l| THEFARMERS' KSGISTEIl. 



Vol. V. 



DECEMBER 15, 1837. 



No. 9. 



EDMUND RUFF IN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR 



A 



SYSTEMATIC TREATISE 



ON Tin: 



THEORY AND PRACTICE 



DRAINING LAND, &c. 



ACCORDIXG TO THE MOST APPROVED METHODS; AND ADAPTED TO THE 

 VARIOUS SITUATIONS AND SOILS OF 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 



ALSO, ON SEA, RIVER, AND LAKE EMBANKMENTS ; FORMATION OF PONDS, AND ARTIFICIAL 



PIECES OF WATER, &c. WITH 



AM APFEMBIX, 



CONTAINIIVG HINTS AND DIRECTIONS FOR THE CULTURE AND I3IPROVEMENT OF BOG, 

 MOSS, MOOR, AND OTHER UNPRODUCTIVE GROUND, AFTER BEING DRAINED. 



THE WHOLE ILLUSTRATED BY PLANS AND SECTIONS, APPLICABLE TO THE VARIOUS SITUATIONS 



AND FORMS OF CONSTRUCTION. 

 INSCRIBED TO 



THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND, 

 B Y J O H N J O H N S T O N E , 



LAND-SURVEYOR. 

 FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, FROM THE THIRD BRITISH EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED. 



" Uumidiorcin agruin fossis concidi atque siccare utilissimuni est."- 

 " Scire tuuiii nihil est, nisi hoc sciat alter." — Pers. Si 



-Plin. Nat. Hist. 



T. I. 



PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. 



Bij the Editor of the. Farmers' Register. 

 The theory and general principles of draining land 

 present one of the most interesting subjects to the sci- 

 entific agriculturist — and, when correctly applied and 

 put to use, is one of the most beneficial and important 

 processes of practical husbandry. Every cultivator of 

 the soil has need of such knowledge, and yet scarcely 

 one in a hundred applies it correctly or carefully, or to 

 the greatest available profit. And in a national point 

 of view, there are losses of wealth, and of blessings 

 better than wealth, which are as enormous as they are 

 deplorable, in consequence of ignorance of the princi- 

 ples and effects of draining; and which benefits might 

 be easily secured by the exercise of proper knowledge 

 and proper consiileration of the subject. The immense 

 quag-mire swamps of lower Virginia and North Caro- 

 lina, and of the more southern Atlanlic States — the 

 equally extensive flat pocosin lands, saturated, if not 

 inundated, by the usual winter rains — the moss or peat 

 bogs of the north — the marshes on all the tide waters — 

 the rich cane-brakes, and periodically miry prairie lands 

 of the west and south-west — all oiler subjects strongly 

 claiming, though in various modes, and almost totally 

 wanting, the proper application of the principles of 

 draining. Correct views on the subject would often 

 teach sanguine projectors to avoid schemes of drain- 

 •age, as unprofitable, and in which nearly all the zeal and 

 money have been expended, that have yet been devo- 



Vol. v.— 65 



ted to large works of this kind in Virginia. The labor 

 that has been thrown away, in vain efforts to drain and 

 cultivate tide marshes, and swamps of mere vegeta- 

 ble and therefore putrescent and perishable soil, if pro- 

 perly directed elsewhere, would have added millions to 

 the agricultural wealth of the country. 



In this first publication in America of the follow,') g 

 treatise, and in its latest and most improved form, we ha- 

 zard nothing in claiming for it the rank awarded to it 

 in Europe, as the best work extant, on draining in ge- 

 neral — and especially on Elkington's method, in regard 

 to a particular and very important branch of draining. 

 But while fully concurring in the general approbation 

 of this work, awarded by European writers and agri- 

 culturists, and maintaining that it ought to be read by 

 every one who desires to know the ground-work and 

 the essential principles of draining, we are very far 

 from recommending it as a body of directions for the 

 most usually and e.xtensively required operations in 

 practice. On the contrary, Elkington's principles, 

 and peculiar plan of draining, important to be known 

 as they are, would be seldom applicable in practice in 

 lower Virginia, and the more southern Atlantic states; 

 and even the more usual and best modes of surface 

 draining, in England, as described in this work, 

 might be changed for the better, in many partieularSy 

 in this country, where difi'erentand cheaper filling ma- 

 terials may be commanded — and where tne more sandy 

 and permeable soil, and warmer sun, make draining 

 less generally wanting on arable lands. It is proba- 

 ble that the latter ground of difference will not be 



