]SEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



PUBLISHKI) BY THOMAS \V. SHTPARU, IIOCJKR.-' BUILlJl.XGP, CONGRESS STKKKT, (KOURTH UOOi! i RUM STATE S'IRKEl.) 



'OL. 



I. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1823. 



No. 52. 



[From Elkiugton on Draining-.] 



N ACCOUNT OF THE MOST APPROVED MODE 

 OF DRAlMiNG LAND, kc. kc. 



In the year 1763 Mr. Elkinijton was left, by 

 lis father, the possession of a farm, called 

 incethorp, in the parish of St»ctton npon 

 ")insmore, aiiJ county of Warwick. The .soil 

 f this firm was very poor, and in many places 

 o extremely wet, tiiat it had been the cause of 

 ottino- several hundred sheep ; which was the 

 irst circumstance that determined him, if possi- 

 ble, to drain it; which he bcijan to do in 1764.* 

 The field in wlrrh he beg'an, was of a wet clay 

 oil, rendered almost a swamp (and, indeed, in 

 ;ome pl.-tces, a shaking bog,) hy the sprinjfs issu- 

 ng from a bank of gravel and sand adjoining it, 

 ind overflowing the surface of the flay. In 

 irder to drain this field, he cut a trench about 

 our or five feet deep, a little below the upper 

 ;ide of the bog, or where the wetness began to 

 make its ap|iearanco ; and after proceeding 

 with it so far in this direction, and at this depth, 

 he found it did not reach the main hodij of subja- 

 cent -cater, from whence the evil jiroceeded. 

 On discovering this, Jlr. Elkington was at a loss 

 how to proceed. .\t this time, while he was 

 considering what was next to be done, one of 

 his servants accidentally came to the field where 

 the drain was making, with an iron crow, or 

 bar, which the farmers in that county use iu 

 making holes for fixing their sheep hurdles. — 

 Mr. Elkington, having a suspicion that this 

 drain was not deep enough, and being desirous 

 of knowing what kind of strata lay under the 

 bottom of it, took the iron bar from the servant 

 and after having forced it^down about four feet 

 below the bottom of the trench, on pulling it 

 out, to his astonishment, a great quantity of wa- 

 ter burst up through the hole he had thus made, 

 and ran down the drain. This at once led him 

 to the knowledge of wetness being often pro- 

 duced by water condned farther below the sur- 

 face of the ground than it was possible for the 

 usual depth of drains to reach, and induced him 

 to think of applying an auger, as a proper in- 

 strument in such cases. 



Thus did the discovery originate from chance, 

 the parent of many other useful arts ! Fortunate 

 it is tor society, when such accidents happen to 

 persons who have sense and judgment to avail 

 themselves of the liints thus fortuitously given ! 

 In this manner, he not only accomplished the 

 drainage of this field, which soon rendered it 

 completely sound, but likewise all the other 

 wet ground on his farm. 



The success of this experiment soon extend- 

 ed Mr. Elkington's fame, in the knowledge ot 

 draining, from one part of the country to ano- 

 ther; and alter having drained several farms in 

 his neighborhood, with equal success, he at latl 

 came to be very generally employed ; has been 

 since, and is now (1797,) engaged in various 

 parts of the kingdom, which shall be more par- 

 ticularly noticed in the sequel. It is, indeed, 

 now, impossible for him to execute half the 



* After the drainage of this field was completed, Mr. 



Elkington's flock was never afterwards affected with 

 that disease. 



miploymcnt he has in hand, or to accept the 

 Humorous offers that are every day made to 

 lim. From his long practice and experience, 

 le is now so successful in the works which he 

 indertakes, and also in judging of the internal 

 itrata of the earth, and nature of springs, that 

 le can, with remarkable precision, judge where 

 o find water, and where to trace the course of 

 ij)rings that make no appearance on the surface 

 )f the ground. The rules on which he nets. 

 »ith regard to these discoveries, will be aftcr- 

 w^irjs oxplaineil, in treating of the nature of 

 wef grounds caused by springs. 



