THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



W 



LAND DRAINAGE AND OUTFALLS. 



Sir, — As the season for the county agiicultural meetings 

 is commenced, and county members are looking about 

 tbem for topics to speak upon, allow me the opportunity of 

 suggesting a theme whicli may save them from the neces- 

 sity of touching upon forbidden political matters. The ob- 

 ject I am about to suggest is not, it is true, so seductive as 

 the forbidden ones ; but, as it has considerable bearing 

 upon the first steps in agricultural advancement, and con- 

 cerns nearly every landed proprietor in the kingdom, it is 

 possible it may find some advocates who will not be daunted 

 by its magnitude and difficulties. I refer to the crying ne- 

 cessity for a general measure for the improvement of out- 

 falls. Last year at this time several popular speakers en- 

 deavoured to amuse the tenant-farmers who assembled to 

 hear tlieir speeches, by declaring that the drought which 

 then prevailed in the Midland and Eastern Counties was 

 the result of the over-drainage of England ! and they 

 elicited a cheer by this direct evidence of what they were 

 pleased to call, with a sneer, the " misapplication of science 

 to agriculture." One year has sufficed to show how short- 

 sighted such observations were. It is impossible, in fact, 

 to conceive a more perfect answer than the frequent rains 

 of the last twelve months have given to that piecQ of after- 

 dinner philosophy. It would not be surprising to find 

 these same speakers, this autumn, pointing out the insuffi- 

 ciency of the drainage they before ridiculed, and gaining 

 even more empliatic cheers from their audience by reversing 

 their former declarations. And in doing so they would be 

 very much nearer tlie facts; for, in truth, the frequent rains 

 of the past summer have served to exhibit results which 

 earnest students of scientific facts will do well to study. 



The drought of the summer of 1859 was the result of a 

 comparatively di^ summer succeeding a winter (October to 

 March, inclusive) in which only 6|^ inches of rain fell in 

 the Midland and Eastern Counties, the rainfall of the 12 

 months ending June 30, 1859, closely approximating 21 

 inches (taking the mean of the jNIidland and Eastern Coun- 

 ties). How different has been the state of things in the 12 

 months ending the 30th of June, 1860 ! The fall of rain 

 during the last winter (1859-00) was nearly double that of 

 1858-59 — viz., 12 inches ; and the total rainfall of the year 

 ending June 30 last will be found to exceed 33 inches ; 

 and as Nature is a sure pay-mistress, she will not be satis- 

 fied till the balance of former years is struck. The past 

 summer has shown with unmistakable decision the im- 

 mense advantage of under-draining the cold, retentive clays 

 of which this country has so large a proportion. Undrained 

 lands of this description have produced crops which are 

 literally not worth harvesting, if they are ever in astate to 

 be carried ; whereas lands of precisely the same nature, but 

 which have been drained, have produced some of the best 

 wheat and beans, and have allowed of the wheat crops being 

 already cut and carried, and, in some cases, thrashed and 

 sold. I know of several instances in which the difference 

 in value of this year's produce of the same land, drained 

 and undrained, would pay the whole cost of draining. 



But however great the simple difference between drained 

 and undrained lands, that difference has been greatly in- 

 creased where the land has been deeply cultivated and the 

 fwryws got rid of. Where the furrows have been retained, 



the water has heen occasionally seen in the growing crops, 

 even on some of the best drained lands where the natural 

 form of the ground leads to its collection at particular 

 spots ; but where steam cultivation, or conviction of mind, 

 has led to the flattening of the surface, no such evil has ex- 

 isted. The past summer has also proved with equal clear- 

 ness, though not with the same difference in value of the 

 crops produced, the superiority of deep over shallow drain- 

 age. In one particular ease which 1 have examined, the 

 difference was as much as two to one in quantity in favour 

 of the former, and as much as a week or ten days in point 

 of time ; and having myself lOU acres of corn now standing 

 in the field with every prospect of being spoiled, I can speak 

 feelingly on the advantage of a week's advance at harvest, 

 There can be hut little doubt that the superiority of deeper 

 drainage in the earlier npening of the corn is due to the 

 higher temperature of the soil as the depth is increased, 

 and which at 4 feet is found to be 2 degs. higher than in 

 undrained land at 2 feet, 



I do not make these remarks to provoke discussion upon 

 the oft-disputed point, Ihe proper depth Jor nnderdrainage, 

 but to draw attention to the data afforded in the present 

 season for detei-mining the nature and extent of a measure 

 so long promised, and daily becoming more and more re- 

 quired, for the improvement of outfalls, The floods that 

 have covered the valleys and silted the grass, and spoiled 

 thousands of acres of meadow hay, have given self-evident 

 proofs of the necessity of remedial measures with respect to 

 the main arteries. By the various unconnected works of 

 under-draining already executed which foi-m but a very 

 small proportion of what will some day represent the 

 drainage of this country, vent has been given to pent 

 up waters previously dispersed by driblets and evaporation. 

 Tiiey have converted bogs and beds of free soil, in which 

 water stagnated, into filters of rapid action, and have com- 

 pelled tenacious clays to let go their hold of water, which 

 had hitherto been claimed solely by the atmosphere. These 

 waters of drainage have been got rid of regardless of the 

 fact that water set free from above commits injury below, 

 unless it be securely guided to its ultimate discharge ; and 

 thus it is that under-drainage, at certain seasons of the year, 

 has augmented the floods in particular valleys, and will con- 

 tinue to augment them still more, as the practice (which 

 may be said to be only commenced) extends. 



But I do not desire to occupy your space at this moment 

 by dwelling upon this branch of the subject. I prefer con- 

 fining my observations to the obstacles we hare to contend 

 with, in nnderdrainage itself, from the want of efi'ective 

 outfalls where no engineering difficulties present them- 

 selves, but where the riglits of interposing private property, 

 and the weakness of the law with respect to existing public 

 ditches, impose a positive veto to sound and creditable 

 works. In Lombardy, where irrigation is carried to per- 

 fection, every irrigator has the right to bring water through 

 the property of his neighbour upon payment of due com- 

 pensation. In England, where we talk of drainage as the 

 foundation of our superior agriculture, we cannot convey 

 the water of drainage to the natural outfalls, if the land of 

 an objecting landowner intervenes ; nor can we deepen or 

 straighten « public water-course passkig through a neigh» 



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