12 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



much condemned in Essex, of using wood and straw ; and 

 a fourth with a cnmmon mole-plough. There was the 

 field to this day, and he defied any person to tell where one 

 system was adopted, and where another. 



Mr. Mechi : Did the crops show any dilTerencc? 



Mr. Baker never observed any difference in them. 

 With regard to the running of the lower drains first, of 

 which Mr. Nesbit had favoured them with some experi- 

 ments, he would observe that those experiments, though 

 undoubtedly very interesting, proved nothing. Mr. Nes- 

 bit had adopted gravel for his purpose, and every one knew 

 that water would pass through gravel to any depth. In 

 fact, if they all had soils of that description, they would 

 never require any artificial drainage, for the land would 

 drain itself The water would go down until it met with 

 resistance. By capillary attraction the water would rise 

 to the soil above, and the result would be that the same 

 process would take place as Mr. Nesbit had exhibited with 

 his tube. He had no wish to contradict Mr. Nesbit, because 

 he was sure every one present felt indebted to him for the 

 able and scientific remarks he had addressed to them that 

 evening. (Hear, hear. ) But he had constantly_ found that 

 theory did not constitute practice, nor did practice always 

 corroborate theory. Unless it could be shown that the 

 particular circumstances of the soil, the quality of the sub- 

 soil, the position of the drains, their depth and distance 

 apart, always corresponded, they could not arrive at any 

 correct conclusion. In fact, the circumstances attendant 

 on draining operations were in no case ever alike. (Hear, 

 hear.) Mr. Mechi had certainly tried all the different sys- 

 tems. He first put stones below and the pipes at the top of the 

 drain, which manypersons thought absurd. Some one had 

 told him that water would rise through the stones, be beauti- 

 fully filtrated, and pass through the pipes (laughter) ! He 

 then changed his plan, and drained in a manner that he had 

 not mentioned to-night. The pipes were placed at the bottom 

 of the drains, and some of his neighbours on seeing them 

 expressed their doubts respecting the purpose for which 

 they had been put there, and imagined that as some of them 

 pointed upwards they were intended to catch the rain 

 (laughter) But he (Mr. Baker) had no desire to be too 

 hard upon his friend Mr. Mechi, who had certainly been a 

 very effective engineer, and contributed much towards 

 making the subject of drainage familiar to the British 

 farmer. His efforts had been attended with a great deal of 

 good, and although he might not have cut very keenly him- 

 self, he had proved a capital whetstone for other men's 

 minds. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Mr. Nesbit had told 

 them, and he (Mr. Baker) wished them to adopt it as a 

 principle, that no depth of drain would compensate for dis- 

 tance. 



Mr. Mechi: On certain soils. 



Mr. B.4KER: If they were draining a retentive soil, 

 with a porous soil below, they could not go too deep, be- 

 cause the water had not the power to escape upwards. If 

 they were draining a thoroughly homogentous soil, they 

 might depend upon it they would gain nothing by going 

 deep ; and piovided they went deep enough to protect the 

 drain from injury, that was suflicient. As he had before re- 

 marked, different systems must be applied to different local- 

 ities; the same method would not answer under all cir- 

 cumstances (Hear, hear). He himself had been draining 

 considerably during the present year, and had used Fow- 

 ler's plough for putting in the pipes. Upon that system he 

 had drained seventeen acres of land ; and he believed that 

 there was no other mode— not even the spade — by which 

 draining could be so effectually accomplished, for it notonlv 

 drained, but opened the soil. The drains worked remark- 

 ably well, and the pipes answered better than if they were 

 put in by hand. In saying this, he merely gave that method 

 the meed of praise which was its duo; and he Avould only 

 observe, in conclusion, that it would not do in these mat- 

 ters to rely too much upon theory. A theory might be very 

 good under one set of circumstance.", but very bad under 

 another. 



Mr. Mechi denied that any part of his land had been re- 

 drained, or that ho was expecting the water to rise up to 

 the jiipcs (laughter). lie had simply used the pipes with a 

 view to_ ventilating the soil, and as the cheapesc method of 

 preventing the yellow birdlime-like soil from sinking between 

 the stones. He wished to adl that he ha ! drainc vorv 



deep on stiff clay soils. When lie irrigated the land in 

 summer with liquid manure, he made the drains 5 feet deep, 

 and on these tenacious soils the drains ran from the effects 

 of irrigation at that depth. 



