384 



THE FARMKR'S MAGAZliNE. 



HALESWORTH FARMERS' CLUB. 



The monthly tueetiugs of this club were resumed ou Friday 

 evcuinjf, the 24th Sept., Mr. Johu Cooper presiding. There 

 was a fair atteudance of members. 



The subject for the evening's discussion — on drainage — was 

 introduced by Mr. Robert Bond, Secretary to the Suffolk 

 Agricultural Association, of Kentwell, Long Melford, and 

 Thorington, Saxmundham. Tl>e ability with which the intro- 

 ducer presented the subject before the meeting elicited the 

 heartieat applause, and many encomiums at the manner in 

 which he had so successfully worked in the cause of agricul- 

 ture. 



The CnAiRM.\N having introduced the lecturer to the 

 meeting, 



Mr. Bond said : Mr. Chairmau and Gentlemen,— It is with 

 pleasure I appear before you for the purpose of introducing 

 the subject of drainage for this evening's discussion ; and I 

 presume we meet here to give our own ini'ividual experience 

 in preference to quoting the published opinions and state- 

 ments of the great and antagonistic leaders upon the ques- 

 tions of deep and shallow draining. I shall, therefore, adhere 

 to the accounts of my own doings and my own conclusions, 

 knowing well that yoiu: kindly feeling will absolve me from the 

 charge of egotism, to which I do not fear in this case to expose 

 myself. I only desire to see the subject divested of dogma- 

 tism, and resolved into sound and safe principles of action, that 

 science and practice may not be disunited. Hitherto drain- 

 age discussions have been too much the battlc-Seld of oppo- 

 sing parties, who have aimed rather at the triumph of their own 

 pet dogmas than at a cahn philosophical deduction—it has 

 never been the arena of insipid unauimity, and I trust this 

 evening we shall have that friendly dissent which excites dis- 

 cussion and leads to the general experience. We waut to ad- 

 vance the subject, if only one step, toward the solution of 

 scientific truth ; but it will be as well for us to bear in mind 

 that it has ever worn a cameleon hue, which for a practical 

 demonstrative question can only be accounted for by the fact 

 that diversity of soil and climate admits of correct and equally 

 truthful variations in opinion and in practice. Where physical 

 condition is the same, we can probably square ourselves to one 

 notion, and agree upon depth and distance of drain ; but phy- 

 sical differences as to subsoil, climate, and inclination, create 

 practical differences in treatment. We may not attempt to 

 discover a universal panacea for every ill applicable to the en- 

 tire kingdom ; this has been our vain and fruitless aim, but as 

 in physic so in drainage, we can have no Ilolloway's ointmen 

 or Morrison's pills for the cure of all hydropical disease. We 

 must vary our treatment according to our patient ; but it is for 

 us to pronounce our opinion as to the best system suited to 

 this our own locality. To revert once moie to the controversy 

 for universal principles, we have often been interested to ob- 

 serve how fully the fashionable world of agriculture has fol- 

 lowed a lea:icr, and pr:)pounded the doctrine of deep drains at 

 wide intervals, even iu the spirit of a Cochin China mania; whilst 

 the advocates for a shallower system at closer intervals have 

 borne much condemnation whilst adhering to their principles, 

 and they have in reality been somewhat prejudiced apainst all 

 o.nposing claims. I mentioned I would confine myself to my 

 own experience, but it is desirable I should inform you what 

 that experience is. I have practised the different methods of 

 drainage at various depths on different characters of aoi), and 



my operations have extended over an area of upwards of one 

 thousand acres of land, and containing in lineal measurement 

 five hundred miles of drains. I have, therefore, necessarily de- 

 voted much time and thought to this subject, and it is one iu 

 which for years past I have felt considerable interest. 



As to the advantages arising from draiuing, they are so 

 self-evident that I need not enlarge to any extent on this 

 point; let us remember, too, as Suffolk men, that if our 

 forefathers were not the inventors of the art, they at least 

 were amongst the foremost largely to adopt the practice and 

 to appreciate its usefulness. Drainage is undoubtedly the 

 foundation of all improvement, and I know of no greater 

 agricultural revolution by art or nature than the effects oi 

 good sound drainage upon wet clay lands. Only let 

 r.s consider for a moment its effects from our own observa- 

 tion. We can recal to mind the actual state of an undrained, 

 thin-skinned, cold, clay farm. Can anything look more 

 uninviting, or present a more unpromising and unproductive 

 appearance I-' It has the very aspect of barrenness; whilst 

 its water-logged, sodden surface, covered and infested with 

 every species of water-loving semi-aquatic weed natural to 

 the soil points out the cause of its condition. Take it in its 

 cultivation ; 'tis labour ! labour ! labour for man and beast, 

 the result unrequited toil, and the effect upon the soil but 

 an exchange in the extremes from homogeneous mud to baked 

 brick earth. And what is the produce but a stunted and 

 scanty yield, with its narrow rows of dwarfed straw and puny 

 ears. Nor can we wonder at such results, for our cultivated 

 plants require moisture and not saturation, percolation and 

 not stagnation, heat and not cold, aiiration of the soil and 

 not suffocation, friability and not compactness, manure 

 and not poison. I have before said that drainage is the 

 foundation of all improvement; without it, cultivation and 

 manure are of but little avail ; and I have observed upon 

 such undrained farms that master and men, horses and 

 cattle, buildings and fences, usually piesent the appearance, 

 and apparently imbibe the air, of the surrounding property. 

 I can well understand that a mismanaged impoverished farm 

 produces poverty in the purse, parsimony in the outlay, ill- 

 paid labourers, half-fed stock, and all ditto to match with 

 the "Hungry hills, "''Van Diemon's fields," "Upper and 

 Lower Wilderness," which are the appropriate cognomens 

 of such wretched spots of mismanagement and slaverj-. 

 Drainage, then, is the main point; it is desirable; it will 

 pay. Wh}', by that one operation we remove the very 

 poison and preventive of fertility; we remove the curse to 

 our corn crops, and the food of the semi-aquatic weeds ; we 

 reduce the amount of necessary labour in cultivation ; we 

 produce friability, admit the renovating air, the invigorating 

 rays of the sun, the enriching shower; render the manure 

 applied available, producing so marked a change at harvest 

 that we have an abundant crop of a superior character, 

 arriving much earlier to maturity. Consequently, with the 

 same rent-charge and rates, with diminished horse-labour, 

 and other advantages, we have an infinitely better return ; 

 and we are enabled to improve and extend our root culture, 

 by ado])tii)g autumnal cultivation, thereby increasing our 

 return in stock, which has usually ruled disproportionately 

 high in price, especially in times of cereal depression. I 

 repeat, I am convinced no investment pays better, whether 



