HIGH FARMING. 233 



a mode of draining which we would hardly thank any one 

 to execute for us gratis. With extended experience we 

 adhere to a statement which we made two years ago in this 

 Journal : " We do not think that we ever saw so favour- 

 able a combination of circumstances, that efficient thorough- 

 draining of retentive land could be executed at from four 

 to five feet deep under 4Z. per acre. We have seen few or 

 no cases in which it might not be executed for 61." We 

 cordially agree with Mr. Pusey, that, "instead of saying 

 that a whole farm," or a whole field, should be drained at 

 a stated interval, you should " unfold your plan as you pro- 

 ceed." We agree, with the same cordiality, that to pre- 

 scribe the same depths and the same intervals for all lands, 

 is perfectly empirical. But when Mr. Pusey says " a line 

 of wetness may be found on a hill-side where the springs 

 are thrown out, oozing through " (we should have thought, 

 running over) "the field below draw your drain deeply 

 along this line " we differ from him entirely. We never 

 saw an instance in which such a case was encountered most 

 cheaply or most effectually in the manner prescribed. We 

 dissent, for the following reasons. The cause of the line of 

 wetness is, that a porous stratum reposes on a retentive, 

 and the water which has sunk through the former, being 

 unable to sink through the latter, bursts out to the day 

 at their line of junction, or at some parts of it. But Nature 

 is not studious to level her surfaces very accurately before 

 she brings them into opposition, and therefore their various 

 points of contact are seldom found to be exactly in the 

 same plane. In order that the drain in the line of wetness 

 may be effectual, it must pass below all the points of contact 

 of the porous and retentive strata; it must in its whole 

 length cut into the retentive stratum. If, therefore, on any 

 given line, the average depth of the points of contact of 

 the two surfaces being six feet, there is one place in which 

 the depth is ten feet, the drain must be ten feet deep in 

 its whole length. If it be not, the water passing, and at 

 that lowest point with most freedom, under the drain, will 



