FARMERS' REGISTER— DRAINING. 



709 



sweep out tlie deposite above, and throw it into 

 the part cleared out before. In this manner, on 

 any stream or ditch havinfj enou'j;h fall, the labor 

 of deepenina; may be almost confined to particu- 

 lar spots, (where earth is wanting-,) and the water 

 alone will distribute the deepening; thnaigh the 

 whole course of the channel. This offers an im- 

 portant advantage : and if it is neglected, and the 

 cross drains permitted to become so choked as to re- 

 quire a complete and thorough cleaning out, the 

 sand will be thrice as thick in their upper ends, 

 where it will be a nuisance on the margins, as at 

 the lower parts, where the addition might he be- 

 neficial. All rapid streams, whether large or 

 small, are continually moving on the sand and 

 otherdeposites brought into them: and ifthe channel 

 is merely kept open, this natural operation will 

 convey away (without cost or injury,) the earth 

 which usually serves, first, to choke the channels, 

 and then causes great loss of labor in removing il. 

 The sand, or other loose deposite in a stream, will 

 never stop in its course toward the outlet, until it 

 meets with level and smooth water, or some fixed 

 obstruction. 



When land streams cause a necessity for a cross 

 drain, and especially those which have before 

 brought down a quantity of sand, forming a high 

 point running into the lowground (as Q N,) the 

 cross drain should be made just above that point, 

 so as to be low enough to receive the water from 

 the side ditch above. This, the land stream, (if 

 any,) may regularly pass through. But the wash- 

 ing torrents of rain water ought still to be direct- 

 ed over their old deposite of sand, (as by a log at 

 Z,) to which not much more harm can be done, 

 and thence into the cross ditch, after having drop- 

 ped most of the earth with which they were loaded. 

 It is not often the case that " boiling springs," 

 or bursts of water, rise perpendicularly through 

 low lands. But this is sometimes the cause 

 of wetness, and the evil is generally not to 

 be remedied by any kind of draining, except Elk- 

 ington's vertical plan, by boring with an auger to 

 the source of these springs, and conducting the 

 water away by a proper channel. I will not oc- 

 cupy the reader's time in attempting to explain a 

 plan of which I have no practical knowledge. But 

 without resort to boring, lands much subject to 

 these perpendicular spouts are not reclaimable. 

 Boiling springs are caused by water being con- 

 fined under a sloping stratum of clay, or some 

 other impervious earth, which though continually 

 pressed upon by supplies from a much higher 

 source, cannot escape until it meets with open fis- 

 sures in the clay, or reaches a pervious and absorb- 

 ent earth. In the former case, the water bursts 

 through, and boils up in a spring; and in the lat- 

 ter, (if the supply of water is small,) spreads 

 through, and keeps wet, every part of the neigli- 

 boring soil, though no collection of water may 

 show any where. A ditch cut through such land 

 may catch and divert some of the water, luit will 

 fail to drain its margin at the distance of only a 

 few feet. The spring water is in such cases rising 

 perpendicularly from fissures perhaps ten feet 

 or lower down ; and a ditch can only take off what 

 rises immediately under it. If by means of boring, 

 one or more sulTicient oi)enings could be made 

 through the clay, so as to tap the subterraneous 

 reservoir where it is pressed to escape, it would 

 rush through these vents^ and cease to flow in the 



former less preferable channels, and to injure the 

 lands below. Such is the general principle of Elk- 

 ington's manner of draining, which has been of 

 such wonderful use in England, as to gain for the 

 discoverer a large reward i)y parliamentary grant. 

 After a piece of lowground has been ditched in 

 the manner directed, the drainage may be made 

 still more perfect and durable, and the subsequent 

 cultivation facilitated, by the direction and width 

 of the beds or ridges. As the most valuable graia 

 crop made on such land is corn, the land is gene- 

 rally laid off, principally with a view to its culti- 

 vation — in ridges five, five and a half, or six feet 

 wide, when the land is in corn ; and these narrow 

 beds are sometimes (but not always) doubled, 

 when wheat or oats follow the corn. These nar- 

 row beds are attended with much trouble and in- 

 convenience. Of course each water furrow must 

 l;e kept open, deep and clear, and with a good out- 

 let, or it serves no purpose as a drain — and the 

 narrower the beds, the more water furrows there 

 are, to require this labor and care. The cost of 

 tillage is also greater than on the plan I shall pro- 

 pose. I prefer the beds to be twenty five feet wide 

 when finished: but they maybe gradually brought 

 to this unusual width by being made twelve and a 

 half, (or even six and a quarter,) at first, and two, 

 or four, thrown into one, at some later tillage. If 

 twenty five feet beds are made at first, by plough- 

 ing on a flat surface, they will be too flat to keep 

 dry enough, even after being ploughed a second 

 time in the same manner, and of course the water 

 furrows between, being doubly deepened by the 

 plough. But a similar third deep ploughing being 

 given, after gathering the corn to sow wheat or oats 

 on, will make the beds high enough; and every 

 furrow will be so deep as to form an excellent 

 ditch. As long as more elevation to the beds is 

 desired, the plough should work to raise them: 

 but when tlicy are high enough, the ploughing 

 sliould sometimes cleave the bed, or reverse the 

 former direction, throwing the furrow slices from 

 the middle, and towards the edges of the bed — but 

 at no time into the water lurrow. When a cleav- 

 ing ploughing is wanted, to lower the beds or to 

 make them less rounding, the ploughs should first 

 cut out the water furrows, clean and well, with 

 th.ree or four furrows to each. The first slices so cut 

 will lie against the shoulder of the beds. After 

 two water furrows are so ploughed out, the[)lough- 

 man breaks up the bed between, commencing at 

 the shoulder, and neatly lapping his first and out- 

 side slices, on the first thrown out of the water fur- 

 row. The closing furrows on the former middles, 

 will not be much below the general surliice of the 

 beds, which will then be nearly level across, with 

 narrower and yet deeper water furrows between 

 them. 



The direction of these beds may vary so as best 

 to throw off the water, or to guard against being 

 washed by freshets. But each water furrow ought 

 (if possible) to decline gradually to some ditch 

 into which it will throw its water — and land, and 

 lal)or in tillage, will be saved, by having an out- 

 side bed to lie alongside of some long ditch — whe- 

 ther across, or in the direction of the main car- 

 rier. If the beds in any one place run with a 

 stretch of the main carrier, (straightened as before 

 directed,) the ploughs will cut so near the edge of 

 the ditch as to keep it clean and productive^ (as 

 the bed I P H.) If the beds are laid olT by some 



