ANCIENT METHODS OF DRAINAGE 363 



surface-drains. But this device not only stripped the land of some 

 of its most valuable portions by washing the surface tilth into the 

 furrows, it also robbed the soil of the fertilising agencies which 

 rain-water holds in solution and by percolation carries downwards 

 to the plants. For both these reasons the ancient practice of such 

 counties as Essex and Suffolk was a great advance. In those 

 counties trenches were cut from 2 ft. to 2J ft. in depth at frequent 

 intervals, filling the bottom of the cavity with boughs of thorn, 

 heath, or alder, and the soil replaced. Sometimes, where peat or 

 stones were easily available, they were used instead of bushes. 

 Sometimes the filling was only intended to support the soil until a 

 natural arch was consolidated to form a waterway. For this more 

 temporary purpose, twisted ropes of straw or hops, or a wooden plug, 

 which was afterwards drawn out, were generally employed. In 

 other counties, other materials or devices were adopted. Thus in 

 Leicestershire, a V-shaped sod was cut, the bottom end taken off, 

 and the rest replaced. In Hertfordshire, at the lowest part of the 

 field, a pit was sunk into a more porous stratum, filled up with stones, 

 and covered in with earth. Many of the Suffolk and Essex drains 

 lasted a considerable time ; but the arched waterways were apt to 

 choke or fall in, and the depth at which they were placed was 

 considered unsuitable for land under the plough. So little was the 

 practice known outside these two counties that in 1841 its existence 

 was a revelation to so enlightened an agriculturist as Philip Pusey. 

 In tapping springs, caused by water meeting an impervious subsoil 

 and rising to the surface, most useful work had been done by Joseph 

 Elkington, 1 a Warwickshire farmer in the latter half of the eighteenth 

 century. Throughout the Midland counties his services were in 

 such request that his crow-bar was compared to the rod of Moses. 

 In 1797 he had received 1,000 from Parliament on the recommenda- 

 tion of the Board of Agriculture, and an attempt was made to reduce 

 his practice to rules. But his success was so much the result of his 

 personal observation and experience that the attempt failed. The 

 principles of drainage were not yet understood. 



In 1823 James Smith of Deanston, then a man of 34, began to 

 cultivate the small farm attached to the Deanston Cotton Works 

 of which he was manager. By his system of drainage and deep 



i An Account of the most approved Mode of Draining Land according to 

 the System practised by Mr. Joseph Elkington, by John Johnstone, Land 

 veyor, Edinburgh, 1797. 



