PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 55 



across the slope of the land. His Lordship gives a general 

 adhesion to the doctrine, that steepest descent is the true 

 line of drainage. I do not therefore see why his shallow 

 drains are not placed in that direction. Nor does his 

 Lordship profess any confidence in the shallow system ; 

 but recommends it on the score of economy. I think that 

 Mr. Parkes, in a small publication entitled " Fallacies, &c.," 

 has shown that his Lordship's system, taken as a whole, is 

 not entitled to that recommendation. Were I to adopt his 

 Lordship's system, I must abandon, 1st, the principle of 

 depth, and 2nd, the principle of direction ; and if I aban- 

 doned those two principles, I had much better put this 

 treatise into the fire than send it to Mr. Murray for re- 

 publication. 



I trust that my readers will have the kindness to impute 

 the egotism which pervades this Preface to a sincere con- 

 viction on my part that I have derived more advantage 

 from the statements which practical men have kindly given 

 to the public, of the results of their own operations, than 

 from any other sort of agricultural reading. 



T. GISBOENE. 

 Toxall Lodge, April 10, 1852. 



