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PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



lection. The common rubble drain is formed of rough land-stones of any sort, broken so as not to exceed two 

 or three inches in diameter. No good drainer uses stones six or eight inches in diameter in any part of 

 a rubble drain, least of all at the bottom. The point kept in view is to use such small stones at the bot- 

 torn as may allow the water a great many channels ; so that, if a few should become imjiermeable, there 

 should be many others remaining. The nearer the bottom of a drain of this kind approaches to the cha- 



646 



\^n[\ 



4287. On the Marquis of Stafford's estate, 

 exertions of the tenants seem to merit such a reward. 



racter of a natural bed of gravel, the more certain 

 will be the free passage of the water. Gravel or ashes 

 should be laid on the top of the stones, on these a thin 

 layer of straw or haulm of any kind, and the remainder 

 filled up with the surface soil. 



4286. The brick drain is formed in a great variety, 

 of ways, either with common bricks and bats in 

 imitation of the boxed and rubble, or rubble drain ; 

 or with bricks made on purpose, of which there is 

 great variety, {fig. 646. a to k.) Draining tiles, to be 

 used with effect as collecting drains, should generally 

 be covered a foot in depth or more with stones or 

 gravel. But if the land to be drained be in grass, 

 laying the sod over the tile is sufficient : if the land 

 be not in grass, and be loose in texture, a little straw 

 may be profitably laid over the tile, to prevent the soil 

 from running in. The pantile {d) is the best for 

 general purposes, but ought not to have holes at top ; 

 but sometimes such holes are made. In very loose 

 soils, plain tiles are wanted to place the draining tiles 

 on : in other soils, old broken pieces of plain tiles 

 are sufficient for the ends to rest on. Sometimes, 

 even at depths of six feet, these tiles, though of five 

 inches in the clear, will be entirely blocked up by the 

 fibrous roots of trees, especially of the black poplar. 

 A variety of this tile, of a more ample capacity, has 

 lately been brought into use in Lincolnshire. {Jig. 

 647.) The best draining tiles in England are manu- 

 factured at the Staffijrdshire potteries ; and Peake, of 

 TunstalJ, may be named as eminent in this line. 

 {Gard. Mag. vols. v. and vi.) 

 an allowance of draining tiles is made, wherever the 

 In order to secure the drains being properly 

 filled up with stones above the tiles, the tenant is obliged to drive a sufficient quantity of stones or cinders 

 from the furnaces, and lay them on the ground, previously to an order being made for the delivery of the 

 tiles. Without attending to this important circumstance, much draining would be thrown awaj'. The 

 park at Trentham is a complete illustration of this remark. The draining of this spot was conducted under 

 the direction of Elkington. The wetness with which these lands are affected does not arise from any line 

 of springs bursting out from the upper grounds, to which that gentleman's system of deep drains could 

 be applied ; but is occasioned almost entirely by the retentive nature of the subsoil, and by its being in- 

 termixed with small basins of sand, which lie detached and unconnected with each other, In the bed of 

 clay. To cure this species of wetness, a number of small drains, well filled up, with one cut into each of 

 these beds of sand, is necessary. In pursuance of this plan, a great part of the park at Trentham has been 

 lately drained over again, by making a number of small shallow drains, about fifteen feet asunder, in some 

 instances above the old ones, taking particular care to fill them up as well as possible, and not to permit 

 any clay to be laid over the stones. This has proved effectual." (Loch.) 



4288. The gravel or cinder drain is seldom made deep, though, if the materials be large, they may be 

 made of any size. In general they are used in grass lands ; the section of the drain being an acute-angled 

 triangle, and the materials being filled in, the smallest uppermost, nearly to the ground's surface. 



4289. The wood drain is of various kinds. A very sufficient and durable construction consists of poles 

 or young fir-trees stripped of their branches and laid in the bottom of the drain 

 lengthways. They are then covered with the branches and spray. Another form 

 is that of filling the drain with faggot- wood with some straw over. A variety of this 

 mode (fig. 648.) is formed by first setting in cross stakes to prevent the faggots from 

 sinking ; but they are of no great use, and often occasion such drains to fail sooner 

 than common faggot drains, by the greater vacuity they leave after the wood is rotten. 

 In some varieties of this drain the brushwood is first laid down alongside the drain, 

 and formed by willow or other ties into an endless cable of ten or twelve inches in 

 diameter, and then rolled in ; which is said to form an excellent drain with the least 

 quantity of materials, and to last a longer time than any of the modes above men. 

 tioned. Some cut the brushwood into lengths of three or four feet, and place them 

 in a sloping direction with the root end of the branch in the bottom of the drain ; 

 others throw in the branches at random, with little preparation, and cover them with 

 spray, straw, or rushes, and finally the surface soil 



4290. The spray drain is generally, like the gravel drain, of small size, and formed, 

 like it, with an acute-angled bottom. In general, the spray is trod firmly in ; though 

 in some cases it is previously formed into a cable, as in the brush-wood drain. 

 Drains of this sort are much in use in grass lands, and when the spray of larch wood, 

 heath, or ling can be got, they are of great durability. 

 4291. The straw drain, when reeds, rushes, and bean straw are used, is sometimes made like the spray 

 649 vy^////7" ^ V2>/MMWJMWW drain, by pressing the loose material down, 



'^^'^' Wmox forming a cable; but in general the 



"* straw is twisted into ropes as big as a man's 

 leg, by the aid of a machine (2562.) , and three 

 or more of these {fig. 649. a) laid in the 

 bottom of a triangular drain, with or with- 

 out the protection of three turves (6). 

 Where some sorts of moss, as Sphagnum 

 or Lycopbdium, can be got, these drains 

 are of unknown durability. Drains formed 

 in this manner, through tough and reten- 

 tive clays, will be found, in a short time 

 after the work is finished, to have formed 

 over the straw with which the drain was 

 filled, an arch of sufficient strength to sup. 

 port the incumbent weight of the soil and 

 the casual traffic of the field. In twelve or 

 eighteen months it may be observed that the straw, being of one uniform substance, is all rotted and carried 

 away, leaving a clear pipe through the land in every drain. The passage of the water into these drains 



648 



