OF DRAINING. 59 



and are sufficient to cover twenty-two roods of eighteen feet 

 and a half each. The tiles are fourteen inches in length, 

 but allowing for breaking and overlaying, the average may 

 be reckoned about twelve inches. 



In the few instances which have come under Mr Pringle'* 

 observation, the water runs freely ; and he has no doubt, 

 that in many places they would be less expensive than stones* 

 but they could not answer where the bottom of the drain 

 is soft and muddy. It is a pity they were not exempted 

 from duty, when employed solely for draining purposes, as 

 some description of bricks are by a recent act of parlia- 

 ment. 



3. Mr Newton of Currie-hill, near Edinburgh, informs 

 me, that the soil of one-half of his farm lies on a ridge, 

 sloping both south and north ; the subsoil is a strong blue 

 clay in the highest part of the land ; but towards the north, 

 the clay is nearer the surface, and of a worse quality, sub- 

 ject to spouts, which have occasioned much expencc, and 

 still require draining ; but the materials are becoming scarce. 

 The under half of the farm, in regard to soil, is various : 

 there are some spots of a few acres, of turnip land, upon a 

 gravelly bottom ; but the greatest part of the low lands are 

 a heavy soil, upon a clay bottom for two or three feet, and 

 then sand. A great deal of this soil has been redeemed 

 from bogs and pools by draining. Elkington's mode of 

 draining was practised forty years ago by the late Mr New- 

 ton, not by boring, but by filtering. 



In regard to Elkington's system for draining boggy land, 

 it has answered completely in various parts of Scotland. 

 Mr Wilson, near Cullen, in BaniFshire, informs me, that 

 he has had some boggy land drained effectually by means 

 of that process; and Mr Church of Hitchill, in Dumfries- 

 shire, has drained the mossy or springy ground on his 

 farm, according to the Elkington system, with such sue- 



