DRAINING. 



189 



and subsoil. On the stiff soils, as I have described, I have got them done 

 by contract for about 2s. 6d. to 2s. 8d. per chain of twenty-two yards. 



Open drains in woods and plantations should be cleaned out at leaat 

 once in two years. The fallen leaves and the action of frost on the 

 sides of drains crumble the earth down and tend to choke them. 



SECTION 5. The Draining of Bogs. 



Bogs in Ireland, and mosses in England and Scotland, are those low- 

 lying flat peaty soils which are generally found in a wet state. 



The system, as practised on many estates in Scotland, for drying these 

 bogs will be learned on referring to fig. 70. If, as is usually the case, 



FIG. 70. 



j L 



L 



J 



the bog or moss is flat, large open ditches are cut parallel to each 

 other, at from fifty to sixty yards apart, as shown at b b b on the 

 sketch. These parallel drains are run into still larger open ditches 

 at either end of the bog desired to be dried, as at a a a. If the peat 

 is not too deep, the drains are cut to its. bottom, where clay is generally 

 found. A moss is always well dried and improved if the open ditches 

 can be got to the bottom of the peat ; where such is the case, the ditches 

 are allowed to remain open for a few months to allow the peat to dry 

 and subside, and then large pipes are put in the bottom and the open 

 cut filled in. 



"Where the peat is very deep and I have sometimes met with it twenty 

 feet deep there is great difficulty in getting it properly dried. In this 

 case the ditches are laid out as described, and cut about four feet M T ide 

 at the top, four feet deep, and sloped down on each side to about four- 

 teen inches wide at the bottom. After the peat has dried and subsided, 

 the ditches are then deepened until the peat on the surface becomes dry 

 enough for the purpose required. 



In cutting the drains, the peat taken from them is cut in the proper 



