98 THOROUGH-DRAINING. 



Art. XXYII.— THOROUGH-DRAINING. 



By Mr. Grey, Presidext of the Hexham Farmer's Club. 



[An Address to the Club, June 9, 1846.] 



After some preliminnry remarks, Mr. Grey went on to say, 

 — So much of the land in this county lies on a retentive sub- 

 soil, causing- in it a great degTee of humidity and coldness, 

 that the portion which is natui-ally so dry and open as not 

 to be improved by draining, is the exception to the general 

 rule. To obtain good crops from such land is always a 

 matter of uncertainty. A wet spring delays the sowing to a 

 late period ; or if the weather be tempting for sowing, and 

 storms of rain or snow should interrupt the operation — as 

 was the case this year — such land has small chance to 

 recover the injury it sustains during' the remainder of the 

 season. But admitting the seed-time to be good, and the 

 crop to a certain period to be flourishing, a fortnight of wet 

 and cold weather any time diu'ing the summer cuts down 

 the fair prospect, and leaves a thin and unproductive crop for 

 the harvest. Such was the case, many of you will remem- 

 ber, in the high and cold districts of this county four or five 

 years ago ; up to the end of June the crop was most promis- 

 ing* ; a succession of heavy rains then came on ; the ground 

 was saturated with wet; the corn became yellow, and by 

 degrees thinner and thinner, till, ere harvest, the crop con- 

 sisted more of thistles and weeds than grain. Against such 

 contingencies thorough -draining is the only seciu'ity; by 

 means of it an earlier seed-time, as well as an earlier harvest, , 

 is obtained ; the average produce of the land is greatly 

 increased, in many cases it is doubled; and the expense of, 

 working it is immensely lessened. Every one accustomed 

 to cultivate heavy and undrained soils knows the injury 

 which his fallow sustains by one ploughing before it is suffi- 

 ciently dry, or by a heavy fall of rain directly after plough- 

 ing, and how much labour is required to recover it from that 

 injm-y, if it can be done at all, during that season. When, 

 then, I hear tenants remark upon the expense of bringing- 

 tiles to drain a field, I tell them to think of the future labour 

 which the dryness, and conserpient friability of tlie soil after 

 draining, will save them — more, perhaps, in one year of 

 fallow than all the carting- of tiles, with the certainty of a 



