ON DRAINING. OV^ 



seen drains wliicli have continued perfectly free in tlieir 

 action for years adjoining- fences and plantations, wliilst a 

 drain at a g-reater distance lias been choked by roots. In 

 the two or three cases observed by him, he found that a 

 single thread-like root alone had entered, and then worked 

 its way up against the run of the water, increasing into a 

 hairy mass, something- like the brush of a fox, and growing 

 in length sometimes to several yards, imtil it closed the 

 drain as completely as if it had been stopped full of clay. 

 In situations Avhere drains must be laid near to trees, he ad- 

 vises the keeping- as far off as circumstances permit, and 

 the providing each row of pipes, if joining a main, with a 

 cess-pool at their junction, in order that the discharge may 

 be visible and examined occasionally, which would soon de- 

 tect u stoppage if it occurred. But, he continues, it will be 

 wise in all cases, if people will have hedge-row trees, that 

 the drainer so plan his operations as to keep as wide of 

 them and fences as possible ; but better still, to get trees 

 felled wherever they occasion a feeling of doubt as to their 

 affecting the permanency of the drainage, or cause it, in 

 respect of the direction or depth of the drains, to be other 

 than complete. If trees, as in parks, are in the way of 

 drains, I advise the sheathing of the pipes on approaching' 

 within twenty yards, and I frequently diverge from the 

 line and pass round the tree to regain the true line of 

 drainage. 



Stoppag-es in drains may also be occasioned, although of 

 very rare occurrence, by roots of plants. Mr. Parkes relates 

 the following- case as one of warning-, and as calculated to 

 rouse to vigilance of observation. A boggy piece of ground, 

 very wet and spongy, had been sown with turnips. The 

 drains were found in many places completely stopped with 

 very fine roots in October. It Avas difficult, indeed impossi- 

 ble, to pronounce from what plant these roots proceeded. 

 Mr. Parkes sent specimens of them to Professors Lindley 

 and Daubeny, who were imable to decide upon the parent 

 plant, to which, unfortunately, the roots had not been traced 

 when the pipes were taken up. The drains were shallow, 

 Bot exceeding- 2 feet 6 inches deep anywhere. The boggy 

 soil contained many sorts of weeds, as crowfoot, coltsfoot, 

 rushes, and docks, of which there was abundant evidence 

 when he was on the spot some weeks afterwards. The pipea 

 contained much eartli, which had g'ot into them with the 

 roots ; and it appeared that several of the pipes were almost 



