376 Cultivation of Moorland. 



dry hill-sides, whereby these weeds and other inferior grasses are 

 destroyed, and the better ones are encouraged to take their place.* 

 From the irre^^ularity of the declivity of some hill-sides, alternate 

 patches of wet and dry ground appear : these wet spots are 

 usually formed by the drainage of the upper surface water upon 

 them, and are thus changed in their character by an accumulation 

 of aquatic roots being grown and decayed upon them from time to 

 time. In the arable culture of these wet spots it is found best, 

 first to cut off the supply of surface water, and then at a suitable 

 time of tillage to subsoil them to break what is provincially 

 termed " the pan." This is a crust of iron sediment upon which 

 is usually formed another sediment of clayey matter: these re- 

 quire to be moved (broken up) before the water can possibly 

 percolate through them into tlie subsoil below, but when once 

 this has been performed all is well, and these hitherto neglected, 

 yet deepened soils, become the best for after culture in the growth 

 of artificial grasses. 



The draining of mixed soils at the foot of hill land, where 

 clayey formations and deposits abound, is considerably more 

 tedious and difficult than where the superficial and internal parts 

 have greater regularity. Sand beds or sediments of any kind, 

 interspersed with clay beds, having no communication with each 

 other, require so many drains as there are different beds, and con- 

 sequently the group of drains becomes very complicated. In 

 this instance it is better to decide upon laying out one main 

 drain, taking care that it passes from the nearest and lowest part 

 of the flat intended to be drained up to the highest sand bed, and 

 causing it, if possible, to pass in its course through or imme- 

 diately under some of the intermediate sand beds, the remaining 

 beds being drained into this general outlet. Where a thick 

 deposit of clay is found resting upon sand or gravel, but one 

 course remains for adoption, and that is, to cut a drain through 

 the bed of clay until the passage of the water shall have been 

 reached ; but it may yet hapj)en that the land is not properly 

 drained, and that a succeeding cutting through another bed of 

 clay may have to follow. Where difficulties of this nature occur 

 it is always best to ascertain the depth and nature of the strata 

 by the sinking of pits in various places, taking care that they are 

 sunk in the direction of the intended drain. These should be 

 lormed in size suitable to the probable depth they have to be 

 sunk (according to the nature of the ground), as they must be 

 carried down until the bed of sand, gravel, or rock is reached 



* Care must be taken, however, to exclude the dark peat-water from the irri- 

 gation gutters, as it is poison to water-meadows. — T. D. A. 



