EFFECTS OF STAGNANT WATER. 329 



regards Scottish husbandry, and the experience of English 

 farmers will testify that these remarks are too applicable 

 to many parts of our own country : 



"The injury done by stagnant water to arable soil 

 may be estimated by these effects. While hidden water 

 remains, manure, whether putrescent or caustic, imparts 

 no fertility to the soil ; the plough, the harrow, and 

 even the roller, cannot pulverise it into fine mould ; new 

 grass from it contains little nutriment for live-stock ; 

 and in old, the finer sorts disappear, and are succeeded 

 by coarse sub-aquatic plants. The stock never receive 

 a hearty meal of grass, hay, or straw, from land in this 

 state, they being always hungry and dissatisfied, and of 

 course in low condition. Trees acquire a hard bark and 

 stiffened branches, and become a prey to parasitic plants. 

 The roads in the neighbourhood are constantly soft, and 

 apt to become rutted ; whilst ditches and furrows are 

 either plashy, or like a wrung sponge, ready to absorb 

 water. The air always feels damp and chilly, and from 

 early autumn to late in spring the hoar-frost meets the 

 face like a damp cloth. In winter the slightest frost 

 encrusts every furrow with ice, not strong enough to 

 bear one's weight, but just weak enough to give way at 

 every step, while snow lies long lurking in shaded cor- 

 ners and crevices : and in summer, musquitoes, green- 

 flies, midges, gnats, and gad-flies torment the cattle, 

 and the ploughman and his horses, from morning to 

 night ; whilst in autumn the sheep get scalded heads, 

 and are eaten up by maggots, during hot blinks of 

 sunshine. These are no exaggerated statements, but 

 such as I have observed in every county in Scotland, 

 in hill, valley, and plain ; and wherever such phenomena 

 occur, it may be concluded that stagnant water lurks 

 beneath the soil upon a retentive subsoil."* 



Surface drains are of two kinds, open, and covered. 

 Open drains are made in the hollows or lower parts of 

 land, and are proportioned in size to the quantity of 



* Stephen's Manual of Practical Draining. 



