251 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



by equally-good prize-lists— a very easy matter to 

 manage; at least, so one would iniaiiiuc. It is im- 

 possible, hcvever, to foUow Mr. Smith's commentaries 

 by the prize sheets tacked on to this part. If, as he 

 tells you, Mr. Booth's prize cow Nectarine Blossom 

 was a " magnificent beast," Mr. Sti atton's second prize 

 " a good animal," and Mr. Wethcrell's Moss Rose 

 " highly commended," but that he thinks the age of 

 the second prize cow " must have carried some weight," 



we naturally turn to see the relative ages of these 

 animals. Tlie first and second arc to be found readily 

 enough; but the third, or highly commended, with 

 some difficulty — about fifteen pages further on, in a 

 thorough jumble of cattle of all kinds, without even a 

 break or a line to separate one sort from another, and, 

 after going through sheep, pigs, and even poultry, to 

 roach her. What can be the argument against some 

 more orderly and convenient arrangement ? 



LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB. 

 ARTERIAL DRAINAGE. 



The first monthly meeting of the Club for the 

 present year took place on Monday, February 7, at 

 the Club-house, lilackfriars. Mr. John Thomas, 

 of Bletsoe, the new Chairman, presided, supporled by 

 Messrs. Robert Baker, Owen Wallis, J. J. Mechi, J. 

 Tyler, "NV, Gray, James Howard, J. A. Williams, C. E. 

 Amos, S. Skelton, II. Cheffins, G. Wilsher, E. Purser, 

 E. B. VC&\te, M. Reynolds, W. Eve, W. Heard, J. 

 Cressingham, S. Sidney, C. J. Brickwell, G. Smythies, 

 J. G. King, J. B. Spearing, W. Bennett, R. Holmes, 

 J. R. Dagg, S. W. Squier, J, Wood (Croydon), D. 

 Christie, J. Coleman, D. Reid, C. Hayward, J. Bailey 

 Denton, P. A. Halkett, Hammond, W. Banwell, G. S. 

 Harrison, T. Haslam, G. Whistler, &c., &c. 



The subject for discussion, introduced by Mr. J. A. 

 Clarke, of Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, was " Arterial 

 Drainage, including the state of our Rivers and Water- 

 courses." 



After a few introductory remarks from the Chairman, 

 Mr. Clarke said : Gentlemen, arterial or trunk drain- 

 age appears to have been asleep for several years, and we 

 have had complaints of a scanty rain-fall that has left the 

 soil comparatively uncharged with water; lowered our 

 springs ; made drink for cattle scarce in ponds, wells, 

 and ditches ; and kept the half-filled rivers pretty 

 regularly within the brim of their wandering channels. 

 But if we have not recently sufl'ered from severe floods, 

 which a wet season, however, would bring down upon 

 us more disastrously than ever, the periodical overflow 

 of some streams, the injuriously high level of others, and 

 the inefficient and obstructed condition of thousands of 

 brooks, drains, and water-courses intersecting the sur- 

 face of the kingdom, are all the time working far greater 

 evils than those which occ^isionally startle the public 

 when a river happens to break loose and sweep away 

 their property. The nature of these evils, to which 

 through long custom we so quietly submit, will appear 

 in the course of my paper. I will just say here that 

 another kind of " inundation" seems threatening to 

 make itself felt by the farmer more heavily than before ; 

 I mran the abundance of low-priced bread-corn : and I 

 bring the subject of river reform before you, because I 

 believe it to be one of those great measures of relief and 

 means of profit which are now so urgently needed by 



only resource lies either in a diminished expenditure 

 or a greater produce, or indeed in both. At present, 

 the agricultural mechanic is doing his part toward meet- 

 ing the difficulty, by reducing steam tillage to a prac- 

 tical reality ; and undoubtedly, if the tenant-farmer is 

 left to fight the battle of the corn market single-handed, 

 the steam-cultivator promises to be one of his ablest 

 weapons. But we look to better subsoil drainage as one 

 of the surest provisions " against a rainy day :" and here 

 comes in the duty of the landed proprietor to render 

 such an improvement possible upon his estate, with all 

 its after-results of deep tillage and high management, 

 by opening an adequate out-fall for any amount of 

 drain- water. An unlocked for high range of prices has 

 been only postponing the fulfilment of several great 

 helps which the landowners and the legislature can 

 rightfully give to the " unprotected" farmer. And 

 among the coming questions affecting our welfare, such 

 as Agricultural Statistics, a Tenant-Right Law, cheap 

 Transfer of Land, alteration of the Law of Settlement, 

 and so on, this one of our General Drainage is not the 

 least important and momentous. You see I connect 

 the sulijcct with Kgislation, and after briefly adverting 

 to the facts of the case, I propose to consider the necessity 

 for Parliamentary interference, and to offer my views of 

 tl'.e way in which that assistance may be conferred. 

 To convey an idea of the extensiveness of the subject, I 

 must be a little geographical. The drainage of our 

 island passes off to sea in a generally eastern direction ; 

 the largest English rivers, except the Severn, emptying 

 upon the low east coast, and those of Scotland (all but 

 the Clyde) following the same course. Of English 

 rivers, the principal points of deliverv are the rstuaries 

 of the Humber, the Wash, the Thames, and the Severn ; 

 their respective drainage areas being very large. The 

 Yorkshire Ouse, Trent, and other Humber rivers radiate 

 into the counties of Westmoreland, Stafford, Warwick, 

 Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham ; traversing broad 

 meadows throughout their course. The sluggish Wash 

 rivers, the Ouse, Ncne, Wclland, &c., embrace in their 

 system of flat valleys parts of Lincolnshire, Rutland, 

 Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buck- 

 inghamshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, 

 and Norfolk. The Thames and its feeders extend in- 



the cultivator of the soil, When prices rule low, our land into Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucester 



