SPIRIT OF THE MONTHLIES. 331 



ways in such an open friable state that it may be plowed and sown 

 at any season, without risk of bcinn; plowed and harrowed into tlie 

 condition of mud, or of being poached into the state of mortar by the 

 horses' feet. 



In some countries there are large tracts of such land, and on these 

 farmers are generally fortunate men. The culture is easy, and exe- 

 cuted at a moderate expense. The crops of turnips are heavy ; and 

 if, besides the ordinary supplies of dung and tail dress, the farmers 

 can manage to give their fields a liberal coat of marl or reducible 

 clay every eighth or tenth year, the heart and fertility of the staple 

 is maintained unimpaired for ages. 



In such descriptions of land, however, it often happens that beds 

 of clay lie alternately with those of sand at different depths beneath 

 the surface. These beds of clay, if the general surface of the farm 

 or field lies sloping, crop out at different distances below each other, 

 and above each the surface staple will be either occasionally or con- 

 .siantly wet. If a pasture, rushes will appear accompanied by the 

 worst grasses, and herbage produced that will certainly rot sheep, 

 especially if introduced from drier pasturage. If the land be arable, the 

 crops raised thereon will be unequal ; on the wet places, the corn 

 will be either loo rank and inferior, or fail altogether. In such cases, 

 efficient under ground drainage is the remedy to get rid of the super- 

 fluous moisture, either by gently-falling, diagonal or direct channels. 

 The proper direction of the drains depends on the depth, extent, and 

 inclination of the beds of clay ; and it is well to have a professional 

 man to stake them out, unless the tenant has a sufficient know- 

 ledge of geology himself. It is surprising to those who know but 

 little of the nature of the various strata of the earth's surface, how 

 easy it is in some cases to get rid of surface water. For instance, if 

 there be wet and dry places on the same field, the owner may be 

 assured that a bed of clay, or other kind of earth impervious to 

 water, lies beneath the wet, and a porous sub-soil beneath the dry 

 places. A drain of sufficient depth opened (and filled nearly to the 

 surface with stones or loose gravel) from the wet to the dry places, 

 will certainly render the whole dry. In my own practice, and acting 

 on this principle, I have been in many cases very successful in lay- 

 ing arable fields dry. Two cases I may mention as examples : A 

 field of eleven acres, of a fine loam, suitable for wheat, beans, or 

 indeed any other crop, had a hollow near one of the ends, which was 

 every winter filled with water, and ruinous to wheat or grass, very 

 frequently to the extent of between two and three acres. This I re- 

 solved to drain. A neighboring farmer predicted that the attempt 

 would be a failure ; because his father, when tenant, sunk a shaft to 

 the depth of above seventy feet, in the lowest dip of the hollow, and 

 filled it with stones, expecting that this would form a siuallow for 

 all the rain and melted snow retained by the hollow. But this expec- 

 tation was not realized ; the water first filled the pit, and then flowed 

 over the land as before. The cause was easily comprehended ; the 



VOL. II. NO. II. U 



