104 



Draining. 



Vol. V. 



F^^^^ 





Fig. I. — Draining brick, IQi inches long, 7 wide, 2 thick. 

 " 2.— 84 bricks for 8 yards of drain. 

 " 3. — 110 for 8 yard?, for main drains. 

 " 4.— As fig. 2, 84 bricks for 8 yards of drain. 

 " 5. — 5.5 for 8 yards of drain. 



" (3.— 1 10 for 8 yards, f(jr soft, boggy lands and quicksands. 

 ' 7. — 84 for 8 yards, for boggy lauds. 

 " 8.— 110 for 8 yards. 

 Drains for these bricks arc dug cheaper than they are for common bricks, particularly for figs. 2 and 3. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Draining. 



This is the season for draining-, and no- 

 thing else can pay so well the expense of the 

 labour bestowed ; the most useless, the most 

 unsightly, nay, some of the most imhealthy 

 bogs in the country might be made, by this 

 single operation, the most valuable, the most 

 beautiful, and the most luxuriant spots upon 

 the whole farm; for in many cases they have 

 been fed and enriched for ages by the wash- 

 ings of the uplands, until they are become a 

 mass of vegetable matter, requiring no fur- 

 ther manure for a century : these lands are 

 often reclaimed at a much less expense than 

 are uplands, impoverished by over-cropping, 

 and by a process very simple, and oftentimes 

 by no means expensive, for where small 

 stones abound on the surface of the land, they 

 might be gathered for filling the drains, when 

 the benefit will be far greater than the ex- 

 pense incurred. In laying off the drains, it 

 is necessary to seek for an outlet, and there 

 commence operations, at the lowest point of 

 the land, working up hill, and giving the 

 drains but a small declivity ; they will work 

 much better than those of greater rapidity of 

 descent, as they are operated upon by cnpil- 

 lary attraction, and are then not so liable to 

 be choaked by gravel, &c., that might be 

 washed down by a quick current. There are, 

 however, large tracts of country in which 

 stone, for the purpose of filling the drains, 

 cannot be obtained, and this is particularly 

 llie case in some parts of the counties of Kent 

 and Essex, in England, where, however, un- 

 der-draining has been carried on to a vast 

 extent ; it is there the practice to make bricks 

 of the clay which is dug, and burn them on 



the spot or near it, and, with these, to lay 

 their drains, a material far preferable to any 

 that can otherwise there be obtained, and 

 oftentimes procured at a less expense than 

 any otiicr, suitable for permanent work ; by 

 means of these bricks, drains of great capacity 

 are formed, which cannot by possibility choak, 

 and are found to run now, as freely as they 

 did a century ago. 



A person by the name of Ashwell has in- 

 vented and patented a brick, which is highly 

 approved of for the purpose, and of which we 

 give an engraving at the head of this article. 

 It will be seen that they form different figures 

 by being placed in difierent positions, and 

 they are, therefore, placed in the drains, so as 

 to take that figure, best calculated for draw- 

 ing off the water ; the same bricks forming 

 the main as well as the lateral drains, and 

 being laid with such facility, constitute some 

 of the great advantages to be derived from 

 their use. 



Under-draining is the foundation of all 

 agricultural improvement, but it is not often 

 practised by persons having a yearly interest 

 only in the soil ; hence, it is but little known 

 in this country, where so many of our farmers 

 — as some one says — are expecting to remove 

 to the west year after next. In many coun- 

 tries, it is customary for the owner of the 

 land and the tenant to share the expense, 

 even under a long lease, the improvement 

 being considered as perpetual ; and it is al- 

 ways most economical to do it substantially 

 when it is done, for without the greatest care, 

 the whole expense and time is labour lost: 

 but oftentimes the tenant for seven years has 

 found the practice profitable, and on some of 

 the deep meadows in England, drains have 

 been cut, the width of six inches only, to the 



