154 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



much value upon the shelter from cold winds which the hedges 

 afford. 



Drainage. The need of thorough draining is nowhere so 

 obvious as upon clay soils with stiff sub-soils. There will be but 

 a few weeks in a year when such soils are not too wet and mor- 

 tary, or too dry and bricky, to be plowed or tilled in any way to 

 advantage. In the spring it is difficult to cart over them, and in 

 the summer, if the heat is severe and long-continued, without 

 copious rain, the crops upon them actually dwindle and suffer 

 more than upon the dryest sandy loams. To get rid of the sur- 

 face-water, the greater part of the cultivated land of Cheshire 

 (and, I may add, of all the heavy land of England) was, ages 

 ago, plowed into beds or " butts." These are commonly from five 

 to seven yards wide, with a rise, from the furrows (called the 

 " reins ") to the crown, of three or four inches in a yard. The 

 course of the butts is with the slope of the ground ; a cross butt 

 and rein, or a wide, open ditch by the side of the hedge, at the 

 foot of the field, conducting off the water which has collected from 

 its whole surface. When the land is broken up for tillage, and 

 often, even after thorough under-drainage, these butts are still 

 sacredly regarded and preserved. 



Thorough under-draining, by which all the water is collected 

 after filtering through the soil to some depth, was introduced here 

 as an agricultural improvement within the last eight years. The 

 great profit of the process upon the stiff soil was so manifest that 

 it was very soon generally followed. The landlords commonly 

 furnished their tenants with tile for the purpose, and the latter 

 very willingly were at the expense of digging the drains and 

 laying them. Wishing, however, to do their share of the im- 

 provement at the least cost, the tenants have been too often 

 accustomed to make the drains in a very inefficient manner, being 

 guided as to distance by the old reins, and laying their tile und( 



