THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



13 



Denton) thought that j?eiitleman liad disputed the existence 

 of a water level altocjcther. That line, if it existed at all, 

 was simply attributable to the supeiior power of capillary 

 attraction ; there was no line of positive wetness on drained 

 land above the mean level of the drains. He believed that 

 if test holes were made in drained land, and left open for a 

 certain time, an atmospheric action took place on_the sides 

 of the holes, and an expansion of the soil, which prevented 

 the water from passing through. They must not, therefore, 

 take test holes as a criterion of drainage in all eases; al- 

 though on any other lands than clay no doubt they were so. 



Mr. Meciii : Mr. Parkes made his test-holes with pipes 

 of clay around them. 



Mr. Thoma.s (Lidlington) said that Mr. Nesbithad con- 

 trived to divest the subject of all empiricism, and shown, 

 as far as it could be shown, that no particular sj'stem of 

 drainage was suitable for all kinds of soils. It was much 

 to be regretted that rival drainers, whether professional or 

 amateur, could scarcely ever meet without declaring their 

 own plans to be absolutely perfect, and all others to be es- 

 sentially wrong ( Hear, hear). Most of them had, no doubt, 

 read that interesting work, " The Adventures of Gil Bias," 

 in which Dr. Sangrado laid it down that bleeding and co- 

 pious draughts of hot water were a certain specific and cure 

 for every sort of disease ; but Dr. Sangrado himself was 

 not a greater impostor than the man who contended that 

 one particular system of drainage, atone uniform depth, was 

 applicable to all soils (Hear, hear, and laughter). The pre- 

 sent discussion seemed to tend to two practical conclusions, 

 both of great importance. One was, that no depth could 

 compensate in the case of homogeneous claj's for too great a 

 distance between the drains (Hear, hear). The other, that 

 in the case of friable and springy soils they could hardly go 

 too deep (Hear, hear). In the case of springy soils at Lid- 

 lington, he (Mr. Thomas) had gone down to a depth of 

 twelve and fourteen feet, but he did not maintain that depth 

 was necessary iu all cases. There was one point upon 

 which, as a practical man, he differed from the lecturer. It 

 was, that at all inclinations of the soil, the drains should be 

 taken up the steepest acclivity. Up to a certain angle that 

 was no doubt very good, but it was not of universal appli- 

 cation. He himself occupied a good deal of land on wet 

 and precipitate hills, and he was satisfied, by experiment, 

 that the system would not answer there. With regard to 

 the overdrainage of grass land, he had seen it done so often, 

 on so many hundreds of acres, that he could not help ex- 

 pressing his entire concurrence in what had been said upon 

 that subject by Mr. Ncsbit. What they wanted was, that 

 the land shou'd be sufHciently dry lor the cattle, and at the 

 same time sufficiently moist for the production of grasses, 

 and that object was not .ilways kept clearly in view. On 

 the whole, he thought they might safely arrive at the con- 

 clusion that it was impossible to lay down any known rule 

 in drainage as of general application to all soils (Hear, 

 hear). 



Mr. Bullock Webster said it was only a few years 

 ago that he stated, as his opinion, that certain grass lands 

 might be oyer-drained ; and when he did so, the Quarterly/ 

 Review declared that such a remark could only have ema- 

 nated from a hermit, brooding over his own ignorance, in 

 a garret in London (laughter) — that it was only such a 

 man who could entertain the idea that grass lands could be 

 over-drained ; now the discussion to-night showed this 

 idea was not entertained by himself only. There can be 

 no doubt as to the importance of deep drainage for sptings ; 

 and in porous subsoils, deep drains at wide intervals are 

 more economical and beneficial; but that in the retentive 

 clay subsoils, not surcharged with underwater, he had 

 always taken a decided part in opposition to draining below 

 thirty-six to forty inches ; as these soils require drainage 

 for Btirface water, and the object was to gut rid of that 

 quickly. But he had hardly expected his friend Mr. Mechi 

 to admit in so straightforward a manner that his shallow 

 drains had answered best. He believed tliat the practice 

 of going deep in strong clay subsoils was only a waste of 

 money; and his friend Mr. Denton, who had advocated 

 that system for many years, now allowed that they could 

 not put their drains further apart in consequence of the 

 increased depth. 



