310 RENDERS A COUKTRT >IORE SALUBRIOUS. 



lands the hopes of the industrious farmer are often disappointed. Mi«T« 

 are frequent and rains more abundant on the edges of the moor, and 

 mill-dews retard the maturity, and often seriously injure the c^ops. Of 

 undrained land, in general, the same is true to a less extent, and tVie 

 presence of one unimproved property in the centre of an enterprising 

 district, may long withhold from the adjoinhig farms that full measure 

 of benefit which the money and skill expended upon them would in 

 other circumstances have immediately secured. 



So true is it in regard to every new exercise of human skill and in 

 every walk of life, that we are all mutually dependent, every one upon 

 every other ; and that the kindly co-operation of all can alone secure 

 that ample return of good, which the culture either of the dead earth 

 or of the living intellect appears willing, and we may hope is ultimately 

 destined, to confer upon our entire race. 



11°. I would not here willingly neglect to call your attention to a 

 higher benefit still, which the skilful drainage of an extensive district is 

 fitted to confer upon its whole population. Not only is this drainage 

 equivalent, as above stated, to a change of climate in reference to the 

 growth and ripening of plants, but it is so also in reference to the gene- 

 ral health of the people, and to the number and kind of the diseases to 

 which they are observed to be exposed. 



I may quote in illustration of this fact the interesting observations of 

 Dr. Wilson on the comparative state of health of the labouring popula- 

 tion in the district of Kelso during the last two periods of ten years. In 

 his excellent paper on this subject, in the Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 

 ture, (volume xii., p. 317), he has shown that fever and ague, which 

 formed nearly one-half of all the diseases of the population during the 

 former ten years, have almost wholly disappeared during the latter ten, 

 in consequence of the general extension of an efficient drainage through- 

 out the country ; while, at the same time, the fatality of disease, or the 

 comparative number of deaths from every hundred cases of serious ail- 

 ment, has diminished in proportion of 4*6 to 2*59. Such beneficial re- 

 sults, though not immediately sought for by the practical farmer, yet 

 are the inevitable consequence of his successful exertions. Apart, there- 

 fore, from mere considerations of pecuniary profit, a desire to promote 

 the general comfort and happiness of the entire inhabitants of a district 

 may fairly influence the possessors of land to promote this method of 

 ameliorating the soil ; while the whole people, on the other hand, of 

 whatever class, ought "gratefully to acknowledge the value of those im- 

 provements which at once render our homes more salubrious and our 

 fields more fruitful.'^ 



The practical benefits of draining, therefore, may be stated generally 

 as follows : — 



A. It is equivalent not only to a change of soil, but also to a change 

 of climate, both in reference to the growth of plants and to the health 

 of the population. 



B. It is equivalent also to a deepening of the soil, both by removing 

 the water and by allowing those noxious ingredients to be washed out 



