54 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



an exception, they coincide with me in opinion as to its 

 beneficial effects. I have had the opportunity of watching 

 for more than three years the operation of 4-feet drains 

 9 yards apart on 40 acres of the stiffest clay which I ever 

 saw in any county, absolute clay to the surface without any 

 covering of soil. This draining was not executed by me, 

 nor does the laud belong to me. I could wish any agri- 

 culturist, who doubts the efficacy of deep drains in clay 

 soils to see this land, and to converse with its present 

 owner ; who, some years ago, before it was drained, aban- 

 doned its cultivation in despair. I doubt whether any water 

 has either remained on or ran off its surface since it was 

 drained. It forms part of the disafforested forest of Need- 

 wood, and is in the parish of Tatenhill, county of Stafford. 

 I have seen it stated in an agricultural publication, that 

 deep drainers have been compelled to diminish the inter- 

 vals between their drains with which they originally com- 

 menced. This has not been the case with me, nor with 

 any other deep drainer with whom I am acquainted. I 

 began with 9-yard intervals, and now use 12 on similar 

 land, and am satisfied with the result. I put my draining 

 to a severe test. I invariably abolish the ditches in the 

 fields which I have drained, and never admit a grip, or 

 water furrow. For autumn-sown crops, wheat, vetches, or 

 beans, I always give the last furrow across the slope of the 

 land. In short, I throw every possible impediment in the 

 way of the superficial discharge of water. I believe that, 

 with the exception of one or two hours during the deluge 

 which burst the Holm firth Reservoir, and which was 

 general over the Midland Counties, no water has run from 

 the surface of my drained lands for the last three years, 

 and none stands on them an hour after rain has ceased. I 

 think that these facts are sufficient proof of the efficiency 

 of the draining. Lord Wharncliffe has proposed a herring- 

 bone system of draining, consisting of a somewhat deep 

 main drain running in the line of steepest descent, into 

 which discharge a series of parallel shallow drains, dr.awn 



