Book III. 



FORMATION OF DRAINS. 



711 



thickness towards the centre. At fifteen inches deep it will cut a drain half an inch wide at the bottom, 

 and four inches wide at the top The wheel is so placed in a frame, that it may be loaded at pleasure, 

 and made to operate to a greater or less depth, according to the resistance made by the ground. It is 

 used in winter when the soil is soft ; and che wheel tracks are either immediately filled with straw ropes, 

 and lightly covered over with earth, or they are left to crack wider and deeper till the ensuing summer ; 

 after which the fissures are filled with ropes' of straw or of twisted twigs, and. lightly covered with the most 

 porous earth that is at hand. Thus, upon grass or ley lands, hollow drains, which answer extremely well, 

 are formed at a trifling expense. It is said that twelve acres may be fully gone over with this drainmg. 

 wheel in one day, so as to make cuts at all necessary distances. 



658 



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660 





4301. Surface-gutters made by cart-wheels have been used by Middleton, on meadows in Surrey. To 

 the felly of a common cart-wheel {Jig. 660. a), is added a piece of wood, the section of which is a truncated 

 triangle {b), and on this is fixed a piece of iron completing the triangle (c). The cart is loaded and driven 

 so i s the prepared wheel may run in the furrow ; or, if there are no furrows, both wheels may be prepared, 

 and the loaded cart drawn by two horses, may be led over the whole field, forming parallel gutters, four 

 or five feet distant. The advantage of this mode of surface draining is, that the herbage is only pressed 

 down, not destroyed, and rises up again in spring. The operation, for that reason, requires to be renewed 

 every winter. It certainly seems a barbarous mode, but it may have answered better than one who has 

 never seen it practised might be led to imagine. 



4302. In forming small drains, chiefly for retentive soils, the common plough has been used in many 

 places, and with some advantage. The method practised by Young, as described in The Annals of Agri- 

 culture, is this : When he has marked the drains in a field usually a rod asunder, he draws two furrows 

 with a common plough, leaving a baulk betwixt them about fifteen inches wide ; then with a strong 

 double-breasted plough, made on purpose, he splits that baulk, and leaves a clean furrow fourteen or 

 fifteen inches below the surface ; but where the depth of soil requires it, by a second ploughing he sinks 

 it to eighteen or twenty inches : it is then ready for the land-ditching spade, with which he digs, fifteen 

 inches deep, a drain as narrow as possible. But the method followed by some farmers, who do not possess 

 ploughs made on purpose for the work, is this With their common plough, drawn by four or five horses, 

 and usually stirring about four or five inches deep, they turn a double furrow, throwing the earth on each 

 side, and leaving a baulk in the middle. This baulk they raise by a second bout, in the same manner : 

 then they go in the open furrow twice, with their common double-breast plough, getting what depth 

 they can. After this they shovel out all the loose mould and inequalities to the breadth of about a foot ; 

 and thus having gained a clear open furrow, the depth varying according to the soil and ploughs, but 

 usually about eight or nine inches, they dig one spit with a draining spade sixteen inches deep, thus gain- 

 ing in the whole twenty-four or twenty-six inches. But as this depth is seldom suificient, when necessary 

 they throw out another, or even two other spits, which makes the whole depth from thirty to forty inches. 



4303. The best season for marking out and forming drains is the spring or beginning 

 of summer ; because then the land springs, being still in vigour, are more easily 

 discovered and traced than at a later period. When the ground is soft on the surface, it 

 is a useful precaution, after the line is indicated, to cart on the materials for filling before 

 digging the drain, as the weight of the carriages and horses is apt to press in the sides. 

 In the case of straw, turf, or earth drains, where the ground is of a firm texture, this 

 precaution does not apply. In filling drains, the earth should always be raised some- 

 what above the general surface, to make allowance for sinking. 



4304. The duration of drains must necessarily depend on the nature of the materials 

 with which they are filled, and in some measure on the quality of the soil, as certain 

 species of land have the power of preserving wood or other perishable materials much 

 longer than others. Stones last till accidental causes impede the flowing of the water, 

 and may last for ever. Wood perishes in certain periods, but it does not follow that the 

 drains should stop ; if the earth arches, the water will necessarily continue to flow, which 

 is found to be the case when wood, straw, and stubble are rotten and gone. Drains that 

 have been filled with bushes and straw, both which were rotten, have been observed to 

 run well forty years after making. 



4305. The expense of drains will of course vary with the soil, depth, price of labour, 

 &c. ; and these circumstances are so diflTerent in different districts, and even in diflferent 

 parishes, that it accounts for the various reports of writers on the subject. Those farmers 

 who are most solicitous to have the work well performed, contract with men only for 

 ^'ggj"g and leaving clean, in order that the filling may be done by men paid by the day, 



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