On Mr. Mechi's farm at Tiptree Hall, in England, we observed a large cistern, in which all the manure necessary for the highest culture of 170 acres of land, is liquified, and from which it is pumped out by a steam engine, over the farm. All the water, which supplies the cistern, is collected from tile drains on the farm, where there had before been no running water. CHAPTER XXI. LEGISLATION--DRAINAGE COMPANIES. England protects her Farmers.--Meadows ruined by Corporation dams.--Old Mills often Nuisances.--Factory Reservoirs.--Flowage extends above level of Dam.--Rye and Derwent Drainage.--Give Steam for Water-Power.--Right to Drain through land of others.--Right to natural flow of Water.--Laws of Mass.--Right to Flow; why not to Drain?--Land-drainage Companies in England.--Lincolnshire Fens.--Government Loans for Drainage. Nothing more clearly shows the universal interest and confidence of the people of Great Britain, in the operation of land-drainage, than the acts of Parliament in relation to the subject. The conservatism of England, in the view of an American, is striking. She never takes a step till she is sure she is right. Justly proud of her position among the nations, she deems change an unsafe experiment, and what has been, much safer than what might be. Vested rights are sacred in England, and especially rights in lands, which are emphatically real estate there. Such are the sentiments of the people, and such the sentiments of their representatives and exponents, the Lords and Commons. Yet England has been so impressed with the importance of improving the condition of the people, of increasing the wealth of the nation, of enriching both tenant and landlord, by draining the land, that the history of her legislation, in aid of such operations, affords a lesson of progress even to fast Young America. Powers have been granted, by which encumbered estates may be charged with the expenses of drainage, so that remainder-men and reversioners, without their consent, shall be compelled to contribute to present improvements; so that careless or obstinate adjacent proprietors shall be compelled to keep open their ditches for outfalls to their neighbor's drains; so that mill-dams, and other obstructions to the natural flow of the water, may be removed for the benefit of agriculture; and, finally, the Government has itself furnished funds, by way of loans, of millions of pounds, in aid of improvements of this character. In America, where private individual right is usually compelled to yield to the good of the whole, and where selfishness and obstinacy do not long stand in the pathway of progress, obstructing manifest improvement in the condition of the people; we are yet far behind England in legal facilities for promoting the improvement of land culture. This is because the attention of the public has not been particularly called to the subject.