98 AGRICULTUKE. 



drawn out by its roots at the antipodes : but Mr. Mechi's, 

 if we remember right, was a dozen feet or more. Three 

 years ago, in a midland county, a field of good land in good 

 cultivation, and richly manured, produced a heavy crop of 

 cabbages. In November of that year we saw that field 

 broken into in several places, and at the depth of 4 feet 

 the soil (a tenacious marl, fully stiff enough for brick- 

 earth) was occupied by the roots of cabbage, not sparingly 

 not mere capillaB but fibres of the size of small pack- 

 thread. A farmer manures a field of four or five inches of 

 free soil reposing on a retentive clay, and sows it with 

 wheat. It comes up, and between the kernel and the 

 manure it looks well for a time, but anon it sickens. An 

 Irish child looks well for five or six years, but after that 

 time potatoe-feeding, and filth, and hardship, begin to tell. 

 You ask what is amiss with the wheat, and you are told 

 that when its roots reach the clay they are poisoned. This 

 field is then thorough-drained, deep, at least four feet. It 

 receives again from the cultivator the previous treatment ; 

 the wheat comes up well, maintains throughout a healthy 

 aspect, and gives a good return. What has become of the 

 poison ? We have been told that the rain-water filtered 

 through the soil has taken it into solution or suspension, 

 and has carried it off through the drains, and men who 

 assume to be of authority put forward this as one of the 

 advantages of draining. If we believed it we could not 

 advocate draining. We really should not have the face to 

 tell our readers that water, passing through soils containing 

 elements prejudicial to vegetation, would carry them off, 

 but would leave those which are beneficial behind.* We 

 cannot make our water so discriminating; the general 

 merit of water of deep drainage is, that it contains very 

 little. Its perfection would be, that it should contain 

 nothing. We understand that experiments are in progress 



* We do not deny that some subsoils contain matter prejudicial to 

 vegetation, but generally they are not worse than a caput ntortuum ; 

 seldom quite so bad. 



