"Ask nineteen farmers out of twenty, who hold strong clay land, and they will tell you it is of no use placing deep four-foot drains in such soils—the water cannot get in; a horse’s foot-hole (without an opening under it) will hold water like a basin; and so on. Well, five minutes after, you tell the same farmers you propose digging a cellar, well bricked, six or eight feet deep; what is their remark? ’Oh! it’s of no use your making an underground cellar in our soil, you _can’t keep the water_ OUT!’ Was there ever such an illustration of prejudice as this? What is a drain pipe but a small cellar full of air? Then, again, common sense tells us, you can’t keep a light fluid under a heavy one. You might as well try to keep a cork under water, as to try and keep air under water. ’Oh! but then our soil isn’t porous.’ If not, how can it hold water so readily? I am led to these observations by the strong controversy I am having with some Essex folks, who protest that I am mad, or foolish, for placing 1-inch pipes, at four-foot depth, in strong clays. It is in vain I refer to the numerous proofs of my soundness, brought forward by Mr. Parkes, engineer to the Royal Agricultural Society, and confirmed by Mr. Pusey. They still dispute it. It is in vain I tell them _I cannot keep the rainwater out of_ socketed pipes, twelve feet deep, that convey a spring to my farm yard. Let us try and convince this large class of doubters; for it is of _national_ importance. Four feet of good porous clay would afford a far better meal to some strong bean, or other tap roots, than the usual six inches; and a saving of $4 to $5 per acre, in drainage, is no trifle. "The shallow, or non-drainers, assume that tenacious subsoils are impervious or non-absorbent. This is entirely an erroneous assumption. If soils were impervious, how could they get wet? "I assert, and pledge my agricultural reputation for the fact, that there are no earths or clays in this kingdom, be they ever so tenacious, that will not readily receive, filter, and transmit rain water to drains placed five or more feet deep. "A neighbor of mine drained twenty inches deep in strong clay; the ground cracked widely; the contraction destroyed the tiles, and the rains washed the surface soils into the cracks and choked the drains. He has since abandoned shallow draining. "When I first began draining, I allowed myself to be overruled by my obstinate man, Pearson, who insisted that, for top water, two feet was a sufficient depth in a veiny soil. I allowed him to try the experiment on two small fields; the result was, that nothing prospered; and I am redraining those fields at _one-half_ the cost, five and six feet deep, at intervals of 70 and 80 feet.