,1837] 



F A R M E R S' R E (M S T E R . 



62» 



ihe seed cannot be so equiilly sown, and may be 

 drawn into ihe furrows by tl\e linrrowinir ; iuid it 

 likewise renders cross-plonirliinirnioreditliculi. In 

 many instanees rid<res are laid too broad and flat, 

 and fbe furrows neiilier properly directed, nor o( 

 eiitfi.;ient deptli. By this means, water slao;nates 

 both on lite ridires and m the furrows, wiiich, in 

 wel seasons, makes the ploufjhiiii!; laborious, and 

 proves injurious to the crnji. In the carses of 

 Gowrieand Stirling, as has already been observed, 

 the practice of Ivavinij the ridyes of a proper 

 breadth, enough, but not too much rounded, and 

 (he furrows in such a direction, and of such depth, 

 as (0 carry off readily all surface water, is now so 

 much more attended to than formerly, that their 

 present lertility has been very much advanced by 

 these means. The simple operation of water- 

 furrowing is attended with such beneficial conse- 

 quences, that wetness may often be removed by 

 that means alone, without the aid of drains, and 

 Where the omission of if frequently causes the loss 

 of part of a crop. Waler-furrowintr also is of 

 great use in pasture fields, where, by scouring out 

 and clearing the furrows before winter, the water 

 is prevented from lodging, and soaking into the 

 soil, making it easily poached; and chilling the 

 roots of the grass, renders it later in coming for- 

 ward in spring. 



PART. [I. 



elkington's mode of draimng. 



section. i. 



JBrief account of the discovery by Mr. Elkington, 

 and principles of that system. 



The author having, in the summer of 1796, ac- 

 companied Mr. Elkington on a tour through those 

 counties of England, where he was executing the 

 most remarkable drainages at the time, had, in the 

 course thereof, an opportunity of examining the 

 farm and field, in which he first made the discove- 

 ry of that particular mode of draining, which has 

 Bince been so successfully practised, both in that 

 country and in Scotland; and was enabled to lay 

 before the public, by means of the Board of Ag- 

 riculture, an 'Account' of the whole system, 

 which was published in the year following. As 

 doubts were entertained by many, of the origin of 

 that discovery, and its merit was claimed by the late 

 Dr. James Anderson, the author of many inge- 

 nious and useful publications on husbandry, a de- 

 tail of its particulars, with the explanatory plan 

 (copied on next page), was given in the 'Account' 

 alluded to. This set the public mind at rest with 

 regard to the merits of that claim, and put a stop 

 to all further controversy on the subject. The au- 

 thor having carefully perused Dr. Anderson's 

 work, where the subject of draining is treated of, 

 which was published in the year 1775, acknowl- 

 edges the merits of the Doctor's claim, so far as it 

 is founded on similar principles; but, as to its pri- 

 ority, the following narrative will briefly explain 

 the fact. In the year 1763, Elkington was left by 

 his father in the possessionof a farm called Prince- 

 Thorp, in the parish of Stretfon upon Dunsmore, 

 and county of Warwick. The soil of this farm 

 was go poor, and in many places so extremely 

 wet, that it was the cause of rotting several hun- 



dreds of his sheep, which first induced him, if pos- 

 sible, to drain it. This he began to do in 1764, 

 (consecpiently ten years prior to Dr. Anderson's 

 publication), in a field of wet clay soil, rendered 

 almost a swamp, or shaking bog, by the springs 

 which issued Imm an adjoining bank of gravel and 

 sand, and overflowed the surface of the trround be- 

 low. To drain this field, which was of considera- 

 ble extent, he cut a trench about ibur or five feet 

 deep, a little below the upper side of the bog, 

 where the wetness began to make its a|)pearance; 

 and after proceeding with it in this direction, and 

 at this depth, he found it did not reach \hc princi- 

 pal body of subjacent water fi-om which the evil 

 arose. On perceiving this, he was at a loss how 

 to proceed, when one of his servants came to the 

 field with an iron-crow or bar, for the purpose of 

 making holes for fixiiiiT sheep-hurdles, in an ad- 

 joining' part of the farm, as represented on the 

 plan. Having a suspicion that his drain was not 

 deep enough, and desirous to know what strata lay 

 under it, he took tiie iron bar, and having forced it 

 down about four ftjet below the bottom of the 

 trench, on pulling it out, to his astonishment, a 

 ereat quantity of water burst up throuijh the hole 

 he had thus made, and ran along the dram. This 

 led him to the knowledge, that wetness may often 

 be produced by water confined farther below the 

 surface of the ground than it was possible for the 

 usual depth of drains to reach, and that an auger 

 would be a useful instrument to apply in such 

 cases. Thus chance was the parent of this dis- 

 covery, as she often is of other useftil arts; and for- 

 tunate it is (or society, when such accidents hap- 

 pen to those who have sense and judgment to 

 avail themselves of hints thus fortuitously given. 

 In this manner he soon accomplished the drainage 

 of his whole farm, and rendered it so perfectly dry 

 and sound, that none ol his flock was ever after af- 

 fected with disease. 



By the success of this experiment, Mr. Elking- 

 ton's fame as a drainer was quickly and widely ex- 

 tended; and after having successfully drained sev- 

 eral farms in his neighborhood, he was at last 

 very generally employed for that purpose in va- 

 rious parts of the kingdom, till about thirty years 

 ago, when the country had the melancholy cause 

 to regret his loss. From his long practice and ex- 

 perience, he became so successful in the works he 

 undertook, and so skilful in judging of the internal 

 strata of the earth, and the nature of springs, that, 

 with remarkable precision, he could ascertain 

 where to find water, and trace the course of 

 springs, that made no appearance on the surface 

 of the ground. During his practice of more than 

 thirty years, he drained, in various parts of Eng- 

 land, particularly in the midland counties, many 

 thousand acres of land, which, from being origin- 

 ally of little or no value, soon became as useful aa 

 any in the kingdom, by producing the most valua- 

 ble kinds of grain, and feeding the best and 

 healthiest species of stock. 



JVlany have erroneously entertained an idea, 

 that Elkington's skill lay solely in applying the 

 auger for the tapping of springs, without attach- 

 ing any merit to his method of conducting the 

 drains. The accidental circumstance above stated 

 gave him the first notion of using an auger, and 

 directed his attention to the profession and practice 

 of draining, in the course of which he made va- 

 rious useful discoveries, as will be afterwards ex- 



