JAN.] THE MOLE PLOUGH. 



growth, you will have very fine ones, and pay your- 

 self* much better than by the younger growth. 



Some woods are so very wet, that the ash, hazel, 

 hornbeam, and oak stubs, will not thrive ; in that 

 case, the sallow and willow should be multiplied, or 

 the wood hollow-drained ; which is a practice be- 

 ginning in some parts of Essex. There they have 

 so long seen the advantages attending drains of that 

 kind, in their corn and grass lands, that they now 

 think their wettest woods will pay as well for them 

 as an arable field. It cannot be doubted, but the 

 practice must be exceedingly advantageous ; and this 

 month is a very proper time for doing it. 

 THE MOLE PLOUGH. 



The accounts which have for the last two or 

 three years been received, of the effects of this im- 

 plement, are extremely contradictory. With some 

 fanners the use of it has been great, and the dura- 

 tion of the drains extremely satisfactory ; with 

 others .the reverse. I have attended to these cir- 

 cumstances in various districts, and have employed 

 the tool on my own farm, and from all I could ob- 

 serve or hear of it, the effect seems to depend en- 

 tirely on the soil. In clay the result has given, 

 much satisfaction ; but in loose spungy loams, how- 

 ever wet, and where sand gauls (as they are called) 

 abound, the drains have generally stopped. A 

 young farmer should therefore acquaint himself well 

 with his soil to the depth of from 12 to 1(3 inches, 

 for if he has not a pretty regular stratum of clay, 

 or stiff marie, he may expect the pipes to fail in 



D 2 two 



