98 The Control of the Soil [pt. ii 



always been found on the deeper soils round about them. 

 Modern science has as yet no way to suggest (Figs. 26 

 and 27). 



When the shallowness of the soil is due to water an 

 obvious remedy consists in lowering the water table by 

 drainage. Over a large part of England this trouble did 

 exist, and one of the greatest achievements of the 19th 

 century was the extensive drainage that was under- 

 taken. Some of it, of course, was done badly, the drains 

 being put too deep, and some of it needs doing again 

 especially where the pipes have become blocked up, but 

 the improvement was great and lasted for a long time. 



Bad drainage is one of the common causes of infer- 

 tility on heavy soils in this country. It was met in the 

 old days by lajdng up the land in high ridges several 

 yards wide (often a rod wide) which were commonly not 

 quite straight but cur\^ed at each end like a long drawn 

 out S, the result of a difficulty in turning the ploughs in 

 the days when a long team of oxen was used. The 

 scheme had the drawback that the furrows were usually 

 too wet and too much on the subsoil for a satisfactory 

 growth, and sometimes the plants failed altogether. 

 Even a shallow furrow has a bad effect. Moreover the 

 advent of the binder has necessitated the use of flat 

 ground and made the old ridges impossible. 



Since 1823, when James Smith of Deanston, Perth- 

 shire, began to draw attention to drainage, large areas 

 of land have been pipe-drained. The cost is high and 

 in many cases the result must have involved financial 

 loss, although the contingent benefits in the countryside 

 were probably worth it. In the old days there was a 

 great dispute as to how deep the drains should be laid : 

 Smith laid shallow drains, and Josiah Parkes, a famous 



