no 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



ble by cattle, unless in very dry seasons, when its 

 moisture is partly exhaled, and is never at any 

 time accessible to the plough. The method then 

 ol'draining these bogs is, by perforating the imper- 

 vious bed of clay, and letting the water down- 

 wards. The first drain should be made in the 

 middle or lowest part, and into this the others must 

 be led. The number and direction of these de- 



pend on the extent and tbrm of the bog to be 

 drained. They must be all cut, through the peat 

 or mossy soil, to the clay below, and this, perlbra- 

 ted, either by pits (if the stratum is not very deep), 

 or by an auyer, which will give a ready outlet 

 downwards, for the water to be absorbed by the 

 porous strata below. See plan and section of 

 plate No. VI. The drains may be cast as nar- 



Draining of Land-Locked Morasses, 

 Plate VI — Horizontal Plan. 



vK ffif iifif ff» 



^// 



The letters A B C D, in tlie Section, correspond to tliose in the plan above, and re- 

 present the drains cut through the peat earth, and filled up with loose stones to within a 

 foot and a half of the top. E F G H represent the perforation of the clay by the auger 

 holes, and the descent of the water into the rock below. 



'ow as possible, and should all be covered ; for if 

 open, the rain-water might carry in sand or mud, 

 and choke the auger holes or pits that are made. 

 They should be tilled, to within a foot and a half 

 of the top, with small loose stones or coarse gra- 

 vel, that the water in the peaty soil may find its 

 way readily into them, and subside downwards to 

 the holes or pits that are to convey it to the porous 

 strata below. 



Before proceeding to drain this land in the man- 

 ner above described, it is proper to consider, whe- 

 ther the porous strata under the clay may not al- 

 ready contain water, and, in place of receiving 

 that from above, may throw up a greater quantity 

 from below, and thus, instead of curing the evil, 

 render it worse. This may sometimes be the case, 

 and the sabstrata may contain water that makes 

 no appearance at the surface in this place ; but 

 being connected with, and supplied by some high- 

 er springs, may flow up, when a vent is thus given 

 to it. If the surrounding ground declines lower 

 than the bog, though at a distance, by means of a 

 •pirit-level, and the appearance of the surface, the 



nature of the under strata may with certainty be 

 discovered; and though it should already contain 

 water, a cut may be made to take it off, with what 

 is let down from above; at the point marked K, in 

 the section of plate No. VI. 



It frequently happens, that springs, or spouts, as 

 they are sometimes called, rise in the middle of a 

 field, at a distance fi'om any ditch or open drain 

 into which they may be led; so that a covered 

 drain, brought trom the nearest outlet, would pass 

 so far through dry ground, as to make the expense 

 of conducting the water from the spout greater 

 than the injury done by it. To remedy this, the 

 water may be cut off by a drain along the upper 

 side of the spout, and led into a pit sunk through 

 the clay ; or, where the retentive stratum is not 

 deep, the drain across the spout may either be cut 

 through this substratum to the porous one below, 

 or bored through, to let the water escape down- 

 wards. But, if the ground is steep, and the stra- 

 tum into which the water is let down terminates at 

 the surface, somewhere lower down on the declivi- 

 ty, the water will again burst out, and form a similar 



