76 ON THOROUGH-DRAINING. 



Art. XXV.— ON THOROUGH-DRAINING. 



By Mr. Smith of Deanstone. 



[A lecture delivered at the meeting of the Highland Agricultural Society 

 at Inverness.] 



Mr. Smith commenced by saying-, that the subject of lecture 

 to-nig'lit was tlie important one of tlioroug'b-draining-, and 

 other matters connected with it ; and he woukl endeavour 

 to g-ive a practical explanation of his views in as few words 

 as possible. The advantag'es arising- from draining- the soil 

 were many. On well-drained land there were many more 

 days in the year on which the farmer can ploug-h and harrow 

 than on other land. When he did plough and harrow, the 

 operations were much more easy and efficacious, and thoroug-h 

 harrowing- and ploug'hing- of g-ood land was of more advantag-e 

 than an equal amount of labour expended under less favour- 

 able circumstances. Manure, likewise, had much more 

 effect when the land was well drained than if it were put 

 into a wet soil. With a dry soil they had more warmth, 

 and when the sun shone it encourag-ed the plants to g-row ; 

 whereas sunshine was rather hurtful for a time to wet land. 

 They knew well it was the practice in hot countries to put 

 a wet cloth i-ound a bottle of wine for the purpose of cooling' 

 it by the evaporation of the moisture, and the same effect 

 took ])lace on land, althoug-h not so perceptibly. It was a 

 ver}^ strang-e thing- that ag-riculturists had so long- known 

 the advantages of thoroug-h-draining-, and that it was not 

 more appreciated. A g-reat deal had been done in this 

 country for sixty years, in attempts to dry the soil, but these 

 attempts had been chiefly confined to the removal of water 

 which arises in springs below the soil. That was accom- 

 plished by the cutting- of deep drains around the margin of 

 the fields, which had the effect of removing- at least part of 

 the water from extremely wet and marshy places, but had 

 very little effect in rendering- the surface sufficiently dry for 

 the purposes of complete cultivation. It was not xmtil a 

 later period that attention was g-iven to the water which fell 

 on the surface. When rain fell upon land composed of stiff 

 clay, it must either run off or be evaporated. Mr. Smith 

 then, by the use of diag-rams, explained the mode in which 

 the rain fell upon the g-round, and percolated throug-h the 



