On Draining. 507 



XXVI. — On Suiting the Depth of Drainage to the Circumstances 

 of the Soil. By J. H. Charnock, an Assistant-Commissioner 

 under the Drainage Acts. 



A Lecture before the Darlington Farmers' Club. 

 Looking with a present and prospective glance at the several 

 circumstances and events which have to some extent aroused both 

 the apprehension and the energy of the agricultural interest, and 

 which are in all probability destined to exercise, for good or for 

 ill, a still greater influence over that portion of the community, 

 it may be affirmed that at no former period in the history of this 

 kingdom did a more urgent necessity exist for a progressive ad- 

 vance] in the science of agriculture, nor, happily, at the same 

 time such an available amount of practical and scientific know- 

 ledge for furthering and securing so desirable an end. We have 

 but to look back a comparatively few years and trace in our 

 minds the several gradations by which we have arrived at the all 

 but perfect adaptations of those discoveries and appliances which 

 it has been reserved for our own era to complete, to realize their 

 full influence. The day, for instance, was, and that within the 

 recollection of most of us, when the application of gas in its pre- 

 sent convenient form for illumination was considered at least of 

 doubtful practicability, if not wholly chimerical ; now, it is more 

 common than the candles it eclipsed. Who does not also well 

 remember the sceptical prognostications of the multitude, if not of 

 the impossibility, at least of the very great improbability of steam 

 power ever being beneficially applied to locomotion — and yet 

 look at the result ! See, too, the last crowning effort of man's 

 research and application in the transmission of his embodied 

 thoughts from one end of the land to the other in no longer time 

 than is required for their utterance. And shall the cultivator 

 of the soil, witnessing and experiencing the benefit of these 

 achievements, remain stationary, when he, of all men, in matters 

 pertaining to his vocation, has need of skill and observation ? 



That a considerable advance towards a higher, and therefore 

 more profitable state of cultivation, has been made in many locali- 

 ties, is beyond doubt, and from the growing desire evinced on all 

 hands for information on agricultural matters, it is equally mani- 

 fest that this improvement will be extended ; but, after all, how 

 insignificant, unless as an earnest of more, is that which has been 

 effected, when compared with what yet remains to be attained. 

 Take, for example, an area of country with which you are pro- 

 bably more or less familiar, comprised for miles on either side 

 of the line between Northallerton and Newcastle : now, with occa- 

 sional exceptions, is not the general condition of this otherwise 

 really fine corn-producing country, such as might be expected. 