A SlEMiiER : Have you ever drained at 5 feet? 



Mr. Mechi had drained 40 acres 5 feet deep. In one 

 field the drains were 23 feet apart, in another 40, and 

 another 50. They all paid well, but the land did not look 

 so kindly, nor pay so well, as the other part. 



Mr. B.AiLEV Denton (of Stevenage) was s was sorry to 

 find that hi^ friend Mr. Mechi was still wavering (a Voice: 

 " He is decided"'). He could account for the circumstance, 

 however, when he recollected that he was comparing drains 

 at 50 feet intervals 5 feet deep, with drains at 12 feet inter- 

 vals and 2 feet 8 inches deep. Now, he should like Mr. 

 Mechi to inform him whether draining four or five feet deep, 

 at intervals of twelve or eighteen feet, would not have ame- 

 liorated the soil to the full depth of the drains and to an 

 equal extent with the less depth and the nearer intervals. 

 There might be excess in all things, and he thought that in 

 this case Mr. Mechi had run Irom one extreme to ano- 

 ther. He was sure he should not be charged with any 

 discourtesy if he said that there were several facts, or as- 

 sumed facts, contained in Mr. Nesbit's lecture, to which he 

 could not give his assent. He observed that that gentleman 

 had adopted the old trite illusion that there was no water 

 level in clays; and had also alluded to the case of a well of 

 which he had heard his friend Mr. Bullock Webster 

 speak before to-daj'. Mr. Nesbit said that water would 

 not accumulate in a well. Now the simple answer to this 

 was, that a well was a hole pierced in the soil, and could 

 only have any effect upon the space ^immediately around it, 

 which was not sufficient to fill it. What was the object of 

 draining ? The perfect aeration of the soil. When the 

 soil had been unilormly aerated from one drain to another, 

 the water as regularly descended — for this reason, that it 

 was ust 817 times heavier than the air which was displaced 

 by it. The level of the drains then became the level of 

 standing water. That was one of the principal points in 

 drainage, and it disposed at once of the illusion that a well 

 was any criterion of a water level. They knew from ob- 

 servation that deep drains ran before shallow in all cases 

 (A voice," No, no.") Excuse him, he would repeat that deep 

 drains, under equal circumstances, always ran before shallow. 



A Member. — Not on a clay soil. 



Air. B. Denton. — It was not mere assertion that would 

 decide the point ; and, if he had expressed himself decidedly 

 upon that subject, it was not from any dogmatic opinion of 

 his own, but because he was sure of the accuracy of what 

 he had said, as the result of a most minute and careful ex- 

 amination of the facts. Mr. Thompson, of Moat Hall, has 

 most beautifully and conclusively explained the cause of 

 deep drains running before shallow ones. Contradiction 

 would not dispose of the question. Truth must, in the end, 

 prevail ; acd what he had stated was the truth. Another 

 point to which he would refer was the idea which had taken 

 possessionof some minds, with reference to Elkington's sys- 

 tem of drainage. That was a system which certamly had an 

 existence in tlie practise of Elkington.and a prize of £1,000 

 had been given to Elkington for its discovery ; but it had not 

 existed since (an expression of dissent). He repeated, that 

 both as to principle and system it had not practically existed 

 since Elkington's time. That might be regarded as a bold as- 

 sertion, but he waited to be informed that the principle had 

 been confirmed by subsequent practice. With regard to the 

 swallow-hole system, nothing could be more lazy than that, 

 except under peculiar circumstances. There were no doubt 

 cases of pans near the earth's surface for which there was 

 no outlet. Of course in such cases they might adopt this 

 expedient; but rather than lay that down as a "system of 

 drainage," he would blot it out from the practice of agri- 

 culture. He could mention if necessary several instances 

 in Yorkshire, Hertfordshire, and other' parts of England, 

 where the swallow-hole method had been adopted ; and if 

 it were possible to ride in a balloon over the land so treated, 

 they might in every case fix upon the particular places 

 where it had been applied. They were black spots upon 

 the earth's surface, regular scabs, owing to the noii- existence 

 of anything like a proper outlet, and the consequent destruc- 

 tion of the surface crop. Mr. Nesbit had adopted a corru- 

 gated line as the line of water level on clay soils, He (Mr, 



