110 ON DRAINING. 



thus, at tlie successive stages, placing- liay or straw nnder- 

 neatli and earth above, I think you will render your work so 

 durable that you need not trouble yourselves about it for 

 many years to come. Boggy soil is like sponge — it has an 

 extraordinary tendency to draw up and to hold water. You 

 will find that shallow drainage in boggy ground is like 

 shallow drainage in sponge — the water will not leave the 

 sponge to pass into the drain, but will remain in the sponge 

 by capillary attraction. You find if you put a drain into a 

 hog at 10 or 11 feet depth, when the water has left that 

 bog and you have covered it, as you ought to do, with heavy 

 earth, you will find that the drain, instead of being 10 

 feet from the surface, will probably be at only 6 feet. The 

 bog dries as a sponge dries. A dry sponge is always more 

 shrunken and smaller than a wet one. That takes place in 

 boggy ground and in strong clays, but only in a smaller de- 

 gree, because it is the expansion of particles by stagnant 

 water which gives that tenacity to clay we so often see. 

 "When you remove the water from the clay by a deep 5- 

 feet drain, you will find not only that the roots take pos- 

 session of the soil, but that the worms will go down and 

 bore ten thousand little holes, which will serve as pipes for 

 the water to the top. They are looking to the lower clay, 

 as if they were aware of the change of air and water. 

 The result is that stiff land, instead of being like brick loam 

 or putty, breaks up like a piece of shortcake. That is the 

 case with mine now. 



Agricultural Gazette. 



Art. XXIX.— on DRAINING. 



[Abridged from " Remarks on the Agriculture of Aberdeenshire."] 

 By Mr. Sullivan. 



Draining is carried on during every season of the year, 

 and at all stages of the rotation ; but the winter and early 

 spring months are those in which the operation is most 

 generally accomplished. Drains are occasionally executed 

 while the land is in stubble, and also, in some instances, 

 after the removal of the turnip-crop from the ground, just 



