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XIII. — 0)1 the Progress of Agricultural Knowledge durhig the 

 last Four Years. By Ph. Pusey, M.P., F.R. and G.S. 



As four years have passed since our Society was founded for 

 extending the knowledge and improving the practice of hus- 

 bandry, it may not be useless now to inquire how far, if at all, 

 its working has hitherto carried out the views of our founders. 

 Though we could not be fairly required to have done much in 

 so short a time, we certainly ought to have done something, 

 strengthened as we have been by the hearty aid of the English 

 farmers. We should be encouraged, I think, by knowing what 

 we have done, if, indeed, we have succeeded in anything; we 

 shall be more likely to advance farther, if we look at the diffi- 

 culties we still have to deal with ; and the best encouragement, 

 perhaps, for active men, is the knowledge that they have yet a 

 great deal to do. The extension of science may, however, mean 

 two different things, either the spread of existing knowledge 

 among a wider number of persons — and this is a most important 

 object in our department ; for if the best practice of each different 

 district could become general in the country, a very great im- 

 provement in farming would at once be effected — or it may 

 mean the discovery of principles hitherto entirely unknown. 

 In examining how far we have advanced in either way the know- 

 ledge of farming, it may be convenient to begin with the soil 

 itself, proceeding afterwards from tillage and seed-time to har- 

 vest; and as no soil, however good, can yield what it ought while 

 it is drenched with water, we must first consider drainage. 



It is only seven years since we heard in England, chiefly 

 through the present Speaker of the House of Commons, that a ma- 

 nufacturer in Scotland, now well known as Mr. Smith of Deanston, 

 had found the means of making all land, however wet and poor 

 it might be, warm, sound, and fertile, and that this change was 

 brought about by two processes, thorough-draining and subsoil- 

 ploughing. PI is rule of draining was this : that we are not to endea- 

 vour merely to find out hidden springs, and to cut them through 

 by a single drain, which in some of our books appeared to be re- 

 garded as all that was necessary; but that, as the whole surface of 

 retentive soils is rendered wet, not by accidental springs, but by 

 the rain, the whole surface of the field must be made thoroughly 

 dry by under-drains, running throughout at equal distances ; any 

 field, he said, however wet, might be so dried, provided these under- 

 drains were cut sufficiently near to each other. This was the prin- 

 ciple of Thorough or Frequent Draining asserted by Mr. Smith 

 of Deanston in 1 835 ; and this principle, which was then new 

 and startling, may now be regarded as firmly established. But 

 though it was then so novels I have discovered accidentally that 

 it has been long practised to its fullest extent in one part of 



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