
11 inches in diameter, including collars, at $12, 
or 1 and l-5th cents each—equal to about 20 cts. 
per rod. For pipes 21 inches bore, with collars, 
Fig. 17. —T ARGE OVAL PIPE TELE. 
$18 per 1000, or 30 cents per rod. The cost of 
other kinds per rod can he readily calculated, 
allowing sixteen pieces to lay about one rod. 
Fig. 16 shows a round pipe tile. Fig. 17 is 
also a pipe tile, but made oval. Both of these 
may be laid down end to end, as shown in fig. 18. 
A much better method, though more expensive 
at first, is to provide them with collars , which are 
simply short pieces of larger pipes slipped over 
the joints. Fig. 19 shows the method of laying 
pipe tiles with collars. 
Fig. 20, is a horse-shoe tile, so called from 
its form. These are laid down end to end, on 
the bottom of the drain, usually upon the hard 
soil, but sometimes upon thin boards, where the 
soil is loose. If these are used, a better plan is 
to lay them on soles , that is thin bricks, as shown 
in fig. 21. The soles add materially to the cost. 
Fig. 22 is called a sole tile. It differs from 
the oval pipe tile in having upon one side a 
fiat bottom, formed by two flanges. These are 
preferable to the round tiles if the latter arc used 
without the collars, as the sole tiles rest upon a 
broad base, and are less likely to be displaced. 
There are various other forms of tiles, such as 
fig. 23, a convenient form for joining two drains 
at right angles, etc.; but the pipe tiles, sole tiles, 
and horse-shoe tiles, are those most commonly 
used, and to these only need we give attention. 
best form of drain tiles. 
The horse-shoe tile (fig. 20,) has been most 
generally used in this country, but there are 
serious objections to it. If sole pieces are used, 
the cost is too great, and there is danger of their 
being moved by stones, or by having more soil 
Fig. 18. —ROUND TILES LAID. 
filled in upon one side than the other. They 
are also weak at the lower edges, liable to be bro¬ 
ken in handling, and to be crushed in when laid, 
by pressure of earth and stones upon the sides. 
If set upon the ground, they may settle into it; 
and, besides, the bottom of the channel being 
the soil itself, the water is liable to wash out the 
earth at several points so as to let an occasional 
tile settle out of place and break up the contin¬ 
uity of the channel at one or more points. 
These difficulties are mainly overcome in the 
sole tiles (fig. 22). These are strong, and lay pret¬ 
ty firmly, and are to be preferred to the horse¬ 
shoe form. It was claimed in behalf of the 
horse-shoe form, that the open bottom, and tlie 
Fig. 19.— ROUND TILES WITH COLLARS. 
seams along the edges when the detached 
soles were used, presented a better entrance for 
the water. But experience has proved that the 
openings between the ends of the sole or pipe 
tiles are amply sufficient to admit all the water 
that the pipes can carry away. To prove this, 
set two of them upright, one upon the other, 
as closely as possible; stop up the bottom of the 
lower one, and pour water rapidly into the top 
of the upper one. It will flow out through the 
small aperture between the two pieces fast enough 
to give a rapid downward current through the 
upper tile. If the ends of sole tiles, or pipe tiles 
be placed so closely together that the average 
width of the crack between them be only one- 
twentieth of an inch, the sum of the openings 
in a drain of 2 inch tiles, 100 feet long, would 
yet be nearly twenty times as great as the bore 
of the dnain; or in other words, the simple 
openings between the tiles would, in 100 feet of 
drain, admit at least twenty times as much wa¬ 
ter as could flow through the 2 inch bore of the 
tiles. And this amount of water is very large. 
It has been found by experiment that in a drain 
Fig. 20.— HORSE-SHOE TILE. 
of 2-inch pipes, having a fall of one foot in 
twenty, the discharge of water through it is equal 
to more than 2000 gallons an hour. With a fall 
of only 2 feet in 100 feet, the discharge of wa¬ 
ter is still nearly 1000 gallons an hour, where 
the soil is so saturated as to keep up a full flow. 
After considerable observation, and study of 
Hie subject, with some experience in laying the 
sole tiles, we have come to the conclusion that 
the round pipe tiles, with collars, are on the 
whole the best form. There is so much trouble 
in securing a firm uniform bed, and placing the 
sole and horse-shoe tiles evenly together, that wl 
Fig. 21. —HORSE-SUOE TILES AND SOLES. 
doubt whether there is often a continuous open 
passage through the whole length of over 1 inch 
in diameter, after a 2-inch tile drain is laid and 
thoroughly settled. The chances are, that after 
a time the aperture will not be so large as this. 
If by stones, or more earth, on one side than the 
other, or the settling of one end more than the 
other, a single tile is thrown out of place half 
an inch, one half of the passage is closed. When 
the pipes are laid with collars, a perfect, perma¬ 
nent passage is preserved through the whole 
length. A little fine soil thrown around the 
middle portion of each piece, between the col¬ 
lars, will amply support it from breaking by the 
pressure of the superincumbent earth. The col¬ 
lars over the joints save the necessity of using 
straw or other litter under the earth filled in. 
The water will find ample space for entering 
Fig. 22.— SOLE TILE. 
through the spaces between the collars and pipes. 
There is, then, little doubt that pipe tiles 14 
inches in diameter with collars, will afford as 
good an opening, as 2 inch sole, or horse shoe 
tiles, and one more sure to remain permanent, 
while the for¬ 
mer can be laid 
more rapidly, 
with less care 
in securing a 
smooth bottom 
to the ditch. 
The cost of the 
pipes and col¬ 
lars is about the 
same as the 
larger sole-tiles. 
The cost of It inch pipes with collars is given 
at $12 per 1000, and that of 2 inch sole tiles at 
$10 per 1000. This difference would be more 
than made up in favor of the pipes, if to be 
transported far, as 1000 pipes of 14 inches, to¬ 
gether with the collars, weigh less than 1000 
sole tiles of 2-inch rise in the bore. 
Fallow for Fall Crops. 
The different kinds of fallowing explained—Advantage 
of buckwheat—to be sown on fallow land this month. 
Fallow is a term so little used in American 
husbandry, that multitudes have no distinct con¬ 
ception of the operation. The prevailing prac¬ 
tice in this country, especially in the newer 
States, is to work land as long as it will yield 
remunerative crops, and then give it over to pas¬ 
ture, or to grow up again to brush and wood. 
Plowing land to benefit next year’s yield, and 
turning in green crops, seems a waste of the 
raw material not to be tolerated. In British 
husbandry, fallowing is well understood, and 
very generally resorted to. The original mean 
ing of fallow is, to fail , and it is applied to land 
that from accident, or design, fails of a crop. 
Fallows have different names given to them, 
