70 



DRAINING. 



P .: * 



. . . : ; 

 button. 



such o degree us that the water, even during the great- 

 ett nuns, shall not lu> forced to rise so high as to chill 

 the roots of tlif plants which prow ujxin it, tlic remedy 

 ,1 tor will IK? effect. 



will tliis be a matter of such great difficulty 

 as at fir-t sight it might nppear ; for as tin- r.-iin 

 slowly downwvd through such n soil, tli.it ])orti(Hi of 

 r.'.in which fulls first continuing to sink regularly, if the 

 soil be mellow, without stopping, goes gradually down- 

 ward, making way for that which follows without be- 

 ing regorged back upon it till it meets the bottom. 



I Icnce, if we should suppose, for the sake of illus- 

 tration, that the rain water sunk four inches downward 

 in twenty-four hours, and that the rain continued with- 

 out intermi!-ion for three <lay- together, the water 

 would have jH-nctratcd by that time to the depth of 

 twelve inches, had it met with no interruption before 

 the rain abated ; but if the soil were no more than four 

 inches deep, the water would have reached the bottom 

 in twenty four hours, after which it could go no far- 

 ther, but the rain continuing to pour on more, the soil 

 towards the bottom, by acquiring fresh additions of wa- 

 ter every moment, is there soon reduced to the state of 

 a semifluid paste ; and as the water must rise higher 

 and higher while the rain continues, more of tli 

 must l>e drenched by it until the whole becomes like 

 a soft pap that is incapable of supporting the smallest 

 animal. Or, if the open furrows or under drains be 

 near at hand, a part of the water will at last fall into 

 these, and be carried off the field, after having wasted 

 the surface mould in its passage, so as to carry off with 

 it all the soluble parts of the manures it has met in its 

 course. 



But if the penetrable mould had extended to a 

 greater depth, (say sixteen or twenty inches,) the wa- 

 ter would not stop even when the rain abated, but con- 

 tinue to sink farther, till at last it woidd be all imbibed 

 by the earth, without having reduced any part of it to 

 the state of a pap, and even without the aid of any 

 drain whatever. Thu.- would the mould, having never 

 been reduced to the state of a paste, continue friable 

 even when dry weather approached ; and as the roots 

 of plants growing on the soil would thus be invited to 

 stn tch to a greater depth, they would there find moisture 

 sufficient to sustain them at a time, when, if they had 

 been forced to spread abroad near the surface, for want 

 of depth of soil, they must have perished for lack of 

 moisture. In this way the soil is rendered dry in moist 

 weather, and moist in dry weather, to a degree that 

 could not otherwise have been experienced ; and as it 

 has been already said, the water in its progress dissolves 

 and carries with it a portion of the vegetable manures. 

 This portion of manure, by the process above described, 

 is all left in the soil, and of course tends to meliorate 

 it instead of being carried off from it either by water fur- 

 rows or the drains, which become indispensably neces- 

 sary when the v>il is thin, and which unavoidably re- 

 duces it to that poor hungry state, so frequently expe- 

 rienced under circumstances of the sort here described. 



There are found in marry counties of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, immense tracts of poor, hungry, clayey 

 soils, that are aM reducible to the class of which we now 

 treat. They have been denominated liu gn/, from the 

 sudden disappearance of the effects of manures that have 

 been laid upon them ; they are also called Ititlr-bound, 

 because of the hard stiffness, and miserable appearance 

 of the surface. Few soils are in their present state more 

 unproductive than these. Yet there are none-, )>erhaps, 

 which, under a judicious management, could be render-* 



c.l more productive than many of them. It often hap- Dr.. 

 pens that, over tin- wliolc surface of such soils, a thin "" "'<"*' 



crop of weakly rushes are produced while it is allowed Dnun "?g ' 



i .- 1-1 ,,-1 



mm in grass, and tog or moss, which establishes 



itself there during the winter months, and isalino-t tin 

 only vcc.vt.iblc production, that yivcs a sickly verdure to mWU and 

 the surface. I'pon examination, it will be found that, in LK " 

 all case- til' this sort, the unloosened el >\ ri-es very ucir 

 the surface ; in consequence of which, the superficial 

 mould which has been stirred by the plough, to a small 

 depth only, being thinly spread over it, is subject to 

 be drenched through its whole depth by every violent 

 rain, the manures completely washed out, and the 

 whole reduced to a pappy paste, that beo.Mics hard 

 like iron when the summer heat disunites the moi-ture. 

 Under thc-c circumstances, whatever manures or cul- 

 tivation are bestowed on it, are in a great measure throw :i 

 away, as they are seen to produce but very little effect, 

 and these sods are therefore in a great measure aban- 

 doned as hopei 



M:ii!\- soils of this description, however, if opened to 

 a greater depth, may be gradually brought into a state 

 of greater productiveness. Indeed many of the most 

 productive districts in this kingdom consist precisely 

 of soils that were originally of this kind, \\hen such 



ll are thus opened up, they are, for the reasons above 

 assigned, more effectually drained than they could be 

 by any other process. The manures that are, after 

 this is done, worked into the soil, are never carried off 

 from it, but gradually tend to ameliorate, and thus to 

 render more tender and friable, the Ixittom soil, so as 

 in time to become deep, sound, and wholesome land, 

 which is neither strongly affected by the vicissitudes ot* 

 drought nor of rain. 



These effects, however, are not to be expected to be 

 felt at first to their full extent. Some clays are so . 

 hesive, that mere digging alone will not render them as 

 permeable by water as could be wished. Before they 

 can become sufficiently friable for that purj>ose to the 

 highest degree, manures must have had time to operate 

 upon them. For this reason, although the effect of 

 deep digging and copious manuring will be at once 

 sensibly felt, yet the melioration that will result from 

 this process, will be going forward for many years to 

 come ; and by degrees will be coming nearer and nearer 

 to that degree of productiveness for which the old lands 

 of that description are so vcry'remarkable." 



The means of deepening the soil require the con- 

 sideration of various circumstances. Much will depend 

 on the particular nature of the soil, of which there are 

 many kinds belonging to this general class; and some 

 will be more immcdiatclv l>cnelitcd than others. In 

 general, the surface mould, having been mellowed by 

 frequent cultivation, should, by all means, be preserved 

 at top, for the land in stiff clays where manure is not 

 abundant, might be long in recovering the effects of 

 trenching it down, (t will be more advisable, after 

 having turned over a large mid deep furrow of the sur- 

 face, to have men follow in the same furrow with strong 

 and narrow spades to stir the ground without turning 

 it to the top ; or to follow the first plough by the miner, 

 which is a plough without mould boards, calculated to 

 stir the ground below without turning it to the top. 

 This kind of trenching should be repeated when the 

 soil is perceived to get bound below ; and though it is 

 by no means necessary to stir deep as often as the plough 

 goes, yet it would be highly advisable to do so for 

 trong soils during the autumn, that the land may be 

 well prepared against the rains and frost of winter. 



