234 AGKICULTUEE. 



appear at the surface on the land below. Add to this, the 

 external line of junction between the two strata is seldom 

 so straight or of so even curvature as to afford a desirable 

 line for a drain. If, on the other hand, an experienced 

 drainer examines the surface, he will always be able to dis- 

 cover the lowest point or points of contact between the two 

 strata ; we mean lowest with respect to the slope of the 

 hill. If into that lowest point or points he drives, up the 

 line of steepest descent, an adequate drain or drains, he 

 will so lower the level of the water which stands in the 

 porous stratum, that it will cease to flow over the edge of 

 the retentive, which is the evil to be remedied. If a stream 

 of water enters into a barrel with an open top, it will flow 

 over the rim or over some one or more low places in it. 

 But if you bore into the barrel, a foot below the rim, a 

 hole or holes of sufficient capacity, the water will then 

 cease to flow over, and the barrel for a foot below the rim 

 will become dry. We have been diffuse on this point, be- 

 cause we have seen many instances of well-executed drains, 

 drawn along the line of wetness, which have been ineffec- 

 tual, and because we know no theory, deserving to be ex- 

 ploded, which lingers more pertinaciously than that of the 

 line between wet and dry. Mr. Pusey mentions an instance 

 in which by a ditch which cost 20Z. he drained forty acres 

 of land. We have seen a case of " line of wetness " in 

 which one drain, driven in the steepest slope four feet deep 

 increased to seven in the last twenty yards, effectually 

 stopped a flow of water over nine acres of land, four of 

 which did not belong to the person who executed the drain. 

 We quite admit, though we do not know from what source 

 Mr. Pusey derives the maxim, that " one drain well laid to 

 suit the circumstances will often save a dozen by rule," and 

 generally that it is much more satisfactory to drain by force 

 of head than by force of money. 



Still, whenever Mr. Pusey writes on draining, we deside- 

 rate the recognition of what appears to us to be one great 

 if not indeed the main object the preparation of the land 



