102 DUCK. 



earth thus turned up, reduce it to about three inches in 

 thickness, and then place it in the furrow from whence it 

 .was taken. The grassy side being placed uppermost, there 

 is a hollow beneath, sufficient to discharge a considerable 

 quantity of surface water, which readily sinks into it. 

 This mode of draining is used on the sheep farms of the 

 Cheviot Hills in England, and is recommended by Sir John 

 Sinclair. It would not answer, however, in lands exposed 

 to the tread ^ of heavy cattle, as they would be apt to push 

 their feet through a covering of turf of no more than .three 

 or four inches. Perhaps, in a few years, the verdure would 

 thicken, and the sward strengthen over drains of this kind, 

 so that there would be nothing to apprehend, from the tread 

 of the heaviest animals. 



Cultivation of drained land. It is well known that 

 swamps, marshes, and other low lands are commonly places 

 ol deposit for the lighter and more fertile parts of the soil, 

 washed from the neighbouring hills. Many marshes are 

 in fact intervale land, naturally too wet for profitable culti- 

 vation. Wet lands, which receive the wash of higher 

 grounds of a tolerable quality, may be expected to be worth 

 considerable expense in draining. A bog, however, on the 

 top of a hill, not overlooked by high ground, we should 

 suspect of barrenness, and would not be at great expense 

 in draining it, without examining and analyzing the soil in 

 various parts, and becoming satisfied of its fertility. But a 

 drained marsh, which can be flooded at the will of its 

 owner, by means of a dam at its outlet, with water which 

 has washed the neighbouring uplands, may be considered 

 as inexhaustible, and, perhaps, had better be appropriated 

 to the raising of hemp. That plant exhausts the soil very 

 much, and it would, therefore, be good economy to raise it 

 where the land can be recruited without manure from the 

 farm-yard, &c. If the land is rich, not very dry, or water 

 can be set back in the ditches, in a dry time, to within 

 three or four feet of the surface, it will be quite an object 

 to introduce fowl meadow, (Agrostis stricta.) 



It is often advisable to let drained lands lie over one sum- 

 mer to ferment and rot, before any attempt to cultivate 

 them. Flooding them completely in the winter, and draw- 

 ing the water quite off rather late in the spring, will like- 

 wise assist in rotting the sod. 



DUCK. "Ducks are excellent vermin pickers, whether 

 of caterpillars, (such as are within their reach,) slugs, 

 snails and others ; and ought to be turned into the garde* 



