718 



FARMERS- REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



various depths, Irom three atrd four to six anci 

 peveti leet, he hores with a conimon iron horin<T 

 rod, five or ten lower, and in doii <j this, often finds 

 the water rise quickly in the hole. By this opera- 

 tion, it should seem, that he lias Mr. Bakewell's 

 idea in contemplation; and it is lo be noted, thai 

 by this practice, he, in many cas?s, by a sinirle 

 drain, lays lands dry that were not at all in the 

 ooiitoniplation of the [)ersiin who employs him. 

 even to a considerable distance. Supposing; spriiiijs 

 to lie in strata nearly on a level, and to com- 

 municate from side to side of the lari^esl hdls, 

 in such case it does not seem at all improliahle 

 hut thai, liy drainiair ;ind horinix deeply on one 

 side, you may procure more water than catne be- 

 fijre, by divertimx i: frim the usual course; so ihat, 

 by carrvinix on works of this sort on one side of a 

 mountain, the other side, at some miles distance, 

 may be drained. Thus the millers on one side of 

 a hill mav pay Mr. Elkinffion (or brinoinw water 

 to their dams, and the millers on the oilier side of 

 the hill prosecute him for depriviriir them of theirs; 

 which, it must be confessed, would be a laucrhable 

 litiiratiou.''* "Such works, whatever their ope- 

 ration, causes and co. sequences, have infinite 

 meril, and do sreat credit to the talent of this very 

 iuijenious and useful man, vvho will have the 

 merit wherever he <roes, of settins men to think." 



"The 6th.— To Ashby-de-la-Zouch; called in 

 our wav on Mr. Marshall, to view a boff drain- 

 ed l)y Mr. Elkinglon, which he effected with his 

 usual success. 



"This ho«; was occasioned, as they coinmonly, 

 or rather alwaj's are, by sprinirs, which he pierced 

 into hv means of a deep drain, boring at the bot- 

 tom of it, as above descr-bed; the surfj in this dry 

 season, runs no inconsiderable stream. The whole 

 is now under oats, a very fine crop, on land which 

 before vvasof no value whatever." — "Mr. Elkiiifj- 

 ton has been employed by Mr. Knovvlesf to drain 

 the slope of a hill poisoned with springs; in every 

 instance of his draining, I hear some new circum- 

 stance to prove the sajracity and ina^enuify of this 

 «kilful operator, who may be termed an enfjineer 

 of a new order. The crown of the hill above 

 Mr. Knowles' wet fields is all dry, sound, gravel- 

 ly land, in which there are no signs of springs, 

 because pervious to water in its level; but when 

 these springs came to the fields in question, which 

 are clayey, they rise to the surfiice, proportionably 

 to the quantity of clay which impedes their pro- 

 gress. In tjiis case he found, by taking the levels, 

 that springs on the other side of the hill, in a 

 clayey spot, at the distance of some hundred 

 yards, were exactly on the same level as these 

 passing under the gravel on the elevation, and 

 fliue breaking out where the passage was ob- 

 structed by variation of soil. And he pronounced, 

 that when this is the case, one surf, skilfully mark- 

 ed, will drain a variety of different, and even far 



* Such a case occurred on Lord Dundas's estate in 

 Yorkshire, where the author of this treatise was em- 

 ployed at the time. It gave rise to a lawsuit before 

 the court of assize at York, immediately after tfie op- 

 eratioD took place, at a considerable cost to both 

 parties. 



t Of Nelson, in Leicestershire. In a certificate 

 sent to the Board of Agriculture, Mr. Knowles says, 

 that this land, by means of Mr. Elkington's drains, 

 was rendered worth 30s. or 40s. an acre, wtiich before 

 was not worth half a crown. 



distant fields; and he recommends, in such cases, 

 to wait, after the first drain is made, to let its ope- 

 ration take place for six months, or even a twelve- 

 month; in vvl-ich time it will be Ibund how far the 

 effect has taken place: if more are wanted they 

 can then be made. When springs are brought in 

 this manner ti-om a distance, there is no doubt but 

 he brings more water to a place than flowed in it 

 before. The great skill is to know where to bore." 



In a treatise lately published, "On the necessity 

 and advantages of care and economy in collecting 

 and preserving dill'erent substances lor manure," 

 by Thomas B. Bayley, F. K. S. is the iijllowing 

 observation: — 



"It may reasonably be expected, that at no 

 very distant period, the peat-mosses of Great 

 Britain and Ireland will be drained, and brought 

 to the highest siate of lertilily. Their present 

 superabundant moisture renders them not merely 

 unproductive wastes, but extremely injurious to 

 the drier lands in their vicinity. The invention 

 and energy of a Wakefield* and an Elkington, in 

 reclaiming and improving mosses, cannof fail to 

 excite a general imitation of the very successful 

 processes by which they have rendered these bogs 

 productive of plenty; with the adtlilional happy 

 effects vvliich those improvements never fail to 

 produce on the climate, temperature, and vegetation 

 of all the countries adjacent to them." 



Thomas Eccleston, esq. of Scarisbrick-Hall, 

 Lancashire, in a communication to the Board of 

 Agriculture, states, "In a valley belonging to me, 

 covered fourteen feet thick with clay and clay- 

 marl, the surlace in many places was perfectly 

 boggy, and so soli as no horse or man could walk 

 upon it. Mr. Elkington ordered one straight 

 drain to be cut in the lowest part, at least five itjet 

 deep, and then to bore through the marl or clay, 

 which effednally drained sixty statute acres; and 

 one field, that before was worth very little rent, I 

 let, after the drainage, at forty shillings the acre. 

 The expense did not exceed fifty pounds in the 

 whole, and the old tenants give thirty pounds per 

 annum more rent than before." 



Letter from Thomas Paget, esq. of Leicestershire, 

 to Sir John Sinclair, Bart. President of the 

 Board of jjgriculture, respecting Mr. Elking- 

 ton^s mode of draining. 



"S'/r — Having understood by Mr. Elkington, 

 that the board of agriculture intended doing some- 

 thing in his favor, by way of reward and encour- 

 agement lor his services to the public, by the in- 

 troduction of his method of draining bogs and wet 

 land; and having the highest opinion of his merit 

 and judgment, from repeated experience, and de- 

 sirous of bearing my testimony thereto, f take the 

 liberty of troubling you to say, that alter having 

 made draining of land my study and practice for 

 more than thirty years, I found, upon having Mr. 

 Elkington's assistance, the lands which I had 

 drained might, by his method, have been more 

 efftictually drained, and with a great deal less 

 labor and expense. 



"The extent of the improvement, and the ex- 

 pense of the work, is various, as must be obvious 



t Of Liverpool. Mr. Wakefield has made wonder- 

 ful improvements upon the great Trafford moss, near 

 Manchester, in Lancashire. 



