633 



DRAINING. 



DRAMA; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



631 



sity of the soil shall indicate. Notwithstanding the outcry against 

 rules and systems in drainage uniformity of interval is the rule, and 

 the so-called " gridiron " system is the safest ; departures from either 

 being exceptional. 



Before carrying out the system however let all such obstacles and 

 nuisances (crooked hedge rows, old ditches, and timber) as it is in- 

 tended to remove be removed. 



Trial holes are useful to determine the interval which may be 

 desirable between the minor drains. Ascertain the experience of your 

 neighbours on this point. Widen the interval, because the soil admits 

 of the more easy percolation of the water, not because you have made 

 your drains deeper. 



The cost of digging 4 feet deep drains 1 foot to 14 inches wide at top 



to receive a 2-inch pipe at bottom may be from Sd. per rod of 5i yards 



in homogeneous clays to any greater sum when the pickaxe may be 



needed. The following Table is taken from Bailey Denton's pamphlet 



on the subject. 



COST OF DRAINAGE, PER ACRE, 4 FEET DEKP (DENTON). 



(1) Labour of cutting and filling in. 



(2) Material pipes at 18s. to 20*. a 1000. 



(3) Haulage, 2>. 6<f. per 1000. 



(4) Pipe laying and finishing, Id. per rod. 



(5) Superintendence. 



(6) Extra for mains. 



(7) Iron outlet pipes and masonry. 



(8) Collars if used. 



Mains may require 4-inch pipes at the outfall, gradually timalle 

 near the upper end. A long minor drain may need 1,14, and 2-inch 

 pipes as you approach its junction with the main. Its water should 

 fall into the main pipe, and the junction should be with a curve, not 

 abruptly. Open ditches should be avoided if possible. When neces- 

 sary their sides should slope with a fall of from 1 in 1 to 1 in 2, 

 according to the material. They are necessary as a preliminary 

 drainage in peat soils and bogs. Small open ditches (15 inches deep or 

 so) laid with a regard to local outbreaks of water, are a great and 

 cheap (\\d. per rod) improvement of mountain pasture. Drain stop- 

 pages arise very rarely from direct infiltration, generally either by the 

 growth of root fibres, or the formation of peroxide of iron in the drain 

 water. The remedy for the former is extra depth, and care for the 

 joints where the danger is great, and for the latter thorough cultiva- 

 tion by which iron may be peroxidised in the soil, not in the water 

 which drams out of it. A uniform slope in the drains tends to 

 diminish the risk of stoppage, and a small pipe (if large enough) is 

 better than a large one. 



Whatever system of drainage be adopted, see that it be thoroughly 

 done. " Nothing is stronger than its weakest part," and a defective 

 patch may check the cultivation of the whole field. Subsoil ploughing 

 across the drainage tends to its immediate and increased efficiency. 



In draining fields it is usual to make the outlets of the drains in the 

 ditch which bounds them. The fewer outlets there are, the less chance 

 there is of their being choked ; they should fall into the ditch con- 

 siderably above the bottom, and a wooden trunk, or one of stone, 

 should be laid so that the water may be discharged without carrying 

 the soil from the side of the ditch. If there is water in the ditch, it 

 should be kept below the mouth of the drain. The outlets of all 

 drains should be repeatedly examined, to keep them clear ; for 

 wherever water remains in a ilium, it will soon derange or choke it. 

 The drains should be so arranged or turned that the outlet shall 



neet the ditch at an obtuse angle towards the lower part where the 

 water runs to. A drain brought at right angles into a ditch must 

 necessarily soon be choked by the deposition of sand and earth at its 

 mouth. 



As the draining of wet clay soils is the only means by which they 

 can be rendered profitable as arable land, and the expense is great, 

 various instruments and ploughs have been contrived to diminish 

 nanual labour and expedite the work. Of these, one of the simplest 

 s the common mole-plough, which iu very stiff clay makes a small 

 lollow drain below the surface, by forcing a pointed iron cylinder 

 lorizontally through the ground. It makes a cut through the clay, 

 ,nd leaves a cylindrical channel, through which the water which enters 

 :>y the slit is carried off. It requires great power to draw it, and since 

 steam-power has been used for the purpose, strings of pipe-tiles have 

 oeen drawn in behind the " mole," so as to leave permanent tunnels or 

 conduits at any required depth beneath the surface. 



