726 



F A R M E R S' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



Lord Pelre snys— "The value of the work of 

 the ploujjh varies arcording lo difi'erent people's 

 riii-'thodsl My general method is, to plough with 

 a c.ontmon plough, and a pair of horses, two fur- 

 row? did'erent ways, leaving a haulk iu the mid- 

 dle, whirh I at'erwards plough out with a larger 

 plough, and three horses abreast, which will tiirn 

 out a furrow about two inches deeper than the 

 laud is generally [sloughed. The expense, not 

 reckoning any thing lor the master, who, I sup- 

 po^se, atiends'and marks out rhe ditches, is about 

 IHd. per acre, ditches a rod apart. This ra^-lhnd 

 i>; lor Cdlow. The lalior of digging is 2^^. or 2|f/. 

 per rod; and the exp'*nse per acre of the whole 

 work is. as near as 1 can guess, on a fallow where 

 two soiis are diirgfd, 43s. 6d per acre; with the 

 plough and on" sni;, a!)out 353.; on ley, vviih the 

 plough, aiioiit 3os.; wiihout the |)lough, and the 

 spits set. a'>oui 47s. per acre." 



Mr. Majendie's account of the expense to hi.m 



is — 



Digging the drains with the small or last spit 



s~padi% per score yards, - - 20c/. to 24a'. 

 Two s; its in main drains, - - 3s. to 3s. 6d. 



fti this manner the under-draining one acre (the 

 drains at one rod apari), includuig wood, straw, 

 and all other incidental charges, amounts to an 

 expense of from 403. to 4.5s. an acre. 



XIII. Of sod or pipe draws. 



Various methods have been devised of savmg 

 I lie expense of raateiials in the filling of drains. 

 Tiie sod or pipe drains are undoubtedly the least ex- 

 (pensive of any, and may be of considerable benefit 

 ,'oni:ome soils; but their duraiion and safijty in sup- 

 , porting heavy cattle or horses in the act of plough- 

 iing, cannot be very much depended on, unless I 

 when the opening is at a consigerable depth li"om j 

 .the surface, and when the upper mould becomes : 

 incrusted, so as to form an arch. 



The method of" executing them is by digging a ! 

 trench of a certain width so deep; and then, by j 

 taking out the last spit witli the narrow draining 

 spade, a shoulder is left on each side, upon which 

 a sod or lurf", dug in grass land, is laid, grass-side 

 downwards, and the mould thrown in over it. It 

 is said that such drains will continue hollow, and 

 consequently discharge well Ibra great number of 

 years. The mode of executing ihem has been 

 well described and the tools represented, by T. B. 

 Bavley, Esq., in the valuable 'Georgical Essays' 

 p dilished by Dr. Hunter of York. * 



Sod or turf drains are pretty much in use in 

 some of" the northern counties of England, where 

 land stones are scarce. 



Several mosses have been drained in Lanca- 

 shire nearly in the same manner, by leavingshoul- 

 ders about a loot and a half fiom the bottom, and 

 laying over these, cross pieces of turf or peat, cut 

 into lengths of sixteen inches, and eight or nine 

 inches square, which after they have been dried 

 by exposure to the sun and air, easily support the 

 loose mould that is thrown in above thein, the 

 depth of which, being, for the most part, from two 

 to three feet. 



How long these drains, in such soft soils, may 

 continue to operate, cannot be ascertained, as 

 it is not long since the practice was first intro- 

 duced. 



*Octavo edition, p. 437. 



Other modes of making pipe-drains have been 

 successfully attempted; but they require no parti- 

 cular notice. The besr and simplest of them have 

 been described in Section 1st of Part III. 



XIV. Duration. 



The dtiration of hollow drains will necessarily 

 depend on the nature of the materials with which 

 they ate filled, and, in some measure, on the qual- 

 ity of the soil; as certain kinds of the latter liave 

 the power of preserving wood, or other perishable 

 materials, much longer than others. 



Stones last till accidental causes impede the 

 flowing of the water, and may last for ever. Wood 

 perishes in certain periods; but it does not follow 

 that the drains should then fail in their effect. If 

 the earth forms an arch over the waler-coursp, 

 it will necessarily continue to flow; which is found 

 to be the case when wood, straw, and stubble are 

 rotten and gone. Drains that have been filled 

 with bushes and straw, have been observed to run 

 well, forty years after being made. 



Ill the 'Annals of Agriculture,' it is observed 

 that old drains, when cut across, though there was 

 not the least appearance of any vegetable sub- 

 stance remaining in them, but fiill of loose porous 

 earth, at once run freely, or, according to the 

 workman's phrase, bleed freih. From twenty to 

 thirty years they continue efiective. 



XV. Dramage of retentive soils by open cuts, 

 and the proper formation of ridge and furrow. 



It has already been observed, that on some soi'p, 

 where the suitace is very retentive, no number of 

 covered drains can operate efiectually in draining, 

 and afterwards keeping the ground dry. 



In most of the central counties of England, and 

 also in Flaunders, the general mode of keeping 

 land dry is by ploughing it up in high broad ridges, 

 fi'om twenty to thirty, and even forty feet wide, 

 with the centre or crown three or four leet higher 

 than the furrows. The successful practice of the 

 Flemings shows clearly how effective this method 

 is, when well executed; for by attentively keeping 

 the furrows perfectly free from water, the land is 

 kept in so dry a state, that all sorts ot'crops flourish 

 remarkably well; but, in England, the same obser- 

 vation would not lie just, for want of the same at- 

 tention to this mode of practice. In many instan- 

 ces, the furrows are not properly directed, nor pro- 

 perly deepened, and the ridges too fiat; by which 

 the water stagiiates in the hollows, and of course 

 renders that part of the field worse than lost. 

 This bad management has brought the method 

 itself iiuo such discredit, that in many places they 

 have been levelling their ridges at considerable 

 exrtense, in order to adopt some other method of 

 draining — an operation, which on clay soils, is 

 certainly very iiriprudent; for wh-n the ridges are 

 well rounded, not too high, and the furrows kept 

 open, and perfectly free from retaining water, it 

 must be esteemed, for land of a very retentive 

 surface, an excellent mode of draining, or for keep- 

 ing it dry when the wetness arises onl}' from sur- 

 face-water. * 



* Water-furrowing is attended with very beneficial 

 conseqiipnces, when performed in a proper manner, 

 and at those seasons when the land requires it. It is 

 simple; but the omission of it may be attended with 

 the loss of part of a crop; and wetness may often be 

 removed by that means alone, without the aid of drains. 



