100 DRAINS. 



in the case of peat mosses, or soft soils, it should be such 

 as to allow the water to run off without stagnation, but not 

 with eo rapid a motion as to injure the bottom." 



The American editor of Sir John Sinclair's Code of Ag- 

 riculture observes, that " The most expeditious, effectual, 

 and economical mode of making a drain would undoubtedly 

 be, to use oxen, and a scraper, or ox-shovel, as it is some- 

 times called, an instrument well known in this country in 

 the making of roads. In some cases, this mode might not 

 answer, as in very miry grounds, and lands just cleared of 

 timber. But where lands are very miry, if the process is be- 

 gun at the outlet of the water, and there, indeed, it ought 

 always to be begun, the next adjoining portion will, gene- 

 rally, be made so dry as to allow being trodden upon in a 

 proper *eason ; and in this way a drain may by degrees be 

 carried on towards the centre. In nineteen cases out of 

 twenty, drains may probably be effected in this mode. Where 

 the ground will admit of it, two men and a boy, and two 

 yoke of oxen, will accomplish more business of this sort in 

 a day, than half a dozen men in the same time, with only 

 spades and shovels. Wherever the labour of cattle can be 

 substituted in this country for human labour, policy requires 

 it to be done. The surface of wet and miry land is usually 

 full of inequalities ; if a scraper is employed in draining 

 them, the earth taken from the drain is easily landed in any 

 hollow spot which needs to be filled ; and if there are no 

 such hollows, or they have already been filled, the earth 

 may be spread over the surface in such a manner as to do 

 the most good. If the earth is not wanted for other pur- 

 poses, it is recommended to drop and spread it, if practi- 

 cable, in such a manner as to leave the general surface of 

 the land sloping towards the drain, that the water may the 

 more readily incline towards it, and pass off. At some dis- 

 tance below the surface, in peat grounds, there is usually 

 found a hard stratum of earth, called, in the common lan- 

 guage of our farmers, hard pan. The hard pan, if ploughed 

 into, scraped out, and spread on the surface, would greatly 

 improve the texture of such soils. This furnishes another 

 argument in favour of using a scraper in draining, for in 

 no other way can the upper earth, taken out of the drains, 

 be so cheaply removed, and put on the adjoining ; nor in 

 any other way can the hard pan be so easily broken up and 

 carried off; nor in any other way, oftentimes, can suitable 

 earth be so well obtained, for the purpose of spreading it 

 over the surface with a view to improve the texture of the 



