284 EXPERIMENTS IN DEAINING. 



the last three years in this important branch of 

 agricultural improvement. 



First, in reference to soil and situation of the 

 land : The soil is mostly a loam with a slight mix- 

 ture of sand and gravel, and in some of the -lower 

 places a portion of mucky or decomposed vegetable 

 surface soil, which has doubtless been formed by 

 the wash of the land around, and which has settled 

 in these places. The land is elevated much above 

 the average of lands in this immediate vicinity, and 

 lies in a rolling and sloping position, so much so 

 that my draining operations have caused nearly all 

 who beheld them to wonder that I should incur so 

 great an expense in draining land which was already 

 (as they thought) quite dry enough. The loam soil 

 extends to the depth of 15 or 18 inches, below which 

 there is uniformly a tenacious or hardpan sub-soil, 

 which is about as impervious to water as an unmixed 

 clay, arid which when dry is very hard; so that in 

 digging the drains a well sharpened pick-axe is 

 always necessary as soon as the surface soil is 

 removed, which is done with a common spade. The 

 sub-soil, after being made loose with a pick-axe, is 

 thrown out with a round-pointed long-handle shovel ; 

 and the ditch is only made wide enough for the 

 operator to work the shovel in it ; and he, standing 



