above five or six feet on each side of it, and though it were carried to the centre of the earth, I question if it would do any more. The fact is, and I offer the position without the dread of a gainsay, that the substratum of by much the greater proportion of the soil of the United Kingdom is of a retentive description-a conglomeration of earths impervious to water. I therefore maintain, that in almost every instance, if not in every instance, those expensive rumbling drains are a waste of time and money; and that the farmer's object will be permanently and most effectually obtained at much less than the expense of the above system; and the bitter knowledge of the precarious duration of his rumbling drain, his furze drain, his turf drain, &c., obliterated from the list of his cares, merely by substituting, on right principles, the draining tile, and that without regard either to soil or situation. All the farmer wants at most is, say, eighteen inches of dry earth: give him his eighteen inches of dry earth, it is a matter of mere moonshine to him, though the Atlantic ocean raged under it; and this he can permanently and profitably obtain with the draining tile, and the draining tile only, which, if properly applied, acts as every drain ought to do, not only as an under, but also as a surface drain; nor can a mole, that bane of the rumbler, find a lodgment in its recess. The permanency of this species of drain will admit of no question in the strong, almost pure, clays of Kent, &c., and in the running sands and bogs of Bagshot Heath, when properly executed, they are found equally efficient. In the Carses of Falkirk, Stirling, Gowrie, &c., they are valued beyond all price. Indeed, Mr. Editor, they are now so fully understood there, and so extensively applied, that you would have some difficulty to find a drop of water even in the furrows to cool your tongue.

In several parts of England in which I have been, and where the tile drain is a perfect treasure, yet it is held in no repute; and why? Because it is not applied properly-I should rather say, most improperly. I shall only particularize the county of Middlesex, where the soil is, I believe, uniformly heavy and impervious to water, yet in executing the tile drain they lose sight of its action on the surface-the principle work it is required to perform on such soils. On laying the tiles the clay is again thrown on it so as to cover the tile, when the operator gets upon it and treads it firmly down, as though he were puddling or forming an aqueduct, and, of course, completely prevents the admission of water on the top of the tile, and thereby renders it useless as a surface drain. The remainder of the stuff is

then filled in, and the turf laid on the top. The foregoing is the general practice, though there may and must be instances to the contrary, yet they have never fallen under my eye. If the clay from the drain were carried off or thrown on the surface of the meadow, such would be beneficial, and with road dust, furnace ashes, tanners' bark, sand, or any porous material of a like description placed on the top of the tile, its efficiency would instantly appear, and its character be placed in its proper light.

There may be some difficulty in obtaining a porous material; but, wherever there is much clay there is also much sand; though, like Dean Swift's bad road with a good bottom, it may be a good way ere it can be got at. The drainer must not, however, startle at a little trouble: properly executed draining will be amply remunerative, and will never require repetition in his day, unless he holds his lease renewable at pleasure.

The sums annually expended on draining and redraining, throughout the United Kingdom, may probably not fall short of £500,000 sterling; expend this sum on permanent drains, what would the effect be twenty years hence?

The manifold advantages held out by the tile drain, render it, in my mind, difficult to find an apology for persevering in the use of the rumbling, the furze, straw, and turf drains. When the lands, to be sure, are loaded with stones, the farm and parish roads are in the best possible state of repair. When a tenant, and a tenant only, is thus situated, having no vent for his stones, his lease nearly run, without much prospect of a renewal, he is excusable, or right, perhaps, in following his own plan, and justly considering if he is not to have value allowed for his tiles, that it is for the landlord to look out.

That, in flat-lying lands, whatever the soil may be, the tile drain is all that can be wished for, no one in the least conversant with its operation will gainsay; and in high-lying lands, whatever their declivity may be, its superiority, in my mind, is even still more evident.

For the sake of illustration, however, suppose a field declining one foot in six, and that in the face of the hill, or where the water appears, the advocate of the rumbler, (the only sort of drain worth any notice), inserts his six-feet drain, at a charge of 30s. per chain; and which, to follow out the very improbable supposition, drys thereby thirty-six feet down the hill, or in a right angle with the bottom of the drain, where the water again appears; and another six-feet drain is inserted, with like effect; and so on, ad infinitum.

In average cases, the tile drain will not cost more than five, or say six shillings the chain of drain two feet in depth, (though a much less depth in many cases will suffice), even though calculated, as every drain ought to be, for surface water. On these principles will it admit of a doubt? Is it not quite evident that the tile drain will perform, aye permanently perform, and to much better purpose, double the work, for the same money, that the rumbler will, even as an under drain, exclusive of the very decided advantage of catching the surface water, carrying it directly from the face of the field, laying the lands all equally dry, and effectually preventing that damage high-lying grounds frequently sustain in heavy falls of rain?

The sum and substance of my argument amounts just to this, that it is the height of absurdity for the farmer to dig in the bowels of the earth for water that is not really doing him any harm; that he has nothing to do with that element until he sees it: down, then, with his tile drain, and he sees it no longer.

