684 The yournal of Forestry, 



the pipes are laid the whole course should be carefully gone over with 

 the borning rods to see that the proper fall is obtained. 



Upon very flat districts it is sometimes almost impossible to obtain 



a proper fall, except by deepening the cut considerably towards the 



mouth of the main drain ; and though 1 in 1,000 will discharge water, 



it is better to secure at least 1 in 100, in order to insure the permanent 



usefulness of the drain. 



Though it may not be desirable to make too large an area depend 

 upon the outlet, yet when the work is efficiently planned and well 

 executed, the fewer mouths the better. As soon as the soil is well 

 settled down, these should be faced up with brick or stone work, and 

 cross- barred to exclude vermin. It is also of the greatest importance 

 to have all main drains, and indeed covered drains of every sort, far 

 removed from the roots of elm, ash, and willow trees. 

 i. By careful arrangement the whole system of field and road drainage 

 may be made subordinate to one general scheme of district drainage ; 

 and in this way the necessity of leaving wide open ditches by the 

 sides of roads may be obviated, as the area of these is seldom less 

 than three quarters of an acre to every mile of public road. 

 [5 The channels of all main drains should be cut lower than those of 

 the feeders, say 2 or 3 inches, according to circumstances; and all 

 delivery should be in the direction of the flow, and never at right 

 angles to it. Nor should any two side drains ever discharge into a 

 main exactly opposite to each other. 



The general principles of drainage are the same in all cases, whether 

 applied to arable or pasture land, or to woodlands ; but as the system 

 generally adopted in the latter is that of open ditches, there is little 

 fear of going too deep with these in the impermeable and highly 

 retentive soils. 



PiCEA NoBiLis Seedlings. — On clearing a border on which I have a very 

 good and tall Ticea nobilis my gardener found three seedlings from it, evi- 

 dently of one, two, and three years' growth, grown under some holly trees 

 which stand close by. I am well acquainted with growing seed of this tree, 

 as I now have seedlings six feet high, but to do this they have to be sown and 

 carefully preserved under cover until fit to move. I am given to understand 

 also that the seed never ripens properly in this climate, but my expe- 

 rience appears to point to the opposite. The parent tree itself gives every 

 year large numbers of cones which have to be cut away, or their weight might 

 break the branches if allowed to remain. Have aay of your correspondents 

 met with a similar occurrence — viz., trees "growing from seed without any 

 protection?— Fred. Walton, St. Cuthbert's, Albrighton, in Journal of 

 horticulture. 



