308 Farminff of Leicestershire. 



says Lord Berners, " examine well the section presented hy this" as 

 usually it affords a clue to the position of the porous furrows, 

 and so to the successful drainage of the field. 



The drains, instead of being carried in the line of greatest fall, 

 and parallel to the natural banks and furrows, as shown, cross 

 them diagonally, and consequently cut through, connect and 

 drain them, as shown by the line 4 4. 



The porosity is determined by trial-holes, so that no drain is 

 put closer or carried further than is absolutely necessary to effect 

 a thorough drainage. 



Theoretically, this would seem perfect drainage, practically it 

 has proved so ; and as these furrows frequently contain very 

 porous soils, the drains are put in at wide intervals, reducing the 

 expense, on the average, to something like half that of ordinary 

 parallel drainage. 



Mr. Trimmer quotes the drainage of 398 acres as averaging 

 21. \bs. per acre. 



It will, of course, be understood that this system is applicable 

 only where the above-mentioned peculiar surface formation 

 exists ; but that in other districts of the county and country it 

 does exist, and that extensively, we have good grounds for 

 believing ; and surely the difference of cost between 3/. and that 

 of the ordinary price paid for efficient drainage on clay soils — 

 about 6/. per acre — offers an incentive for a more diligent search 

 for its whereabouts than seems hitherto to have been made.* 



The day before I visited Keythorpe there had been a heavy 

 fall of rain, but no stagnant water was to be seen on the several 

 hundreds of acres over which I rode, and the land trod firm and 

 sound, with every appearance of effective drainage. 



Having no prejudice or bias either way, I feel the more bound 

 to speak to these facts, because subsequently in other parts of the 

 county I heard doubts expressed as to the success of the Key- 

 thorpe drainage.f 



* In districts where a doubt may exist whether the Keythorpe system is there 

 applicable, it has struck me lately, when examining apiece of lupines on my farm, 

 tliat this crop may afford a ready means for finding and gauging any beds of sand 

 iu the subsoil. The field I refer to has a chalky subsoil generally, and the crop 

 iu general became stunted and yellow shortly after it was sown ; but two or three 

 narrow strips that traversed the plot had a dark colour and vigorous growth ; this 

 enabled me to predict that bands of sand would there be found, and the spade 

 verified my conjecture. I believe that the varying growth of the lupines in a field 

 would be a measure of the extent, and in part of the depth of the sand-bed below, 

 be the intervening ridges chalk or clay. — P. H. Frere. 



t On the day of my visit, after the rain alluded to. Fowler's steam-plough was 

 at work in a field of stiff soil resting on a clay subsoil, and was making very fair 

 work, a circumstance which would have been impracticable on badly drained 

 land. 



