178 Progress of Agricullural Knowledge 



will draw off the water, we slioukl fintl an old established method 

 of draining, which certainly does draw off the water, which is 

 suited particularly to stiff clays, because the stiffer the clay the 

 longer will an open channel underground remain open, and 

 which is so cheap as to bring our estimates once more within a 

 moderate compass. On such land, therefore, I should recom- 

 mend thorn or wedge draining, because I think many more farms 

 will be drained at 3/. than at 10/. per acre. The drain, I am 

 told, is placed by the side of the furrow, not under it, and is 

 not trodden in, as we might fear, on arable land. Not only, 

 however, do tiles and stones fail to act on some very heavy 

 land, but on such land, if under grass, I have been told that 

 drainage when it has acted has even been found injurious ; 

 and I mention this because we ought not to shut our eyes to 

 objections, and because nothing I believe has more checked the 

 advance of farming than the unwillingness of eager improvers to 

 admit that their remedies can in any single instance be found to 

 fail. Still, with regard to draining, the exceptions, if any, can be 

 but few. Those large tracts of the country which require 

 drainage can generally be drained easily, and our Society has done 

 a great service to the country by making known the means of drain- 

 ing them with the best and most lasting materials, according to 

 the Huntingdonshire method, cheaply. Further reductions of 

 price I know are in progress. If Lord J. Hay should perfect 

 his invention of concrete draining-tiles, another large saving may 

 be effected. But 1 trust that the coming winter will not pass by 

 without a vigorous commencement of under-draining throughout 

 the country ; for besides the benefit tp the farm, draining in its 

 execution, of course, gives great employment to the labourers, 

 who may this year be in much want of employment ; and even 

 beyond this temporary relief, every landowner who drains and 

 then breaks up with the plough '25 or 30 acres of indifferent 

 pasture, provides employment throughout future years for an addi- 

 tional family. Notwithstanding the covenants in old leases, I 

 believe that on many farms weak pastures not worth more than 

 20s. an acre might be so broken up after drainage, with advantage 

 to both owner and occupier, and that many village families 

 might be so founded.* At all events, the necessity of draining is 

 so certain that within the next ten years a large part of England 



* There are also thousands of acres, perhaps millions, that are at present 

 worse than lying waste, causing whole districts to be unhealthy to rnan 

 and beast, acres that will not support a goose, or at best a sheep, per acre ; 

 some let to farmers at from 25. 6d. to 5s. per acre, all of which, with little 

 exception, if properly drained and well cultivated in a regular course of 

 alternate husbandry, would increase in value from 150 to 300 per cent., 

 forward the harvest from 14 to 20 days, improve the climate of the country, 

 and add to the produce in a direct ratio to the higher value of the land. — 

 Geo. Kimberley. 



