No. 12. 



Dialos^iie between a Father and Son. 



363 



Considering the nature of the business, the 

 thousands we supply with our works, a.nd the 

 great number of agents employed, the obscure 

 manner in which hundreds of names are 

 written, the irrc<^ularity in some cases of 

 transportation, &c., we congratulate ourselves 

 that the great mass of our subscribers have 

 received their papers with so much regularity, 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Dialogue Tict'vveen a FatHer and Son* 



WATER COURSES — DR.VININO — MAKING HAY. 



Father. — This is the proper season for wa- 

 tering the meadows, and f see that our neigh- 

 bor Ticey is carrying out dung on the meadow 

 above us; we must therefore prepare the 

 water courses, and he ready by the first rain 

 which falls. For the same reason which I 

 gave for delaying the ploughing of these up- 

 per fields until the spring, I consider that 

 what he is now doing had better be delayed 

 also; I have often told him so, but he will 

 not be advised, although he perceives that 1 

 benefit as much by his manure as he does, 

 for as the drainage, which passes the foot of 

 his meadow, enters our water courses on the 

 other side of the hedge, and passes through 

 their whole extent, they receive the wash- 

 ings of the fields above them ; and I have 

 sometimes, to convince him of the fact, taken 

 him to see the very large crops of hay which 

 we obtain by these means; but all will not 

 do — I shall now, therefore, open the courses, 

 and receive with thankfulness what he is 

 pleased to give me. 



Frank. — I have heard that the ground 

 upon which we now stand, was a swamp 

 when you took it — how did you work such 

 wonders ? 



Father. — It was indeed a swamp: a sheep 

 could not feed on it in winter, and the grass 

 which grew during the summer was worth- 

 less as food for cattle. After securing a lease 

 for twenty-one years, I commenced opera- 

 tions by cutting a very deep drain across the 

 top of the field, knowing that all the water 

 must come from the higher ground. The 

 former tenant had gone to great expense in 

 under-draining in every direction, but al- 

 though the drains were well made and filled 

 with stones, they were useless, because they 

 were not carried deep enough to touch the 

 clay. When 1 had cut to the depth of five 

 feet, I almost despaired of success, for the 

 soil was still boggy and full of water ; ano- 

 ther foot, however, brought us to the clay. 

 and immediately the water rose into the 

 drain and ran a strong stream, until it fell 

 into the course, which takes it to the mill 

 stream below. There were then a few holes 

 bored with an auger along the bottom of the 

 drain, and all was complete. This single cut 



was sufl[icient to drain the whole field; but I 

 ought to say it penetrates six inches into the 

 clay at the bottom, by whioh the water is 

 prevented from overflowing on the lower side 

 of ihc drain. As soon as [ could gCJt upon 

 the land, 1 covered the whole surface with a 

 thick co:it of quick lime, and in six months it 

 was so completely drained, and had become 

 so firm, that horses and cattle pastured it un- 

 til Christmas. 1 then determined to bring 

 the water back over the surface by cutting 

 rills, and conveying it by them to every part 

 of the field ; and have, as you say, " worked 

 wonders," for it is now the be.st meadow in 

 this part of the country. I, however, attri- 

 bute most of the success of the undertakmg 

 to the circumstance of laying the land dry 

 before flooding, and making proper provision 

 for carrying off the water as quickly as it can 

 be brought on — a provision which is oflen 

 unattended to in farming meadows of this de- 

 scription. 



To Ei-KiNOTON we are indebted for the pre- 

 sent simple and most efficacious system of 

 draining, for the discovery of which he ob- 

 tained a reward of £1000 from the British 

 Parliament. I say discovery, for so indeed 

 it was; he had put a man to drain a field, 

 and passing liim while at work, on his way 

 to the sheep-fold with an iron bar on his 

 shoulder, and seeing that what he was doing 

 was labor in vain, he threw the bar from his 

 shoulder, which on falling penetrated the 

 bottom of the drain, and on pulling it out, the 

 water immediately flowed through the hole; 

 he had tapped the spring as well as his ideas, 

 which, like the water, flowed out; and this 

 was to him a source of great wealth and 

 honor. I must get his book, which is full of 

 interesting plates, recording and describing 

 this circumstance, as well as very many other 

 instances of successful drainage in various 

 parts of the country. I knew the Chairman 

 of the Committee of the House of Commons 

 who voted him the reward; his name was 

 Colquhoun; he told me that Elkington was 

 a plain man of strong mind, but without edu- 

 cation, and was compelled to employ others 

 to do all his correspondence, and even the 

 writing of his book. 



But I knew another instance of recovering 

 a swamp, still more curious: the herbage 

 which grew upon it was of the coarsest spe- 

 cies, and the spot had been noted for rotting 

 all the sheep which had pastured upon it for 

 many years. It was near a town, and the 

 experiment was made by the owner, a man 

 of large fortune, more for the example to 

 others, than of benefit to him.self. He regu- 

 larly sent his cart to the town during the 

 winter, to collect the sheep's horns at the 

 slaughter houses; these he caused to be 

 stuck very thickly into the sod, which was so 