But a draining-plough has been invented which, assisted by numerous 

 labourers, greatly accelerates the operation of forming drains, by cutting 

 them out in a regular manner, when they are immediately finished 

 with the usual tools and filled up. It has done wonders in some of 

 the wet stiff soils in Sussex, and is much to be recommended in all 

 wet and heavy clays. In stony land it cannot well be used. The sub- 

 soil plough, introduced to public notice by Mr. Smith of Deanston, 

 may be considered in some measure as a draining-plough, for it loosens 

 the sub-soil, and facilitates the drainage of the land. By means of 

 judicious drains and the use of the subsoil plough, the stiffost and 

 wettest land may in time become the most fertile. 



The tools used in draining are few and simple. Spades, with tapering 

 blades of different sizes, are required to dig the drains of the proper 

 width, and the sides at a proper angle. Hollow spades are used in very 

 stiff clay. When the drains begin to be very narrow near the bottom, 

 scoops are used, of different sizes, which are fixed to handles at various 

 angles, more conveniently to clear the bottom and lay it smooth to the 

 exact width of the tiles, if these are used ; for the more firmly the tiles 

 are kept in their places by the solid sides of the drain, the less likely 

 they are to be moved. 



DRAM, or DRACHM, a small measure of weight, the etymology 

 of which is to be found in the Greek drachma (Spax/ifi). The dram 

 of our pound troy is stated to be nearly the same as the Attic drachma, 

 or the Roman denarius (under the earlier emperors). 



There are two drams remaining in our system of weights ; the first 

 is the sixteenth part of the ounce, which is the sixteenth part of the 

 pound avoirdupois of 7000 grains ; this is now totally out of use, as no 

 species of goods which are weighed by the avoirdupois weight are of 

 such value as to make the sixteenth part of an ounce worth considera- 

 tion. In the national standard, the troy pound of 5760 grains, there 

 is no dram ; but this weight occurs in that particular division of the 

 troy pound which is used by apothecaries, in which the dram is the 

 eighth part of the ounce, which is the twelfth part of the pound of 

 5760 grains. This is the real remnant of the Roman division ; the 

 denarius (which, according to Pliny, was the Attic drachma of his 

 time) was, however, the leventli part of the ounce. The dram is used 

 in England, France, Holland, Prussia, Turkey, and in some parts of 

 the Levant. 



DRAMA ; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. A complete lustory of 

 the drama would be almost equivalent to a history of civilised society 

 over the greater part of the earth. Nearly every ancient as well as 

 every modern civilised people, except perhaps the ancient Egyptians, 

 seem to have possessed some kind of dramatic representation. The 

 Hindus have a rich store of dramatic works, extending back to a very 

 remote period. The Sanskrit drama of Sakontala, well translated by 

 Mr. Eastwick, though very beautiful, is not fitted for any stage repre- 

 sentation, and in recent times it has had few imitators. The Chinese, 

 according, to Sir J. F. Davis (' The Chinese ; a general description of 

 the Empire of China and its Inhabitants,' vol. ii.) have a rage for 

 theatrical exhibitions. In their dramas they disregard the unities, 

 depend not at all on scenic effect, divide them into five acts, or rather 

 an introduction and four " breaks," and use rhymes and music. 

 Several of their dramas have been translated into French, English, 

 and German. They show customs and manners, rather than depict 

 characters, and the plots are often ingenious. In this summary we 

 shall not enter into any examination either of the ancient or the 

 existing oriental drama. Notwithstanding the great extent and fer- 

 tility, the vast population and industry of those remoter Asiatic 

 regions, the spirit of their social institutions, to whatever moral causes 

 originally owing, seems to doom them (external influences apart) to a 

 perpetual stationariuess, excluding them as it were from the history 

 of general civilisation, which is essentially tile history of progress. 



The Attic drama (Spd^a, an action), is said by Aristotle (' Poet.' iv., 1 4) 

 to have arisen from the recitations of the leaders of the DITHYRAMBCS. 

 To [understand this statement we must bear in mind that a Greek 

 tragedy always consisted of two distinct parts ; the dialogue which was 

 written in the Attic dialect, and corresponded in its general features 

 to the dramatical compositions of modern times, and the chorus, 

 which to the last was more or less pervaded by Dorisms, and the 

 whole tone of which was lyrical rather than dramatical. We must add 

 tliat the metro of the dialogue, whether Iambic or Trochaic, was staid 

 iuid uniform while the choruses were written with every variety of 



