388 



cure will always be found for rushes, proceeding from the worst cause 

 in which they originate, viz. tcnacitij of soil. The simple theoiy is this, 

 that if a new and permeable subsoil, composed of the uppermost friable 

 strata, be thus fonncd underneath, it will act nearly as if gravel or sand 

 had been substituted : and we know that, if either soils or subsoils be 

 once fairly stirred, no complete consolidation will afterwards take place. 



It is probable, that this method of eradicating rushes has not as yet 

 become very extensively known, and therefore has not been much veri- 

 fied by the experience of others.* In the end of 1821, or beginning of 

 1822, a scientific friend of mine, who saw the work going on in the 

 park here, was so much struck with its importance and simplicity, that 

 he drew up a short account of it as managed at this place, and publish- 

 ed the article in the Farmer's Magazine of Edinburgh, where the reader 

 will find it. But in that article, as far as I remember (for I have it not 

 at hand), the depth of the trenching and the expense attending it, are 

 both underrated. In respect to the trenching, I never trenched less than 

 eighteen, and sometimes twenty inches in depth; and as to the expense, 

 it never amounted to less than Is. per pole, or per fall, Scotch measure 

 (which bear the same proportion to each other, as the higher national 

 rates do), or 8Z. per acre, when spade work only was necessary. If the 

 aid of the pick was called in, it amounted to 2d. more per fall, or 26s. 

 per acre. But in such a case, previous outlay is of little moment, if we 

 can only rely on an adequate or profitable return. 



It is a curious fact, and may be verified by those who are disposed to 

 make the experiment on a single acre, or less, that the trenching of 

 ground, if done only deep enough, has (besides eradicating rushes), the 

 extraordinary effect of rendering wet land dry, and dry land moist, for 

 the most beneficial produce either in timber, or agricultural crops. In 

 respect to the former soil, it is obvious on the face of the proposition, 

 and from the foregoing experiments. As to the latter, I have more than 

 once verified it, by trenching a sandy soil fifteen inches deep, when there 

 were not more than four inches of good mould on the surface ; and when 



• So little does this seem to be known, thatan intelligent friend of mine (than whom no 

 man docs more work, or does it in a better stylo of execution) is, at this moment (Octo- 

 ber, 1827), engaged, with the help of a professional drainer, brought at some expense 

 from a distance, in endeavouring to extirpate the rushes in his park hy surface drains, 

 at twenty and thirty feet distance. It would be quite in vain for me to tell hini, that his 

 drainer has no science, and that his rushes, in this way, cannot be pp,rmanently eradi- 

 cated. There are very few men, who put any value on advice that is gratuitous. Be 

 sides, I am too near at hand (not five miles oJT) to be of any use to him. Were I to coma 

 from Lincolnshire, or the Landsend, oflering for fifty guineas to communicate my se- 

 cret, I believe I could render him very material service. 



