40 JANUARY. 



being dry, by which means it admits carting , 

 the straw and bushes, but also because the sun 

 and air have the effect, by drying the earth of 

 the sides of the cuts, to avoid that plastering .which 

 the action of the spade has in digging them in wet 

 weather, and by which they are apt afterwards to 

 bleed through the pores less freely. There may be 

 something in this. Other formers do the work in 

 winter, partly because they have a better opportu- 

 nity, on flat fields, of seeing how the drains draw, 

 as it is termed; and partly because, at that season, 

 labourers" are easier to be had. But poaching the 

 surface upon arable land is an objection. It seems 

 on every account to be desirable, that such soils as 

 \tell as others, and whether the work be done in 

 winter or summer, should be drained while in grass, 

 by which means poaching is avoided ; and if the 

 surface turf be tough, it gives an opportunity of 

 making sod-drains, which are cheaper than filling 

 them either with bushes or straw. 



MARLING. 



The marl and clay carts may work all this 

 month. This is so important an object, that too 

 much attention cannot be given to it, nor can a 

 great breadth of land be thus manured, if the teams 

 and men assigned to it be not employed regularly 

 the year through. Upon dry soils no diiiicuitics 

 occur, but upon wet ones the teams can stir in win- 

 ter, only while the surface is frozen, unless it be 

 on layers of some years standing, and well drained. 



Upon 



