63 



DRAINING, 



History of 

 Draining. 



England. 



Draining. I. HE art of drawing off the superabundant moisture 

 * ' "Y"""*' from watery lands, so as to fit them for the operations 

 of AGRICULTURE, &c. We have already, under that ar- 

 ticle, detailed some of the modes of effecting this ob- 

 ject ; but as the subject constitutes one of the most va- 

 luable of rural improvements, and seems worthy of 

 more minute detail, our intention, in the present ar- 

 ticle, is to give a more complete view of the principles 

 on which the art depends, and their application to 

 some of the most important cases of practice. 



In all periods of our history, this subject appears to 

 have attracted much of the attention of the legislature. 

 Recitals of numerous enactments concerning drainage, 

 may be seen in Dugdale's History of Emhanking and 

 Draining, and a particular account of the great nation- 

 al project for gaining the level of the fens in the east 

 of England. 



At a much earlier period, the Romans appear to have 

 executed many works of the kind The inning of 

 Romney Marsh, the pattern for all our other reclaimed 

 fens, is distinctly referred to that enterprizing people. 

 The foss-dyke in Lincoln, and many other ancient 

 lodes and drains, were the work of their legions during 

 the intervals of active war. The Frisian and Saxon 

 colonists also, from the watery fiats of the north of Ger- 

 many, seem to have bestowed much labour in freeing 

 the low grounds of England from the risk of inunda- 

 tion, to which vast tracts appear to have been liable in 

 their natural state, and are even yet only barely out of 

 the way of the water. * The feudal system and petty 

 jurisdictions were particularly favourable to the manage- 

 ment of works of this kind . and perhaps a proper equi- 

 valent has not yet been substituted for them in our 

 modern policy. In England, however, particular codes 

 of laws have been formed for this object, and commis- 

 sions of sewers are numerous, and of great antiquity. 

 Scotland, from its more uneven surface, and its fre- 

 quent troubles, apjiears to have attended but little to 

 this species of improvement ; while Ireland, until of 

 late, seems rather to have been retrograde; for if we 

 may judge from the appearance of some of the bogs, 

 the morasses of that kingdom have even extended since 

 the introduction of agriculture. And though many 

 vast trac' s of that fertile island are either quaking bogs, 

 or flats frequently covered with water, no commission 

 of drainage was to be heard of in the kingdom, until 

 lately, that, by authority of Parliament, a board of 

 commissioners was formed to enquire into the nature 

 and extent of the bogs in Ireland, and the practicabi- 

 lity of improving them. They have already publish- 

 ed i wo reports on the subject, containing much inte- 

 resting matter, exhibiting the present state of .the bogs 

 in certain districts, and evincing clearly the practicabi- 

 lity of converting these unprofitable wastes, at a small 

 expence, into the tatp of arable and pasture land. 



This example should stimulate the landholdersof Scot- 

 land to institute similar enquiries respecting the waste 

 lands of their country, the value of which is but little un- 

 derstood, though they are of much greater extent than 

 those of the rest of Britain and Ireland ; and there are 



frcland. 



Scotland. 



political as well as moral reasons, which would make Draining.^ 

 the legislature readily attend to, and second any well di- """V^ ^ 

 gested plan for their improvement. 



By far the greater part of these wastes are covered 

 with moss or peat of more or less depth ; a beneficial 

 provision which nature lias made, to facilitate the ope- 

 rations of agriculture on soils that would otherwise be 

 barren. All that is requisite, is to free them from su- 

 perfluous water, which, in general, may be done at an 

 expence comparatively trifling, and the application of 

 other substances will then render them permanently pro- 

 ductive. It is the business of the engineer to show how 

 these operations may be Facilitated ; for, without regular 

 and systematic management in great operations of this 

 kind, there is always a loss of labour and time, and a 

 diminution of effect. 



Though this subject constitutes one of the most use- 

 ful applications of the principles of hydraulics, it is sur- 

 prising that so little attention has been paid to it by sci- 

 entific men Until lately in this intelligent and rapid- 

 ly improving country, we had no such thing as any 

 tn-atise on the art of draining, which, by laying down 

 a few fixed principles, could enable the intelligent far- 

 mer to comprehend the cause of the evil that annoyed 

 him, and to proceed at once in an unerring manner t 

 its cure. All books of husbandry indeed profess to treat 

 of draining, and, confessing its importance, proceed to 

 give directions for performing it. But these books be- 

 ing, in general, written by men ignorant of hydraulic 

 principles, contain only the results of rude experiments, 

 directed by the random notions of farmers, groping 

 about with enormous expence and labour for what a 

 person of tolerable intelligence should have perceived at 

 first. To what other cause can we ascribe the enormous 

 ditches that are to be found in some quarters of these 

 kingdoms ; the multiplied hollow drains in others ; the 

 absurd directions or useless positions in which they are 

 often laid, rendering them rather nuisances in a field 

 than a benefit. Their consequent destruction and re- 

 newal has, in many instances, rendered the drainage of 

 a field by far the most expensive operation connected 

 with its culture. To this chiefly we must ascribe the 

 immense tracts of watery land which yet lie waste 

 throughout the country, the reclaiming of which would 

 doubtless be the most profitable kind of agricultural un- 

 dertaking that could be thought of. 



The species of lands that admit of improvement by 

 drainage, may be arranged as follows : 



1st, Watery flats ; comprehending fens, wet bottoms, 

 marshes, (and even lakes and pools, ', on which the sur- 

 face water collects in wet seasons, by reason of the ob- 

 structed out fall, but which deliver the water from their 

 surface as soon as a proper out fall is provided for them. 

 The mode of relieving these may be named Surface 

 draining. 



<2d. Morasses, or mosses, as the bogs of Ireland, the 

 moors of Holland and Saxony, which have commonly a 

 sufficient fall, but on which a thick covering of vegeta- 

 ble matter has formed a soil retentive of water like a 

 sponge ; and with these also may be classed the deep 



* The bogs and mosses are most numerous on the western sides of these kingdoms. Does this arise from the eastern settlements 

 f the Belgians and Gothic tribes, (an agricultural people), th nature of the soils, or the moisture of the Atlantic ? 



