A Walk from London to John OGroats | Page 7

of manure, which, when liquified,
runs down into a subterranean cistern or reservoir capable of holding
over 100,000 gallons. From this it is propelled into any field to be
irrigated. To prevent any sediment in the great reservoir, or to make an
even mixture of the liquified manure, a hose is attached to the engine,
and the other end dropped into the mass. Through this a constant
volume of air is propelled with such force as to set the whole boiling

and foaming like a little cataract. One man at the engine and two at the
hose in the distant field perform the whole operation. The chapped and
"baky" surface of the farm is thus softened and enriched at will, and
rendered productive.
Now, this operation seems to constitute the present distinctive
speciality of Alderman Mechi's Tiptree Farm. Will it pay? ask a
thousand voices. In how many years will he get his money back? Give
us the balance sheet of the experiment. A New Englander, favorably
impressed with the process, would be likely to answer these questions
by another, and ask, will drainage pay? Not in one year, assuredly, nor
in five; not in ten, perhaps. The British Government assumes that all
the expenditure upon under-drainage will be paid back in fifteen or
twenty years at the farthest. It lends money to the land-owner on this
basis; and the land-owner stipulates with his tenant that he shall
reimburse him by annual instalments of six or seven per cent. until the
whole cost of the operation is liquidated. Thus the tenant-farmer is
willing to pay six, sometimes seven per cent. annually, for twenty years,
for the increased capacity of production which drainage gives to the
farm he cultivates. At the end of that period the Government is paid by
the landlord, and the landlord by the tenant, and the tenant by his
augmented crops for the whole original outlay upon the land. For aught
either of the three parties to the operation knows to the contrary, it must
all be done over again at the end of twenty years. The system is too
young yet, even in England, for any one to say how long a course of
tubing will last, or how often it must be relaid.
One point, therefore, has been gained. No intelligent English farmer,
who has tried the system, now asks if under-drainage will pay; nor does
he expect that it will pay back the whole expenditure in less than
twelve or fifteen years. Here is a generous faith in the operation on the
side of all the parties concerned. Then why should not Alderman
Mechi's irrigation system be put on the same footing, in the matter of
public confidence? It is nothing very uncommon even for a
two-hundred-acre farmer in England to have a small stationary or
locomotive steam-engine, and to find plenty of work for it, too, in
threshing his grain, grinding his fodder, pulping his roots, cutting his

hay and straw, and for other purposes. Mr. Mechi would doubtless have
one for these objects alone. So its cost must not be charged to the
account of irrigation. A single course of iron tubing, a third of a mile
long, reaching to the centre of his farthest field, cannot cost more, with
all the hose employed, than the drainage of that field, while it would be
fair to assume that the iron pipes will last twice as long as those of
burnt clay. They might fairly be expected to hold good for forty years.
If, then, for this period, or less, the process yields ten per cent. of
increased production annually, over and above the effect of all other
means employed, it is quite evident that it will pay as well as drainage.
But does it augment the yearly production of the farm by this amount?
To say that it is the only process by which the baky and chappy soil of
Tiptree can be thoroughly fertilised, would not suffice to prove its
necessity or value to other soils of different composition. One fact,
however, may be sufficient to determine its virtue. The fields of clover,
and Italian rye-grass, etc., are mown three and even four times in one
season, and afterwards fed with sheep. Certainly, no other system could
produce all this cropping. The distinctive difference it makes in other
crops cannot, perhaps, be made so palpable. The wheat looked strong
and heavy, with a fair promise of forty-five bushels to an acre. The oats,
beans, and roots showed equally well.
The irrigation and deep tillage systems were going on simultaneously
in the same field, affording me a good opportunity of seeing the
operation of both. Two men were plying the hose upon a portion of the
field which had already been mowed three times.