344 



THE VILLA GARDENER, 



212 



from 3 in. to 4 in. in width at the bottom, will be sufficient; except in parti- 

 cular parts of the field, where the drain may have to cross a slight rise in the 

 surface, and where it should be deeper in order to maintain a sufficient slope 

 at the bottom to give currency to the water. The drain, being dug out, may 

 be filled two-thirds of its depth with small stones, brickbats, or very coarse 

 gravel ; or with thorn branches, straw ropes, exhausted taimer's bark, car- 

 penter's shavings, or any refuse vegetable matter that will partially or wholly 

 rot, and leave a vacuity for the passage of water. In Essex, the material 

 most commonly employed is straw twisted into a rope 3 or 4 inches in 

 diameter. Reeds tied in cylindrical bundles of a few inches in diameter, 

 are also employed in the same county, as willows are in Huntingdon- 

 shire, furze in Warwickshire, broom in Nottinghamshire, the spray of ^le 

 larch in Wales, and heath in the north of Scotland. The most convenient 

 materials in claye)' districts, which are never productive of either gravel or 

 rock, are the branches procured by cutting down 

 thorn hedges. These branches, including the 

 spray, may be laid lengthwise in the drain, and 

 firmly trodden in ; covered with soil, and again 

 firmly trodden in ; and, finally, the surface tarf 

 replaced. In order to make allowance for the 

 sinking of the materials of the drain, this surface 

 turf should be kept two or three inches higher 

 than the adjoining surface, its edges being beaten 

 down so as to form a small semicircular ridge in 

 the direction of the drain. In the digging out of 

 these drains, two kinds of spade are used : the 

 first {fig. 212. c), 8 in. broad at the tread, is for 

 taking out the surface-spit; and the second (b), 

 which is 5 in. wide at the tread, for digging out 

 the remainder. Afterwards a sort of hoe, or scoop, 

 is used {fig. 212. a), for clearing out the loose 

 particles and small lumps of soil from the bottom of the drain. 



A simple and not an expensive mode of forming drains in strong clayey 

 pastures, is to take off the surface-spit 9 or 10 inches in width; and, a gutter 

 having been formed in the subsoil, 18 or 20 inches in depth, the surface-spit 

 is replaced. This mode of draining is most effective where the surface is 

 naturally tolerably even; but, where inequalities are to be passed over, the 

 gutter beneath requires to be cut down to such a depth, that its sides are apt 

 to crumble in. 



There are several kinds of draining ploughs, and one, the mole plough, 

 forms a cylindrical furrow drain ; but none of these machines can be recom- 

 mended for using in a villa paddock ; and, indeed, from their original cost, 

 and the great power required to draw them, it is very doubtful to us whether 

 they pay anywhere. 



411. Wherever it is determined to break up old pasture land, on a wet or 

 retentive soil, a different kind of underground drain is required to what was 

 sufficient when it was under pasture. Though not quite so numerous as in 

 grass lands, yet these drains require to be much deeper, and are consequently 

 more expensive ; nor will they altogether supersede the use of frequent shal- 

 low drains, after the ground is laid down again for permanent pasture. 



