of Central Somerset. 1 



additional remarks on this point after having considered the 

 character of the herbage of scouring pastures. 



2. Examination of the Drainage Theory. 



In the opinion of some who are well acquainted with the 

 subject, inefficient drainage must be considered as an aggrava- 

 tion, if not the sole cause of the evil. Mr. Clarke, in his Essay,* 

 mentions two well-authenticated cases, and Mr. Poole t another, 

 in which the complaint appeared to have been entirely removed 

 by drainage. 



On the other hand, it is asserted that drainage not merely is 

 generally ineffective in curing scouring land, but that in some 

 cases it appears to aggravate the evil. In the absence of positive 

 proofs it may be reasonably doubted whether drainage really 

 increases the scouring properties of land, but it cannot, I think, 

 be denied that it does not always, nor perhaps in the majority of 

 cases, cure the complaint. 



It certainly is- a fact that in the lias formation the fields 

 adjoining notorious scouring meadows are often perfectly sweet 

 and sound ; and that no difference as regards drainage, herbage, 

 supply of water, and general character, can be recognized, which 

 might account for the sound condition of a field and the scouring 

 properties of the adjoining one. 



Notwithstanding the great similarity of two such fields, I 

 would observe, an essential difference would perhaps loe readily 

 recognized, if we could turn both completely over and carefully 

 examine their subsoils. The scouring field would then be found 

 to rest on a stiff impervious clay subsoil, not very far removed from 

 the surface ; and in the second field the subsoil would, in all 

 probability, be of a much more porous character, or be found 

 at a greater depth than that usually penetrated by the roots of 

 grasses. 



This difference in the character and position of the two subsoils 

 necessarily must exercise a powerful influence on the agricultural 

 capabilities of the two fields. Both may be equally well drained 

 both may bear to all appearance the same description of herbage 

 they may be identical in composition, and yet the one field 

 may be worth a great deal more than the other. This need not 

 cause surprise, for drainage only makes the two fields so far equal 

 as it removes the surface-water from both ; there still remains an 

 essential difference in the supposed case. In one field we have 



* Journal of the Bath and West of England Society, vol. iii. p. 52. 

 f Ibid., p, 60. 



