j-yS On Pit Braining, May 



tained, we might then attain to iopieching like certainty, as to the 

 bell and molt tik-dual uay of managing live kock, when attacked 

 by internal dilordeis, or when they fufFered under the efteds of 

 external injuries. 1 am yours, &.c. 



M. S. G. 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



On Pit Draining. 



Sir, 



If the following account of the fuccefsful efFefls of pit drain- 

 ing be deemed worthy of a place in your interefting Magazine, 

 it is heartily at your fervice. 



Upon entering to the farm I now poflefs, fome years ago, 

 I found it very much injured by fpouts and fprings ; fo that, as 

 a folld foundation for every future improvement, an extenfive 

 drainage was indifpenfably neceflary. Accordingly, this labori- 

 ous operation was commenced the firft year of entry, and has been 

 continued ever fmce, more or lefs extenfively, as 1 found it could 

 be conveniently carried on. In general, the ufual mode of drain- 

 ini; was attended with fuccefs ; but fome particular patches of 

 fwampy land, v/hich liadbeen left by rc.y predeceflor in their natu- 

 ral wilfj-icfb, even in the heart of a field, 1 found perfeftly 

 incurable by all my efforts in the ordinary way : for ex- 

 cept upon the top of the drain itfelf, the adjacent foil flill con- 

 tinued as unfit for cultivation as ever. Sufpecling, that though 

 the drains were fully three feet in depth, my want of fuccefs 

 •was owing to not having penetrated to the fource of the evil ; 

 1 caufed the perfon employed in draining to fink down a pit 

 to the depth of, at leaft, five feet from the furface ; but flill 

 •without the delircd effect. At lafl, almoft: in defpair of attaining 

 the end I had in view% I left him to his own exertions, and re- 

 turning fome time after, in thecourfe of the day, had the fatisfac- 

 tion to find his peifeverance in digging about a foot and a half 

 deeper, attended witli the moft complete fuccefs : for he had now 

 pcnetratci' the Itratum of giavel lying beneath an exceedingly 

 tough and Itrong clay, from whence the water flowed copioufly, 

 foon filled the pit, and run along the drain. Highly pleafed with 

 the fuccefs of the ftrll effay of the kind I had ever made, 1 pro- 

 ceeded to dig feveral pits, w^:ere I thought needful, to a fimilar 

 depth, and with the fame favourable iffue. But a difagreeable 



circumftancr 



