No. 10. 



Draining. 



315 



To the Editor of the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Draining. 



Sir, — Although much has already been 

 said on this subject, the all-importance of 

 which is acknowledged by every one who 

 has witnessed its surprising effects, it is by 

 no means exhausted : by its general adoption 

 on a farm requiring such a course, the very 

 seasons and climate are changed ; the health 

 both of man and beast is benefited, and the 

 farmer has a longer summer and a shorter 

 winter, in the first to prepare for, and in the 

 last to provide for, his out-door stock and liis 

 in-door family ; for by its ameliorating influ- 

 ences he is enabled to enter upon his land for 

 spring tillage earlier by about ten or fourteen 

 days, and in consequence his harvest might 

 be expected to fall earlier by about that space 

 of time ; and no practical man need be told 

 the value of a system which would insure to 

 him such incalculable advantages. And then 

 the quality of the crops is as much superior 

 as the quantity ; the wheat a finer sample, 

 brighter and heavier, and freer from blight; 

 the root crops clearer and larger, with more 

 saccharine ; the corn larger, longer, and bet- 

 ter filled; and, what is perhaps of more im- 

 mediate importance than all, the yield of 

 fodder is larger and sweeter, more palatable, 

 and more nourishing; and the dung-hill — that 

 bank of deposite, which pays its dividends 

 quarterly with a punctuality which is a cau- 

 tion in these degenerate days — partakes of 

 the virtues of all, and yields from 25 to 50 

 per cent, upon the capital employed, with a 

 stock always at par. In a Scotch work on 

 Draining, I find the following most interest- 

 ing observations, which are so peculiarly in 

 keeping with what has been said, that I can- 

 not forego the pleasure of copying a few ex- 

 tracts for publication in your pages. 



" In its train follows every other improve- 

 ment, and much of the perfection of husban- 

 dry is to be attributed to it; for although si- 

 lent and secret in its operations, like whole- 

 some medicines, draining has renovated the 

 constitution of the soil, and suffused a health- 

 bloom over the face of the country : the hu- 

 midity and variability of the climate operating 

 upon the inferior soils which occupy so large 

 a surface of the country, have been much 

 ameliorated by it, the climate being milder 

 than it was half a century ago. Agues and 

 intermittent fevers are now unknown : the 

 recent mildness of the winters, the absence 

 of frosts and snows of long duration, and the 

 presence of hybernal vegetation, indicate less 

 ability in the soil to emit those dank exhala- 

 tions which return in rain and snow from the 

 atmosphere in its changeful flittings over the 

 land. An examination into the manner that 

 humidity affects the soil, will enable us to 



ascertain how draining first ameliorates the 

 soil, and then the climate. 



When rain falls on the ground, part of it 

 runs off by ditches, &c., into the rivers, but 

 the greater part is absorbed ; and that which 

 is retained under the soil on impervious lay- 

 ers of earth, remains to effect incalculable 

 mischief; and while this hidden water re- 

 mains, manure, whether putrescent or caus- 

 tic, can impart no fertility to the soil ; the 

 plough, the harrow, and even the roller, can- 

 not pulverize it into a fine mould ; the gra.ss 

 yields no nutriment for live stock, as the finer 

 sorts disappear, and their places are usurped 

 by the coarse, aquatic plants: the stock can 

 never receive a hearty meal of grass or straw 

 from land in such a state; they are always 

 hungry and dissatisfied, either lax or bound 

 in their bowels, and of course remain in low 

 condition and subject to all kinds of disorders. 

 The trees acquire a hard bark and stiffened 

 branches, and soon become the prey of innu- 

 merable animalculte. The roads are con- 

 stantlypoft and cut into deep ruts ; the ditches 

 and furrows are full of water — suitable recep- 

 tacles pr all sorts of reptiles; — the circum- 

 ambienl air is always damp and chilly, and 

 from ea^ly autumn till late in the spring, the 

 raw hoaf frost meets the face like a wet cloth 

 morning and evening. In winter, the frost 

 incrustspvery furrow and plant with ice, not 

 strong aiough to bear one's weight, but just 

 weak enough to give way at every step, while 

 the sno\^ lies lurking in crevices behind the 

 sun unti late in the spring — fit feeding 

 ground l^r the woodcock and snipe ; and in 

 summer, imosquitoes, green flies, midges, 

 gnats, anl gad flies, torment the cattle, the 

 labourer ind his horses, from morn till night ; 

 whilst i\v sheep get scald heads and are 

 eaten upby maggots during the hot blasts 

 of sunshire. And this is no exaggerated pic- 

 ture, for t e eye cannot turn in any direction 

 scarcely, vithout falling on land that would 

 be greatUimproved by a regular course of 

 draining: |he cost would of course be con- 

 siderable, lut the increase of the first crop 

 after, wouE repay the farmer, be that what 

 it may. 1 



No drair ought to have a smaller depth of 

 stones than 18 inches, nor a smaller depth of 

 earth over pem than one foot — thirty inches 

 deep in allJ Much has of late been urged in 

 favour of niking the drains up and down the 

 declivity, b t to this there are serious objec- 

 tions; the npid descent of water in drains is 

 incompatibi with good workmanship; it is 

 sure to gutfir the bottom of the drain, and 

 blow it up : the more easy the egress of wa- 

 ter, the mor regularly and gently will it run 

 away, and te more effectually will it draw 

 the land dry This species of draining pos- 

 sesses the avantage of being applicable to 