The opinions I advance are the result of minute observation, and considerable practical experience, not only in England, but also in Scotland, though, I believe, altogether at variance with those of a celebrated writer on drainage, (Elkington, the text master of the generality of the professional writers on drainage of the present day), who, not content with a six, an eight, or ten-feet drain, if water did not then appear, set the boring apparatus to work in its bottom till he brought the liquid to his feet. I do not recollect, however, of ever having seen this gentleman's publication, nor yet have I, in a single instance, been an eye-witness to his system having been put into practice. Indeed, my only feeling is, to view it as an ingenious enough theory. I must, however, confess, that I feel quite incapable of forming any thing like a correct idea of its merits; but, as I have understood that Mr. Elkington received the very marked approbation of that enlightened body, the Highland Society of Scotland, I am bound to believe his plan to be somewhat praiseworthy.

Somewhere about twenty years ago, two fields, containing about 150 acres, lying a little distance from Edinburgh, were subjected to a thorough course of the rumbling purge. The operation was carried on under the direction of a celebrated engineer, now gone beyond "that bourne from whence no traveller returns," but whose judgment on this subject, in his day, stood at the very highest figure.

The drains varied from three to eight, and some ten feet, in depth; the stones had to be carried about a mile, and were

filled into the drains to about eighteen inches of the surface; the whole finished by contract, at an expense of not less than £3 15s. per chain. This expensive operation on what I suppose to be the Elkington system, was of no use; the rushes were growing even upon the tops of the drains; and, about seven years ago, the same fields, while in pasture, were subjected to the tile drain, the good effects of which were immediately manifested. The bottoms of the tile drains were laid on or about a level with the tops of the rumblers. In short, in the first instance, the treasure was literally buried, with nothing but a rush to mark the spot! When such is the result, under acknowledged talent and experience, what does not agriculture sustain from the futile attempts of the ignorant, bewildered operator?

That the tile drain must ultimately bear down every other I have no doubt: its complete efficacy-its facility of application-its comparatively trifling expense-the practicability of obtaining it in every situation-and, to crown all, its permanency-place its ultimate unrivalled adoption beyond all doubt. The very idea of its permanency may, however, possibly operate on a portion of the leaseholders somewhat in the way that the tithe system acts on the cultivator subjected to its influence: who, however, is to blame for this?

Upon the broad basis, the interest of landlord and tenant will not admit of separation. It is unquestionably the particular interest of both parties that the lands should be in good culture, which never can be the case till the superfluous moisture is carried off. And let it be observed, that wet land, once laid dry, is invariably the most fertile; and it is reasonable to suppose that it should be so, as it is likely, that for ages long gone by-probably since the days of Noah-such soils may have lain steeped in water, and never in time past rendered any thing like a grateful return for man's misdirected kindness; nor can they till their treasures are unlocked; that is, till the superfluous moisture be withdrawn.

In place, then, of eyeing your wet lands as a curse, you should view them as a blessing; as containing the wealth of ages, from whence you can fill your purse at your pleasure; at the same time throwing open a vast source of employment for the industrious labourer, dispensing health and plenty to all around, and affording the most grateful satisfaction to your own mind.

The public journals abound with advertisements of estates to be sold and farms to be let, and amongst other inducements

to draw forth a price, you are told that the lands have all been completely drained, (of course, at great expense), the precise meaning of which is just this, that if the drains, whether the rumbler, the furze, the turf, &c., have been executed in the best style they will admit of, with great care they may be kept effectual for a dozen of years at most, when the operation must be repeated. With tile drains the matter is set at rest. In short, I feel no hesitation in avowing my belief, nay it delights me to think, that the succedaneum wanted to perfect British agriculture, may now be said to be in every man's hand, (his attention only being required to be called to the advantage); and the time may yet come when the whole reclaimable part of the United Kingdoms will be brought into a comparatively gardenlike state of culture, and luxuriant crops of grain wave their yellow tops where heath and rushes now reign triumphant.

Ten acres, well cultivated, will, I am sure, in most instances, be found more advantageous for the cultivator, and, of course, for the state, than ten times ten acres that are slovenly gone about. Mark the meal gardener in the neighbourhood of large towns: he grows his wheat, his barley, his grass, &c., pays his £10 per acre, and puts £20 into his pocket, while the farmer on the outside of his wall, and with equal advantages, and half the rent, can scarcely make a living.

That the face of this country, in the course of the last fifty years, has undergone an immense improvement, and that there is a consequent increase in the necessaries and comforts of life, will not be questioned; and that it still is advantageously susceptible of much greater improvement, and a further increase of food, will not be doubted. We are still far, far behind that advanced state of agricultural improvement a traveller I have read of (Sir George Staunton, I think) describes an eastern country to have been in upwards of thirty years ago. In six months' tour over the kingdom of Japan he saw not a foot of land, even to the tops of the highest mountains, that was not subjected to cultivation, nor a plant growing that had not been inserted by the hand of man. This is a height of improvement the ruggedness of our country and the severity of our climate places almost out of the question. It is, however, impossible even to conjecture (seeing what has been done) what man may do, particularly if galled by necessity, or urged by avarice and pride. I think that it is the celebrated Arthur Young who says, that the man who makes two blades of grass grow where one only stood before, is a meritorious character; and surely the intelligent, liberal-minded agriculturist, who,