ON DRAINING. 83 



inclies deep. However, we had tlie turf and mould borne 

 oft' a space of about 6 feet square and 22 inches deep, when 

 a bed of yellow plastic clay appeared. Into this bed, which 

 was soft and easily worked by the hand, a hole was sunk. 

 But a very slig'ht quantity of water oozed into the hole 

 until we reached about 4 feet 3 inches, when the hole rapidly 

 filled with water. It was still clay, but evidently of a more 

 porous nature, and there a mass of free water resided. It 

 was apparent that the cause of the upper clay and surface 

 soil being- so wet, in defiance of the shallow drains, was now 

 discovered, for as the upper clay reposed on what, relatively, 

 may be called a pillar of water below, the capillary force, 

 always in action, continually sucked iqi this water, and sup- 

 plied the incumbent soil with a perpetual excess of fluid. 

 The shallow drains might have done their duty in removing* 

 the water of rain — the surface water — but they could in 

 nowise affect the liberation of the bottom water. An experi- 

 mental drain was then made, 5 feet in depth, and 350 yards 

 long-, laid with Ig -inch-bore pipes. Clay was puddled in 

 over this line of pipes up to 2 feet G inches from the surface, 

 and another line of similar pijies was then laid, so that we 

 had a shallow and deep drain in the same trench, the object 

 being- to measure the relative discharg-es of water from each ; 

 and the lower drain was puddled over, to prevent as much 

 as possible the top water from mixing- with the bottom. 

 The result was, that the bottom drain discharged, from the 

 commencement, a stream averag'ing- one g-allon per minute 

 during- seventy-six days, being- equal to nearly 5 tons every 

 twenty-four hours. The run then rapidly diminished, and 

 speedily came to drop only. A second 5-feet-deep drain 

 had been made 36 feet distant, so as to insulate a space of 

 land on one side of the experimental drain, and it will be 

 found that, taking- the length of 300 yards, with a breadth 

 of 12 yards, as aftbrding- water to the bottom drain (6 yards 

 on each side of it), no less than an area of 4200 square yards 

 of water, 5i inches deep, had been removed by this one 

 drain. The upper line of pipes answered to rain, and re- 

 moved it ; but the observers do not think that an_y, or much, 

 of this water has reached the lower drain. The land is now 

 reported to me as g"iving- Avay in cracks to a g-reater depth 

 than formerly, so that an eiiicient drainage may be ulti- 

 mately expected. The following- is an analysis of the clays 

 in question, taken at 22 inches and 4 feet 6 inches deep, re- 

 spectivel}', beneath the surface, by Mr. Phillijis. 



G 2 



