206 APPENDIX. [March;. 



and^the result has fully justified every anticipation of benefit. It is 

 applicable to all soils not rocky which have not an absolutely porous 

 sub-soil, the great object being, that the sub-soil should be rendered 

 artificially porous, and that all rain-water should sink on the spot on 

 which it falls, and that no running of water should take place on the 

 surface. 



There was, at the outset, considerable difficulty in having the work 

 executed ; it was arduous, and those engaged in the superintendence 

 and labor were adverse, because they did not see the principles of the 

 system, or the advantages which were likely to arise. A little encour- 

 agement and a distinct intimation that there must be perseverance, 

 overcame every difficulty. This observation applies to the sub-soil 

 ploughing, while some difficulty attached to the perfect execution of the 

 drains, in having them made of the full depth of 30 inches, and filled 

 neither too much nor too little, and with all due care in all particulars 

 which must be attended to to secure permanence in the effiscts. I have 

 invariably made the drains twelve feet apart, in order to secure the 

 effect being complete; being much impressed with the folly of spending 

 a considerable sam per acre in the operation, and still failing to obtain 

 what I may term perfection in the system. I have also used broken 

 stones as the material when they could be obtained within such a dis- 

 tance as to prevent the expense of cartage being excessive ; in other 

 cases I have used tiles, with a layer of three or four inches of stones or 

 gravel over them. When stones alone were used, the drains have been 

 uniformly thirty inches deep, leaving 16 inches for the operation of the 

 plough and sub-soil plough ; where tiles have been used, the depth has 

 been about 24 inches, the same depth for the ploughs being left as in 

 the other cases. A crop of oats has generally been taken after the 

 drains have been executed, and the land has been comparatively dry ; 

 but even the visible effect has been very imperfect until the sub-soil 

 plough has been applied. By means of this plough the whole obdurate 

 undercrust of the soil has been broken up, and all water has instantly 

 escaped, and, after six or eight months of the alternations of heat and 

 cold, wet and dry, a most remarkable change has appeared in the con- 

 dition of the soil ; what was before obdurate and retentive has become 

 comparatively mellow and friable, and the longer the time since the 

 operation has been performed, the greater has been the perceptible 

 progressive effect. The operation of the sub-soil plough has produced 

 cracks and crevices and interstices to the depth of 16 inches; through 

 these the rain passes off with rapidity, and these crevices are imme- 



