THE ELKINGTON SYSTEM OF DRAINING. 73 



The drains are cut from five to seven, and occasionally nine 

 feet in deptli, and most g-enerally filled with stones to within 

 two and a half or two feet of the surface ; but they are also 

 not unfrequently left open in bogs, and other situations where 

 the cartaye of stones would be difficult, if not altog-ether 

 impracticable, until the g-round has acquired some degree of 

 solidity after the removal of the water Avith which it was 

 surcharg-ed. 



As superfluous moisture (in hilly lands in particular) often 

 arises fi-om both causes associated, namely, spring's and 

 (recent) rain-water; so both systems of draining-, viz. the 

 Elkington and the Deanstone, are frequently combined with 

 the greatest advantage. Althoug-h the latter popular method 

 is beyond question the most applicable to the g-reater pro- 

 portion of the wet arable land in this and other parts of the 

 country, yet experience has fnlly proved that it cannot, in 

 all cases, be practised with equal benefit or economy, and 

 abundantly shown the impropriety of altogether abandoning* 

 the system of deep-draining", as has been done in most dis- 

 tricts throughout the kingdom. Drains cut to the usual 

 depth of furi'ow-draining will always more or less mitigate 

 the evil in the case of wetness proceeding from springs; 

 but it is manifest that they cannot remove the cause, as they 

 are too shallow to reach and intercept the current of water. 

 Both remedies are, in realit}^, applicable to very different 

 cases ; and, consequently, neither of them can with propriety 

 be substituted for the other, though both may be, and, 

 indeed, have been practised in conjunction with the most 

 beneficial results where both sources of wetness exist. 



Farmer's Magazine, Nov. 1846, 



Art. XXIV.— the DEANSTONE SYSTEM. 

 Its Developme>;t by Mr. Smith. 



[In a brief but interesting sketcb, in tlie Farmer's Magazine, o{ the 

 career of this distinguisiied promoter of agricultural improvement, there 

 is an account of the gradual development of his views of draining — the 

 subject with which his name is so inseparably connected.] 



He had turned his attention at a ver}^ early period to the 

 subject of land-draining, having seen a great deal of money 

 so far fruitlessly expended in deep cross drains, intended 



