DECEMBER 



IRISFI GARDENING 



i8i 



of Scotland were farmed for nearly a thousand 

 years by farmers living- together in villages, 

 around which lay all their tillage land. This 

 land was laid off in acre, half-acre, and quarter- 

 acre plots ; and in each plot the furrow was 

 always turned towards the centre. Thus the plots 

 came to be higher in the centre and lower at the 

 sides ; and the hollows between two plots took 

 the water thrown off by the ridges and carried 

 it away as gravity determined. This ridge and 

 furrow system of draining became common, 

 especially in heavy land districts, and many 

 fields can still be seen in England and Ireland 

 having the land laid up in this fashion. 



But there were places to which the ridge and 

 furrow system did not apply. There were wet 

 spots, springs, boggy places, morasses, and 

 such like, that had hitherto kept the plough 

 at arm's length and held the land about them 

 valueless till they could be drained. To deal 

 with such, special drains were made, and the 

 great expositor of the work was Walter Blith, 

 who published a book called " The English Im- 

 prover Improved," whose frontispiece bore the 

 legend "Vive la Re Publick." in 1653. 



According to Blith, " Drayning" was "tak- 

 ing away Superfluous and Venomous Water 

 which lieth in the Earth and much occasioneth 

 Bogginess, Miriness, Rushes, Flags, and other 

 filth, and is indeed the chief cause of Barren- 

 ness in any Land of this nature." To get such 

 water out of boggy and miry places they were 

 to be tapped by a trench or " ditch," as Blith 

 sometimes called it, which was to lead the 

 water away to some lower level. If the place 

 to be tapped was of some size it was to be 

 attacked by a ditch running well into it, or 

 along one side or round its flanks and into 

 these " overthwart " or cross ditches the main 

 tapping ditch was to he led. Blith insists 

 strongly that the ditches must be deep below 

 the source of the water and straight — much 

 deeper than a foot or eighteen inches, as was 

 then common. "Carry thy Drain upon the 

 Levell," he says, "until thou art assuredly got 

 under that moysture, mirrinesse, or water, that 

 either offends thy Bog or covers thy Land ; and 

 goe one Spade's graft deeper by all means. . . . 

 Prevent as many i\ngles, Crooks, and Turnings 

 as it is possible, for those will but occasion 

 stoppages of the water, and filling up of 

 Trenches and loss of Ground, and much more 

 trouble than otherwise. Then thou must take 



good green Faggots, Willow, Alder, Elm, or 

 Thorn, and lay in the bottom of thy works, and 

 then take the Turf thou tookest up in the top 

 of the Trench, and Plant upon them with the 

 green Soard downwards, and then fill up thy 

 works levell again." 



He also favours the bottom of the Trench, 

 where it is shallow, being laid with stones : — 

 " Take great Pibble stones or Flint stones, 

 and so fill up the bottom of thy Trench 

 about fifteen inches high, and take thy turf and 

 plant it as aforesaid, being very fit for the 

 Trench, as it may joyn close as it is laid down." 



Draining of this kind was, of course, very 

 expensive, and no more than was necessary 

 was attempted. 



A hundred years later the great pressure of 

 population in Britain forced many such drains 

 to be made. Not without complaints as to 

 their cost, however. But one day by a lucky 

 chance a hard working farmer named Elking- 

 ton found out how the cost of such drains 

 might be brought down. A marshy spot was 

 surrounded by a great bank of soil which 

 retained the water like a bowl. Elkington was 

 cutting a trench through the rim of the bowl, 

 as it were, and when he had got three or four 

 feet down he wondered what the soil still below 

 him was like, which he must cut through. One 

 of his workmen was passing with a heavy iron 

 punch and Elkington called for it. He drove it 

 into the earth its full length and was pleased 

 to find the earth soft. But he was mightily 

 astonished to find when the punch was with- 

 drawn that a stream of water rushed out 

 behind it. Elkington argued that he had 

 tapped the bottom of the supply that caused 

 the bog and that he need dig no more. He 

 had, as it were, pulled the bung out of the 

 barrel, which was now what should be done to 

 drain wet and marshy spots like those he had 

 been attacking. 



Elkington's system, or Blith's system im- 

 proved by Elkington, held the field for many a 

 year until it was improved upon by a Perthshire 

 factory manager whose duty it was to look 

 after a small farm attached to his factory. He 

 showed, as we now see clearly, that Blith and 

 Elkington were merely dealing with isolated 

 patches of land ; and he showed, not only that 

 it was necessary to deal with almost every 

 acre under the plough, but also how this should 

 be done. 



