702 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



tie value, divided in the middle by a small river, 

 was so completely drained by making a trench* 

 at one suic, and borini^ m it, tliat the part of the 

 marish on the opposite side of the rivulet, at a 

 very considerable distance liom the drain, became, 

 ill a short time, equally dry as that where ilie 

 trench was ojade; has eomirmed to be so ever 

 since; and, li'om beiii^ formerly of litde or no 

 value, is now convened into excellent water- 

 meadow, producing, without manure, abundant 

 crops of grass. 



At Madley, near Newcastle in Staffordshire, 

 there was a liog of some hundred acres, the 

 drainage of which vs'as always deemed in)pracli- 

 •cal>le, being of so wet and soft a nature that no 

 cattle could pass over any part oi" i;, till Mr. El- 

 kington, having obtained a lease of it for a certain 

 niuuber of years, so etiectually drained it, with 

 compara;ively very linle catling and expense, that 

 it may now be considered not only as one of the 

 most wonderful (mderiakings of the kind so easily 

 accomjjlished, but is also, by the other improve- 

 ments made on ii, now become one of the most 

 productive tiirms in that part of the country. 

 Many more instances of remarkable drainaires of 

 tlie same kind, executed by Mr. Eikington in dif- 

 ferent pans of England, founded on the principles 

 already explained, and taken notice of in the Agr- 

 ricidtural Reports of the counties in which they 

 took place, will be shown -n another [)art of this 

 treatise. 



[n corroboration of these /«ds, since the publi- 1 

 cation of the ^irsi editinn of this work, niriny and 

 successlul drainages have been accomplished un- 

 der the authors direction, in dili'erent parts of 

 Scotland. In cases of such similaritv, to describe 

 .the pariiculars of each would appear tedious and 

 juninteresting; but above others, that in the exten- 

 -sive and picturesque Park of Dalkeith, belonging 

 to the Duke of liuccleuch, is worthy of being 

 meritioned pariicularly. In every part of the op- 

 eration, the drains were conducted in exact con- 

 formity to the true principles of the system, and 

 according to the rules and directions given tor the 

 draining of ground injured by the effects of spring 

 ■waier in its various sliapes and degrees. Besides 

 jmaking the ground dry, and consequently moie 

 ■sound and produciive, the drains there, served an- 

 other useful |)urpose, by affording a constant sup- 

 ply of spring loater to different parts of the park. 

 From the explanation that has thus beenffiven, 

 it will a[)pear that this mode of draining boirs, or 

 land injured by subterraneous water, is by far the 

 most scientific and efiectual that has hitherto been 

 put in practice. 



Of the many proofs of Ibis, in the southern 

 partofihe kingdom, where Mr. Elkington's prac- 

 tice chieHy lay, the most remarkable have been 

 detailed in the various county Reports, published 

 by the Board of Agriculture, a lew extracts from 

 which are given in Part IV. of this treatise. 



In most of the counties, and on many estates in 

 this part of the kingdom, similar successful drain- 

 aires have been executed; and its decided superi- 

 ority over the modes formerly practised, is now 

 acknowledged as preferable to every other. On 

 the extensive estates of the Dukes of Buccleuch, 



* Trench is the term generally used, in many parts 

 of England, in place of drain; and sough, Cpronounced 

 svff), is the conduit laid at bottom. 



Gordon, Montrose; Earls of Strathmore. Mans- 

 field, Aberdeen, Aboyiie, Finlater, Fife, Kintore, 

 Wemyes; Lord Diindas, Lord Panmure, Lord 

 Saltoun, Lord Melville, Lord Wharnclifle; Ho- 

 nourable Mr. Haly burton; Sir Robert Burnett, 

 Ban. ; Sir Evan Murray Macgregor, Bart. ; 

 William Adam, esq. (late Lord Chief Commis- 

 sioner of Jury Court); General Hay of Rannes; 

 late Mr. Brodie of Arnhall; late George Skene, 

 of Skene, esq. Mr. Ramsay of Baruton, Mr. 

 Mansfield of Midmar, Mr. Ferguson of Pitfour, 

 , Mr. Urquhart of Craigston, Mr. Urquharl of 

 Meldrum, Mr. Irvine of Drum, and many others 

 I (on a lesser scale), too numerous to mention, par- 

 j ticularly in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, For- 

 far, Fife, Kincardine, Mid-Loihian, Perth, Rox- 

 burgh, and Stirling; where it has been exlensive- 

 ly, and, in most cases, very successfully practised. 



SECTION III. 



Its application to the drainage of hills, and. to the 

 procuring and raising water for wells, Sfc. — also 

 to low ground lying on the side of rivers, and to 

 other soils injured in a less degree by spring 

 loater. 



From what has been stated in the foregoing 

 section, less remains to be explained in this, as 

 bogs are certainly more the field of its operation, 

 than any infisrior kinds of" wet ijround, to which 

 this system applies. The sides or declivities of 

 many hills are, owing to the irregular disposition 

 of the component strata, covered with alternate 

 portions of wet and dry ground. By the genera! 

 appearance of the surface, and the variety of her- 

 bacre which the different soils produce, according 

 to their dryness or the degrees, of wetness which 

 affect them, the internal strata, and manner in 

 which they are disposed, may often be ascertain- 

 ed, with such degree of certainty, as to guide the 

 direction of the proper drains, applicable to the na- 

 ture of the wetness, without any internal investi- 

 gation. The difficult}' or facility with which such 

 ground may be drained, depends entirely upon the 

 position of the different strata of which the hill is 

 formed; and upon the perpendicular, horizontal, 

 or slanting inclination of tlie rock, or other body in 

 which the water is contained, and out of which it 

 issues. 



Where the rock lies in a horizontal, or has a 

 slanting inclination, the whole of the different 

 springs or outlets of water that show themselves 

 on the surface, may be connected with, and ori- 

 ginate from the same eounie, and may be all 

 drained or dried up, by cutting off or letting out 

 the main body of water. But where the rock lies 

 in an upright or perpendicular position, and con- 

 tains only partial collections of water among the 

 more open cracks and fissures of the stone, which 

 empty themselves at numberless outlets uncon- 

 nected with one another, it would be fruitless fo 

 attempt cutting them ofl' by one drain, or by 

 boring into any particular one of them, without 

 cutting a drinn into each, as marked at the points 

 A, in plate No. XII. 



In this case, it is more advisable to make the 

 main drain so low down as to insure its being in 

 the clay, and to have small cuts up from it to the H 

 outlet of each spring, than to carry it along the ' 

 upper line where the water breaks out; for, in that 

 direction, it would be much upon the rock, and 



