518 



ELKINGTON S DRAINING. 



i in 



than what is effected by these drains, nor any that 

 will sooner repay the expences. In many parts it is 

 well known, that the first arable crop will repay the 

 whole ex pence, which is a profit not to be reaped in 

 any other article, to which a man can attend. 



ELKINGTON's DRAINING. 



A very necessary attention is to be paid by every 

 occupier of wet land, to the cause of the moisture 

 which injures him : if, as common in many parts of 

 Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, which are, in general, 

 countries not marked by strong inequalities of sur- 

 face, the wetness proceeds from the texture of the 

 soil, especially the under stratum, and not from 

 springs, the system of hollow-draining applied to the 

 whole surface is the best cure the evil may admit ; 

 but, in many districts, the case is different ; one 

 spring breaking out on the slope of a hill will da- 

 mage much land below, and appear in so many places 

 irregularly, as to assume the appearance of many dis- 

 tinct springs, or a general wetness of surface. The 

 common system of hollow work, in such cases, may 

 fail entirely, though the cxpencr may be greater than 

 that of another system disco vcred, or practised, or 

 published first by Mr. Elkington, under the patron- 

 age of the Board of Agriculture. It would be im- 

 possible, in the limits of a Calendar, fully to explain 

 this system ; but the principle of it is to discover 

 what may be called the mother spring, and to cut it 

 off by one deep drain passing across, but above the 

 spot where it breaks out. The boring at the bottom 

 of this deep cut has, sometimes, considerable effect, 

 not only on the spring immediately in contemplation 



but 



