DRAINAGE. 95 



3rd. Tn all soils the existence of the water-table nearer 

 than 4 feet from the surface of the land is prejudicial to 

 vegetation. Here open upon us the yelpings of the whole 

 shallow pack. Four feet ! The same depth for all soils ! 

 Here 's quackery ! We think Mr. Parkes must have stood 

 in very unnecessary awe of this pack, when he penned the 

 following half-apologetic sentence, which is quite at vari- 

 ance with the wise decision with which, in other passages 

 of his works, he insists on depths of four feet and upwards 

 in all soils : " In respect of the depth at which drains 

 may, with a certainty of action, be placed in a soil, I pre- 

 tend to assign no rule ; for there cannot, in my opinion, 

 be a more crude or mistaken idea than that one rule of 

 depth is applicable with equal efficiency to soils of all 

 kinds."* Those words equal efficiency are a sort of 

 saving clause; for we do not believe that when Mr. Parkes 

 wrote them, he entertained " the crude or mistaken idea " 

 of ever putting in an agricultural drain less than 4 feet 

 deep, if he could help it. We will supply the deficiency 

 in Mr. Parkes's explanation, and will show that the idea 

 of a minimum depth of four feet is neither crude nor mis- 

 taken. And as to "quackery" which occurs passim in 

 the writings and speeches of the shallow drainers there 

 is no quackery in assigning a minimum. Every drainer 

 does it, and must do it. The shallowest man must put his 

 drains out of the way of the plough and of the feet of 

 cattle. That is his minimum. The man who means to 

 subsoil must be out of the way of his agricultural imple- 

 ment. These two minima are fixed on mechanical grounds. 

 We will fix a minimum founded on ascertained facts and 

 on the principles of vegetation. 



Every gentleman who, at his matutinal or ante-prandial 

 toilet, will take his well-dried sponge, and dip the tip of it 

 into water, will find that the sponge will become wet above 



* Smith of Deanston may perhaps be open to some observation, for 

 we believe that he did unadvisedly recommend, in thorough-draining, 

 an equal depth and equal distance for parallel drains in all soils. 