Mr. Denton : I never said that. I have always been of 

 opinion that depth does not eompensftte for distance. 



Mr. Weuster : Then to make the drains an extra font 

 deep could not efi'ect the slightest good. It was only to in- 

 cur extra expense, without any corresponding advantage. 

 After the many years' experience they had had, he was 

 sure there must be at least live hundred practical farmers 

 in England who were able to state whether or not a depth 

 of four or of three feet was best in the case of strong clay 

 soils. (A voice: More; there are five thousand). He 

 held, then, that they ought to come to a practical con- 

 clusion as to what was right in the case of these soils. 

 Every day's observation and experience increased his con- 

 viction that his own views were correct, and that evening's 

 discussion had atiforded a most gratifying confirmation of 

 their accuracy. 



Mr. Mechi asked how far apart Mr, Webster placed 

 his drains? 



Mr. Webster : The closer the better. I should like 

 them to be eighteen feet. 



Mr. Hatfield, (of Euston, Stamford,) said that having 

 had some experience of diaining upon retentive clay soils, 

 he should like to make one or two observations upon the 

 subject of that evening's discussion. Before commencing the 

 drains he dug a few trial holes of about five feet in depth ; he 

 covered them carefully, and watched wheu the rains fell for 

 the purpose of ascertaining at what depth the waters entered, 

 8S a guide how he ought to drain his land. Now he found 

 that whenever there was a continuous heavy fall of rain it would 

 enter the pits at one foot, but in a moderate fall of rain it 

 would enter the pits at a depth of two feet. He concluded, 

 therefore, that it was necessary to go sufSciently deep below 

 the two feet, in order to arrive at a method that would be ap- 

 plicable to all the circumstances of the soil. Adopting that 

 system as a standard for his drains, he went down thirty 

 inches, and afterwards increased the depth to thirty -six inches; 

 and for ten years he had found that thirty-six inches would 

 drain the land most effectually. 



Mr. B. Webster : In what county do you farm ? 



Mr. Hatfield : Northampton ; and the drains answered 

 admirably. But there was another point which entered into 

 the question of drainage, and that w»s the cost. He had 

 therefore made one description of drain in this manner : — He 

 cut a drain three feet deep, and nine inches in width at the top 

 and gradually tapering away to an inch-and-a-half at the 

 bottom. This he performed with tools made for the purpose. 

 The first spit was thrown on one side, the second on the op- 

 posite side, and the third on the same side as the first. The 

 second was then returned to fit the drain iu the same manner 

 as the key-stone of an arch. Iu order to avoid the expense of 

 tiles, he put some thorns at the bottom, not for the purpose 

 of supporting the drain, but simply to intercept au escape of 

 mould. By this simple mear.s he secured a most effective 

 drainage. The drains had now been in existence for eight 

 years, and were still in the moat perfect condition. He men- 

 tioned these facts because he considered that they had an im- 

 portant bearing upon the question of expense, and showed 

 that there were cases in strong retentive clays in which land 

 might be effectually drained without resorting to the use of 

 tiles. 



Mr. Mechi : Is yours brick-earth or tile-earth ? 



Mr. Hatfield : Brick-eatth. 



Mr. CoussMAKER, (of Westwood, Guildford,) was glad 

 to find that there was one point at all events upon which 

 they were agreed, namely, that no one system was gene- 

 rally applicable to all soils alike. He knew nothing about 

 springy, and little about porous soils ; but upon strong claj' 

 soils his idea was, that the best system was that which got 

 rid of the water in the quickest manner. A moderate 

 depth, therefore, at as frequent intervals as convenient, waa 

 what he considered best. He had no objection to increase 

 the depth— they would drain the soil perhaps equally well 

 — supposing the expense of the operation was not an object, 

 but it was money thrown away to increase the depth beyond 

 a certain distance, or to suppose that by so doing they could 

 place the drains further apart. His practice had been to go 

 about seven yards apart and about thirty inches deep ; he 

 was glad to find Mr. Mechi agreeing with him. With 

 regard to laying the land flat where the soil was com- 

 posed of clay, it was not desirable. He had seen the 

 system fail, and would on no account adopt it himself; as 

 the cultivation of the land could not in that case be per- 

 formed without considerable treading of the horses, which 



