ed in the field, that, in
common cases, all the surplus water that reaches the tiles is freely
admitted. A gentleman, who has commenced draining his farm, recently, in
New Hampshire, expressed to the author his opinion, that tiles in his
land admitted the water as freely as a hole of a similar size to the
bore of the tile would admit it, if it could be kept open through the
soil without the tile.

DURABILITY OF TILE DRAINS.

How long will they last? This is the first and most important question.
Men, who have commenced with open ditches, and, having become disgusted
with the deformity, the inconvenience, and the inefficiency of them,
have then tried bushes, and boards, and turf, and found them, too,
perishable; and again have used stones, and after a time seen them fail,
through obstructions caused by moles or frost--these men have the right
to a well-considered answer to this question.

The foolish fellow in the Greek Reader, who, having heard that a crow
would live a hundred years, purchased one to verify the saying, probably
did not live long enough to ascertain that it was true. How long a
properly laid tile-drain of hard-burnt tiles will endure, has not been
definitely ascertained, but it is believed that it will outlast the life
of him who lays it.

No tiles have been long enough laid in the United States to test this
question by experience, and in England no further result seems to have
been arrived at, than that the work is a _permanent_ improvement.

In another part of this treatise, may be found some account of Land
Drainage Companies, and of Government loans in aid of improvements by
drainage in Great Britain. One of these acts provides for a charge on
the land for such improvements, to be paid in full in fifty years. That
is to say, the expense of the drainage is an incumbrance like a mortgage
on the land, at a certain rate of interest, and the tenant or occupant
of the land, each year pays the interest and enough more to discharge
the debt in just fifty years. Thus, it is assumed by the Government,
that the improvement will last fifty years in its full operation,
because the last year of the fifty pays precisely the same as every
other year.

It may therefore be considered as the settled conviction of all branches
of the British government, and of all the best-informed, practical
land-drainers in that country, that TILE-DRAINAGE WILL ENDURE FIFTY
YEARS AT LEAST, if properly executed.

This is lon