No. 



Draining^ No. % 



71 



is with difficulty hay can be made upon it; and 

 many other inconveniences attend ti)e pos- 

 session of such a description of land, unless 

 it is thoroughly drained. 



But how IS a dead level to be drained? This, 

 indeed, is no easy affair, although it is done 

 in many places with very good elfects. The 

 surface may have a fall, whether perceptible 

 or not: when this is ascertained, a large re- 

 ceiving ditch is opened at the bottom; and it 

 the meadow be of considerable length, two or 

 three other receiving ditches are opened at 

 different distances higher up. These being 

 first finished, surface drains from six to twelve 

 feet apart, are made from the top to the lower 

 end of each division. These may be called 

 catch drains, and are thus made. The drain 

 being lined off a foot wide, and the turf at 

 each side cut through with a racer, turves 

 are cut off four inches thick, and of any the 

 most convenient length, and laid regularly 

 on one side to be replaced when the bottom 

 of the drain is completed. This done, a nar- 

 row trench is dug out of the centre of the 

 naked space with a spade, and a channel is 

 made from end to end. After this, a still nar- 

 T\s 10. Fi 



rower pointed tool is used to make the cleft or 

 channel another spit deep. A shoulder is thus 

 left on each side of the cleft, on which the 

 sod that was first taken up is carefuly laid 

 with the grass side downwards, and the re- 

 maining space is filled up with a loose earth, as 

 represented in the following cut at fig. 10. 



Open drains on grass land will also carry 

 off much of the surface water, and lay the 

 land tolerably dry without turning up much 

 of the soil, as they need not be made deep. 

 A common plough may indeed be so held, if 

 neatly made, with an iron mould board attach- 

 ed to it by means of rivets, about nine inches 

 high, and formed with a slight curve, as to 

 throw over a sod of about six inches wide, by 

 which means it will cut the ground in small 

 triangular trenches, nearly like those at fig. 

 11, the sides of which may then be firmly 

 pressed down, and afterwards kept clean by 

 a cart-wheel with the addition to the felly, as 

 designed at a in fig. No. 12. The felly is that 

 of a six-inch cart-wheel, with an addition of 

 wood, of a conical shape, to put on round the 

 felly, and either to be shod with iron, or a rim 

 of solid iron to be added to it. 



A wheel of this description put on the axle 

 of a cart in the common way, will, of course, 

 rest on the rim of the iron; and on driving the 

 horses forward it will fit exactly, it so n°ade, 

 into the trench, and thus press it down in 

 every part equally. This side of the cart 

 must however be loaded with some heavy 



Fig. 



material, in order to make the wheel sink into 

 the soil; but as the wheel on the opposite end 

 of the axle will only support the empty side 

 of the cart, it will not cut the land. If the 

 soil require very close drainage, a pair of 

 wheels may be fitted with such rims, and being 

 fixed upon an axle projecting beyond the cart 



13. 



to the intended v/idth of the trenches, will! 

 perform the operation still more completely. 

 The advantage of this contrivance is, that it I 

 not only makes a firm indent in the soil suf-j 



ficient to carry off the water during the win- 

 ter, but in the following spring these drains 

 will be so nearly clothed with grass, that little 

 or nothing will be taken either from the pas- 



