Composition of Waters of Land-Drainage and of Rain, 131 



trouble required, nothina: short of the accomplishment of this 

 object would have been of any avail.* 



I proceed now to give the analyses of samples received from 

 Mr. Paine; they were collected on the 26th and 27th of Decem- 

 ber in last year (1855) at Farnham in Surrey. 



The foUowino^ is the description of the different samples as 

 given me by Mr. Paine. I place them together in order that the 

 analyses may be grouped as far as possible in Tables, by which a 

 saving of valuable space will be obtained. 



Mr. Paine says — 



" The drains had been quiet for a very long period, and in most cases you 

 have now the tirst rinsings of the land. 



" The first six specimens were collected on the afternoon of the 26th, when 

 I and the men who were with me got a most thorough soaking. Nos. 7 and 

 8 were collected on the afternoon of the 27tb, and then the drains did not run 

 a tenth part so furiously as they did the day before, and as you will perceive the 

 water was much dearer. In the first place I must observe that during the 

 night of the 24th there fell half an inch of rain, but this had not much influ- 

 ence on the ranning of the drains, as the frost was not out of the ground, and 

 thus the water was kept on the surface. Between the night of the 2oth and 

 the afternoon of the 26th, upwards of another half inch of rain fell, at times 

 pouring down in torrents like summer thunder-showers. The ground then 

 became thoroughly saturated with wet, and the drains ran quite full, and the 

 Avatcr was very "turbid. I give you the names of the fields, that I may 

 recollect the water when I happen to be in your laboratory. 



" No. 1. — From the main drain in Piping Lane Field. This field was drained 

 in 1852 when I purchased it. The land was then in the most impoverished 

 condition. After draining it was trenched (as indeed is the case in nearly all 

 my land). The subsoil is gault clay, over which lies drift gravel, varying 

 from one to five feet in thickness. In 1852 the field was well manured for 

 swedes with dried blood or guano and superphosphate, having been jireviously 

 limed at the rate of 160 bushels per acre. In 1853 the swedes were fed oil' 

 by sheep, with oilcake and hay, and gave a good crop of wheat. In 1854 no 

 manure for swedes : in 1854-^55 with 4 cwt. of guano for wheat. 'J'here has 

 been no manure put on the land since last winter — it is now under the process 

 of fallowing for swedes. 



"No. 2. — From a long single drain in Manley Bridge South. This field was 

 also drained in the winter of 1852-53. It was then a wretchedly poor mea- 

 dow, producing scarcely any lierbage. 'J'he subsoil is gault clay, but there is 

 a good surface soil 18 inches deep. After draining, it was trenched and 

 ]»lanted with liops. In 1853 it was manured with 5 cwt. of guano, and 5 cwt. 

 of huperphospliate per acre ; in 1854, 15 cwt. of horn shavings and 200 



* Since I have been engaged upon this subject, M. Ville of Paris, who is Mell 

 known for his beautiful experiments upon vegetation, has also discovered a method 

 adapted to -the same end. My present process was far advanced towards the pei- 

 fection which k has now readied hefore the first notice of M. ^"ille's uietliod was 

 made in the French scientific i)eri()dicals. They are in no way at all alike, and 

 arc liascd upon totally different principles. It serves, however, as another proof 

 of the necessity which existed on the subject, and of tlie general concurrence 

 which is often observed between dill'ereiit minds, that two diemists sliould, at 

 much the same time, liave, indej)eiidently and unknown to eacli other, been 

 engaged successfully in the foiution of the same problem. 



