232 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



offer to the supply of water be sufficient, no one would 

 think of laying them at closer intervals or at greater 

 depths than in soils of a similar nature, but situated in 

 less rainy districts. The nature of the soil itself— the 

 more or less retentive texture of its constituents — the 

 topographical position and plane of the surface, are 

 the objects of much more immediate and indispensable 

 considerations for the regulation of depth and intervals 

 than the quantity of rain that may generally fall during 

 a whole year, A ruin gauge, even assuming that the 

 instruments now used are accurate — and Mr. Denton 

 tells us that upon this important point there is a con- 

 flict of opinions — can only give us the quantity of rain 

 that directly and perpendicularly falls over a plane 

 area; but it does not register the quantity of water 

 which, in addition to that direct fall, flows over 

 underlying lands from neighbouring hills, or surface 

 undulations, and other causes, in which case, the regis- 

 ter of the rain-gauge is of no earthly use. Again : it 

 often happens, even in those districts where the rain- 

 fall is the least, that at any moment showers, such as 

 frequently accompany thunder-storms, will rush upon 

 the land, and in a few moments pour upon its surface 

 a large quantity of water, which of course the drains 

 must be capable of discharging. 



It is very obvious that in wet climates the drains are 

 brought into more constant use than in drier ones. But 

 we contend that this is the only difference, and that 

 difference can hardly be practically taken into account 

 in the laying of drains ; for however small the yearly 

 average fall of rain may be, the drains may be called 

 upon to discharge at any given moment quite as large a 

 quantity of water, although less frequently, as in lands 

 situated in more rainy districts. We cannot, therefore, 

 understand what practical use in drainage the accurate 

 register of rainfall can be ; for the only local circum- 

 stances we know of, that must regulate the depth and 

 intervals between the drains, is, as we have said : the 

 nature of the soil itself, and the topogi'aphical position of 

 the land in respect to the supply of surface water that 

 may flow from adjacent rising grounds, to a much 

 larger amount than that given by the rain-gauge, and 

 of which that instrument cannot give the most fi ac- 

 tional idea. Besides, whatever the fall of rain may be, 

 or, in other words, however often the drains may be 

 called upon to act, this cannot interfere with the inter- 

 vals and the depths at which the drains should be placed ; 

 for the extent of those intervals is exclusively determined 

 by the nature of the soil, and should be limited only 

 by the point where the action of the drains ceases to act 

 laterally — the limit of the action of one line of drains 

 ending where the action of the next line begins. 



The phenomena exhibited by the movement of liquids 

 are ever the same. If a shower falls over the great 

 desert of Sahara, where rain is seldom seen, its descent 

 downwards through the soil, sandy though it be, is re- 

 gukited by the same opposite forces of gravitation and 



capillary attraction as when falling in countries where 

 rain falls more frequently. It is true drains would be 

 more useful in one case than in the other ; but surely 

 an accurate register, such as Mr. Denton advocates, is 

 not necessary for ascertaining that plain fact, the ex- 

 perience of the most ignorant old inhabitant of a dis- 

 trict being amply sufficient. In all cases where thorough 

 drainage is aimed at, drains must be laid under every 

 variety of circumstances, at such a depth and at such 

 intervals that the limit of the action of one line termi- 

 nates where that of the other begins, whether that action 

 is to be exercised only one day in the year, or two hun- 

 dred days. 



When we say that there are districts with a rainfall 

 of 60 inches, and others with only 25, we do not mean 

 that every shower falls with twice the intensity upon the 

 one as upon the other : we only mean that rain falls twice 

 as often, or, in other terms, that the drains are called 

 upon to act twice as often in one case as in the other ; 

 but to all intents and purposes the quantity of water 

 which they must evacuate in a given time is pretty 

 much the same. 



Then, there are other circumstances which have a 

 direct influence upon drainage, which the rain-gauge 

 cannot reach ; and these circumstances, as regards that 

 influence go far to compensate the difference of rainfall 

 between the western and the eastern districts of this 

 country — we mean the fall of snow. It is a well- 

 known fact that snow is a rare occurrence in Cornwall 

 and Devonshire, whereas it accumulates sometimes to 

 a great depth in the eastern counties. When that mass 

 of snow comes to thaw, with all its accumulations 

 against every obstacle, what becomes of the land, in 

 the spring of the year, when a high temperature and 

 dryness of soil are necessary for the purposes of vege- 

 tation, if, on account of the register of the rain-gauge, 

 a deviation from the general rules of drainage had 

 been ventured upon ? It strikes us that no rain-gauge 

 has yet been constructed so as to give anything like an 

 accurate datum of the quantity of water brought down in 

 a fall ot snow, drifted as it generally is by a high wind. 



As regards the means of effecting the general register 

 of rainfall in this country, at a cost of some ^26,000, 

 as advocated by Mr. Denton, we are pretty confident 

 that no Chancellor of the Exchequer will ever be found 

 to debit his budget with such an item as this, even if it 

 were admissible that sufficiently diligent and careful 

 individuals could be found to undertake such a task for 

 the remuneration of five pounds per annum ! 



Apart from this anxiety of Mr. Bailey Denton to 

 prove too much, and to overstretch the importam^e of 

 the measure he advocates, his paper is replete with in- 

 structive facts, and shows a great accuracy of observa- 

 tion, and wonderful ingenuity in arranging the results 

 of his experience. His tabular records of the Hinx- 

 worth drainage are certainly the best arranged we have 

 ever seen. 



THE CLEANING OF CORN FROM THE STRAW. 



Knocking, scutching, or rubbing out grain from 

 the straw, is an operation in which comparatively 

 little improvement is required. With a tiiousand 

 or twelve hundred revolutions per minute almost 

 any " drum " will now beat or strip out every 

 grain from sheaves properly opened and " fed '' to 

 it. Much ingenuity having been applied to the shaping 

 of new " beaters " (some of them, indeed, being no 

 improvement upon the old square ones), and to the 

 contrivance of a better " screen, or concave," we have 



now patent beaters, of different sorts, that may be said 

 to perfectly extract corn from the ears without splitting 

 or breaking it. They are adapted to damp, as well as 

 dry stuff; and also save power, by being of a more or 

 less wedge form, and so cleaving their way through the 

 air, instead of driving it like a fan. At the Gloucester 

 Meeting in 1853, and at Lincoln in 1854, about two- 

 thirds of the combined-machines thrashed clean, or 

 nearly so ; and about the same number did their work 

 without breaking the grain. At Carlisle, in 1855, 



