72a 



FARMERS' R E (J I S r K R 



[No. 12 



evaporated, tlie princi|>les which govern Mr. Elk- 

 ington's svf'lem are not applicable. But in all 

 cases, (anj p'jcIi are very numeroiiP,) where the 

 wetness proceeci.s alone I'rom rain-water stagnat- 

 ing on a retentive snrface, a larmer ought to ex- 

 amine his field carefniiy, in order to ascertain whe- 

 ther such wetness proceeds I'rom surface water 

 only; or if it arises from that of springs. If from 

 the latter, he should endeavor to discover if such 

 springs are distinct and unconnected; or whetlier 

 they iire sup[)lied (i"om one main spring, which, it 

 cut off, would effeditally drain all the land lyinir 

 below its -ource; .is has been fully explained and 

 exen;ii)lified in Section 2d olPart I!. 



From want of due attention to this necessary 

 discrimination, it is very common in Essex, Sul- 

 foik, and other counties where draining is very 

 Generally performed, to see many superfluous 

 drains marked out in directions where they can 

 have very little eflect, and where asiuL'^le one, well 

 directed, would have <-.ompletely dried the field 

 As the expense, which might thus he saved, is an 

 object of consequence, too much attention cannot 

 be paid to the inquiry. 



1. Of the antiquity of the practice of hnlloio -drain- 

 ing, andwhenjirst used ill England. 



That the Romans were not unacquainted with 

 the common methods of hollow-draining, ap[)ears 

 from all their writers on rural atTairs. Upon strong 

 tenacious land, where the water could only be re- 

 ceived at top, they prett?rred open drains; on other 

 soils, where the water could be drawn equally 

 Irom both sides, or could rise i'rom the bottom, 

 they used covered ones. They knew the proprie- 

 ty of directing them obliquely across the slope of 

 the field, — a point in which modern drainers are 

 often erroneous. Their ireneral depth was from 

 three to tour feet, filled half way up with small 

 stones; for want of these, with willow poles, and 

 even with the spray of wood twisted into a rope; 

 one of the latest practices with straw that has ta- 

 ken place in England. Of that material also, the 

 Roman farmers availed themselves, when others 

 were wanting. The ends of their drains they 

 were careful in fortifying with larger stones, in 

 form of bridges; and the mouths, or outlets, were 

 laid in masonry — a circumstance in which Mr 

 "Whyn Baker, of Ireland, thought himself origi- 

 nal. 



From the depth, it appears that their drains 

 were designed to carry ofi the water of springs, as 

 well as that caused by rain on a flat or retentive 

 surface soil; for both waich they were, in some 

 cases, equally well adapted.* 



To the proper direction of the water-furrows, in 

 order to convey all surface water into the drains, 

 and to the clearing and cleaning out of the ditches 

 round the fields, they paid particular attention. 

 These circumstances are sufficient to prove that 

 the Romans understood the business of^ common 

 draining in great perfection, and that our best cul 

 tivated counties had little to boast of in this re- 

 spect, in superiority to the ancients, till Mr. Elk- 

 ington made the discovery of a method with 

 which they were wholly unacquainted. The best 

 of the French writers on Agriculture, De Serres, 



*The passages of the ancient writers on this subject 

 are quoted and translated by Mr. Dickson, in his 'Hus- 

 bandry of the Ancients.' 



who wrote in 1600 his ^TTientre d'' Agriculture, 

 describes hollow drains particularly; they were 

 filled with s'ones. 



It would demand a very careful perusal of all 

 the earlier writers on husbandry, to ascertain wheh 

 ihis [)ractice was first introduced; out a circum- 

 stance occurred in Sussex, which shows that hol- 

 low-draining was in use long before any mention 

 would be found of it, were such authors consulted, 

 as no notice of it occurs in Fitzherbert or Norden.* 

 Ill 1770, Mr. Poole, of that county, informed a 

 farming iraveller, "that near one hundred years 

 a<To, a very large oak, two hundred years old, was 

 cut down at Hook. In digirinij a ditch through 

 the spot where the old slump was, on takinu up 

 the remains of it, a drain was discovered under it, 

 filled with alder branches; and it is remarkable, 

 that the alder was perlectly sound, the greenness 

 fif the bark was preserved, and even some leaves 

 were soimd. On taking them out, they presently 

 dropped to powder. Ii is hence very evident, that 

 under-ground drainintf was practised three hundred 

 years ago in this kingdom. We find, also, that 

 alder is, of all other wood, the best for filling 

 drains. Probably no other, except aquatics, 

 would endure nearly so long. Bushes are gene- 

 rally used, and sallow or willow is probably the 

 best."t 



The Board of Ai'riculture were informed by 

 Richard Preston, E.-^q. one of its correspondents, 

 in 1796. that land-draining, according to the pre- 

 sent practice, was not of more than forty years' 

 standing in Essex; though it is generally supposed 

 to have been u.sed there long before that period. 



II. Nature of the moisture, or wetness, against 



which they are chiefly u^ed. 



Springs that proceed li-om water at any conside- 

 rable depth in ilie earth, or which break out, from 

 the variation of certain strata, in hills, which de- 

 mand deep cutting, and the use of the auger, to 

 work their cure, according to Elkington's mode of 

 draining, has already been treated of. Hollow 

 drains that come under the present description, are 

 chiefly used to correct that wetness of soil which 

 results from rain; and which, from flatness of sur- 

 face, or its retentive quality, stagnates, to the inju- 

 ry of both soil and crops. This is the general na- 

 ture of the evil which these drains are intended to 

 remedy; but by no means exclusively of thai caus- 

 ed by land springs, whose seat, apparently, is not 

 below their depth. The wetness proceeding from 

 such, is, in some cases, removed by these drains, 

 when deep enousrh cut, and properly directed; but 

 in many others, from ignorance in the drainer, 

 great sums of money are thrown away, for want 

 of attending properly to the nature of the evil, and 

 of distinguishing betwixt surface-water only, and 

 the oozing of laiid-springs.l 



III. Of the soils on ivhich they act, and of those 



on which they have been found to fail. 



In soils that are so tenacious as to retain water 

 on the surface till evaporation carries it off', such 

 as are found in Sus.sex, Surrey, and in many other 



♦Fitzherbert wrote his boakof Husbandry in 1534, 



fEastern Tour, vol iii. p. 141. 



JThose whicn issue from between the upper soil 

 and next stratum. Every heavy shower supplies 

 them, and a few dry days exhale and exhaust them. 



