184. 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



act of Parliament, the owners and occupiers of 

 land subject to be injured by floods were empow- 

 ered to associate together, and be incorporated for 

 the purpose of applying a thorough remedy. A 

 bill of this kind was, in fact, introduced in 1852 

 by Lord Carlisle, containing very comprehensive 

 and compulsory power. It was not proceeded 

 with, in consequence of the retirement of the Ad- 

 ministration of which his lordship was a member, 

 and also from other causes which were well alluded 

 to by Mr. Bailey Denton, an eminent drainer, 

 when he told the members of the Central Farmers' 

 Club {ibid p. 263), "The magnitude of the subject 

 was such as all must acknowledge. Everybody 

 admitted, that sooner or later, something must be 

 done. It was only a question of time ; many 

 efforts, besides those of the Earl of Carlisle, had 

 been made to promote legislation on the subject. 

 Lord Carlisle, however, happened to introduce 

 his bill just at that juncture which rendered it 

 opportune; though from circumstances the at- 

 tempt had not been repeated since. In that year 

 (1852) when Lord Carlisle introduced his bill, 

 more rain had fallen, than had fallen in the aggre- 

 gate in the four years which had succeeded. Now, 

 during those four years drainage had much pro- 

 gressed ; and he believed he had made it clear, by 

 certain experiments of his, that every acre of 

 clay land drainage added very largely to the influx 

 of water into the valleys. Mr. Clarke himself 

 had referred to the Hinxworth tables, which 

 showed that a thousand gallons per acre per diem 

 were discharged into the valleys from drainage. 

 He might add that those tables showed, contrary 

 to the expectations of many men who did not be- 

 lieve in the porosity of clay, that the clay lands 

 that had been properly drained had, within 24 

 hours of any heavy rainfall, and after the lands 

 had become saturated, discharged at least one 

 moiety of the quantity which had fallen on the 

 surface. At the time when Lord Carlisle intro- 

 duced his measure, there seemed to be an almost 

 unanimous desire for arterial drainage. In the 

 four months of November, December, January, 

 and February, 1852-53, there was a rainfall of 16 

 inches ; the average fall in this country, in those 

 months, during the last forty years, having been 

 11 inches. Since 1852-53 there had not fallen in 

 any corresponding period more than 4§ inches 

 average. With these facts before them, they could 



have no difficulty in understanding how it was 

 that the interest in the subject of arterial drainage 

 had of late years decreased ; in fact, so little 

 interest had it excited since the winter of 1852-53, 

 that he had met with persons who thought that 

 there was no necessity for any drainage at all ; and 

 he had almost felt that in his own case ' Othello's 

 occupation ' was ' gone.' But nature always ba- 

 lanced herself, and sooner or later a downfall will 

 occur, which would make many people regret that 

 they had not had the advantage of Lord Carlisle's 

 proposed act, and that the legislator had slept 

 during the dry winters which had succeeded its 

 introduction." 



The recent decision of the House of Lords, in 

 the great case of Chasemore v. Richards {Farmer's 

 Magazine, vol. li., p. 180) will very materially aid 

 those who are endeavouring to improve the arterial 

 drainage of a district. Till this cause was decided 

 it was held, in some carelessly decided causes, that 

 a farmer could not even improve the drainage of 

 his farm, if, in doing this, he lowered the water 

 in his neighbours' spring ; and Lord EUenborough 

 is reported to have once decided at the Maidstone 

 assizes, that it was even illegal to pump the water 

 out of a stone quarry, however its removal might 

 be essential to the working of the quarry, if in so 

 doing the water was lowered in a neighbour's 

 bath ! All these absurd cases, however, have been 

 overruled by Chasemore v. Richards recently de- 

 cided by the House of Lords, and there is now no 

 legal reason why a landholder may not drain the 

 land water from his estate, in any manner or di- 

 rection he deems best. 



It is thus that the advance in agricultural know- 

 ledge, fortunately for our country, penetrates into 

 Westminster Hall, and influences the decisions of 

 learned judges. It is thus, too, that even unfa- 

 vourable seasons — ruined hay crops — arable lands 

 covered with water, are not without their uses to 

 us all. They certainly serve to remind us of the 

 defects in our greater drains ; they lead us to seek 

 for remedies injthe removalof crooked water-courses, 

 of the silt and weeds which impede the flow of the 

 current, and of mills which dam it back on our 

 lands : they set contrivance and ingenuity to work, 

 and thus, as the permanent fertility and healthful- 

 ness of the lowland farms are increased, our 

 country is enriched in a way the most certain and 

 enduring. 



A WET HARVEST. 



A wet and a late harvest, in the southern counties of 

 England, has a close resemblance to a wet, early one in 

 Scotland ', but the less auspicious weather of the North, in 

 late and even in ordinary seasons, gives rise to peculiar 

 practices to meet them. " Necessity the csother of Inven- 

 tion," is one of those cardinal maxims just as appropriate 

 in the harvest field as it is in the commercial bustle of the 

 British capital, or among the never-ceasing rivalry of ma- 

 chinery in Birmingham and Manchester. 



Daring the season, already, many an honest man has 

 " scratched his head" in the harvest field, and doubtless 



will do BO again before the ingathering of his corn is con- 

 cluded. What, then, are the peculiarities of practice which 

 " Scotch mist" has given birth to in the harvest field ? How 

 are crops secured, amidst the " a'-day rains" of October or 

 the cloudy, close, and muggy weather of August ? Has 

 Experience, amongst the drenched sheaves of the former, 

 discovered any means by which malting in tJie stock and 

 heating in the stackyard are averted ? In short, what is 

 the general practice pursued in the North, in wet seasons ? 

 In reply to this, the following vesum^ of the practice in 

 wet harvests, in the eastern counties of Scotland, so far as 



