96 



On the filling-in of the drains, he speaks of employing " good 

 green faggots, willow, alder, elm, thorne, pebbles or flint-stones 

 and file these into about fifteeen inches high, and take thy turf 

 and plant it aforesaid, the green soard downwards, being cut very 

 fit for the trench, so as it may joyne close as it is layd down and 

 then having covered it all over with earth, and made even as the 

 other ground, waite and expect a wonderful effect through the 

 blessing of God." 



Thus discoursed Capt. Blythe more than two centuries ago. 

 No subsecpient writer has presented the main argument for deep 

 and thorough draining with greater emphasis, distinctness, and 

 force, than old farmer Blythe. 



As long ago as when he wrote, Capt. Blythe recommended the 

 purchasing of the mills on streams with little fall, to enable the 

 farmers to get better falls to their drains ; and also to enable them 

 to drain lands that must otherwise remain forever valueless. 

 There are thousands of acres of good land in this Commonwealth, 

 made worthless by mill privileges, whose proprietors hold by deed, 

 the right of flowage forever. With regard to many of these 

 " water privileges" as they are called, they are of very little value 

 to the owners, and less to the communities where they are located. 

 But the right to flow is as tenaciously held to, and maintained as 

 if of great value to the owners and indispensable to the wants and 

 necessities of the towns, communities or neighborhoods through 

 which these dammed streams run or would, but for the legal 

 obstructions and interruptions. In many of these cases, the land 

 flowed and rendered worthless, with that which cannot conse- 

 quently be drained and is therefore of little value, would, if 

 thoroughly drained, yield an increase ten times as great as that 

 derived from the use of the water for miUing or mechanical pur- 

 poses, — besides getting rid of reptiles, poisonous malarias and 

 uncomely looking places. To notice these obstructions and diffi- 

 culties that lie in the way of effectual and thorough draining, 

 comes within the province of the essayist, but not the method of 

 their removal, only so far as recommended by Capt. Blythe, which, 

 as well known, is not always practicable nor possible, as many can 

 testify Avithin the limits of the Commonwealth. 



In the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society (vol. iv) is a 

 letter by Samuel Jonas, Esq., to Mr. Pusey, then the editor of 

 that Journal, stating, that thorough draining had been practised 

 by his family for a century. In describing the method pursued 

 by his father for fifty years, he says, " lie draws his ditches with- 

 in two yards of each other, digs the ditch out two spit, or from 

 eighteen to twenty inches deep, with the wide spade, and then ten 

 inches with the narrow spit, making the total depth of ditch from 

 twenty-eight to thirty inches. The soil is a close tenacious clay ; 



