DRAINAGE. 89 



draining to a science ; and, where want of data forbids that 

 object to be obtained, Mr. Parkes indicates very clearly the 

 avenues to future success. The treatise is somewhat too 

 scientific for general agricultural readers, and on that 

 account not fitted to be transferred in the form of a con- 

 nected abstract into our pages; but.it contains several 

 interesting tables, and is pregnant with important facts 

 and accurate deductions, of which we shall avail ourselves, 

 without further acknowledgment, in the remarks on tho- 

 rough-draining which we propose to offer to our readers. 

 Mr. Parkes's second Essay, the Newcastle Lecture, to 

 which we have already referred, is more popular in its 

 nature, and very practical. Every farmer may read it 

 with advantage. Mr. Mechi has given us " Experience in 

 Drainage." He is an experimentalist in agriculture, and 

 we should think a very sanguine one. With respect to 

 many of his speculative conclusions, we should be sorry to 

 give a directly adverse opinion; but we fear that, in order 

 to escape doiog so, we must take refuge in the modified 

 Scotch verdict not proven. We could not speak harshly 

 of a gentleman whose assistance we crave at our toilet 

 every morning, who imparts so freely to the public his 

 failures as well as his successes, and who appears to 

 bear so good-humouredly the banterings of the London 

 Farmers' Club and the " Mark Lane Express." More- 

 over, Mr. Mechi asks very acute questions, and makes 

 shrewd remarks, some of which we may not improbably 

 call to our aid. 



Here we take our leave of draining literature, and 

 descend to practice. We will assume, without proving, that 

 water of drainage, stagnating in the soil, is prejudicial to 

 esculent vegetation. If this be not so, all that we and our 

 predecessors have learnt and written, has been learnt and 

 written in vain. We will assume, also, that to raise the 

 temperature of what are familiarly and justly called our 

 cold soils, will be beneficial to vegetation. Having made 

 these assumptions, we will prove 1st, that the main 