Lastly — Within these few years past, since 

 kis practice has been so widely extended, and 

 s) generally successful, he has drained, in vari- 

 lus parts of England, particularly in the middle 

 counties, many thousand acres of land; which, 

 Vom being originally of little or no value, is 

 low as productive as any in the kingdom, capa- 

 Ue of producing the most valuable kinds of 

 <?-ain, or of feeding the best and healthiest spe- 

 ces of slock. 



Some persons have erroneously entertained 

 at idea, that Mr. Elkington's sole skill lies in 

 ai'plyiiig the auger for the tapping of springs. 

 without attaching any merit to his inethod of 

 conducting the drains. The accidental circum- 

 ';t;uice above slated, gave him the first notion 

 of using an auger, and directed his attention to 

 the practice of draining; in the course of which 

 he his inade various u'^eful discoveries, which 

 are afterwards more fully explained. It will be 

 sulhcient here to remark, that draining, accord- 

 ing to his principles, depends upon three points, 

 1st. Upon finding out the main spring, or cause 

 of the -mischief; without which nothing elfec- 

 lual can be done. 2d. Upon taking the level 

 of that spring, and ascertaining its subterraneous 

 bearings ; a measure never practised by any, till 

 Mr. Elkington discovered the adva.ntage to be 

 derived from it ; for if the drain is cut a yard 

 beyond the line of the spring, you can never 

 reach the water that issues from it ; and, by as- 

 certaining that line, by means of levelling, you 

 can cut off the spring eflectually, and, conse- 

 quently, drain the land in the cheapest and most 

 eligible manner. The manner in which this is 

 done, will be afterwards described. And, 3dly, 

 By making use of the auger to reach or tap the 

 spring, when the depth of the drain is not suffi- 

 cient for that purpose. 



In regard to the use of the auger, though 

 there is every reason to believe Mr. Elkington 

 was led to employ that instrument from the ac- 

 cidental circumstance stated above, and did not 

 derive it from any other channel; yet there is 

 no doubt that others have hit upon the same 

 idea, without being indebted tor it to him. It 

 is said, that in attempting to discover mines by 

 means of an auger, springs have been tapped, 

 and the adjacent wet ground thereby drained, 

 either by letting the water down, or giving it 

 vent to the surface. The auger has also been 

 made use of in bringing water into wells, by 

 boring in the bottom of them, to save the ex- 

 pense of digging, especially in Italy, where it 

 is probable that the practice is very ancient. 

 But that it has been used in draining land, before 



Mr. EUdngton made this discovery, no one has 

 -..ventured to assf, I. 



In Di: Nugont's Travels through Germany, 

 printed anno 1 768, there is an account of a 

 mode of drair'ng land, on principles, in some 

 respects, of a similar nature ; not, indeed, by 

 the use of the auger, but by making pits ; and 

 in a publication by Dr. .lames Anderson, enti- 

 tled, " Essays on Agriculture & Rural Affairs," 

 printed anno 17:t7, after describing a mode o£ 

 tap[)ing, the doctor had adopted, by sinking 

 small pits, h« adds, " I have often imagined 

 that the expense of digging these pits might he 

 saved, by bonag a hole through this solid stra- 

 tum of clay, with a wimble made on purpose ; 

 but as I have never experienced this, 1 cannot 

 say whether it would answer the desired end 

 exactly." 



Mr. Elkington, however, made use of the 

 auger prior to tie date of these publications, or 

 to any hint he could possibly derive from any 

 publication in the English language; though it 

 is probable that, in so far as regarded tapping 

 of springs for nells, the use of the auger was 

 well known in some parts of Italy. Buflon 

 states, " that, in the city of Modena, and four 

 miles round, whatever part is dug, when we 

 reach the depth of sixty-three feet, and bore 

 five feet deeper with an auger, the water 

 springs out with such force, that the well is 

 filled in a very short space of time. This wa- 

 ter flows continually, and neither diminishes 

 nor increases by the rain or drought." Men- 

 tioning the different strata that are to be met 



with to this Jeiith. lie adds 



The successive 



beds of fennv or marshy earth and chalk, are 

 always found in the same order, wherever we 

 dig ; and very often the auger meets with large 

 trunks of trees, which it bores through, but 

 which give great trouble to the workmen ; 

 bones, coals, flint, and pieces of iron, are alec 

 found." — Buffoii's A'at. Historij. 



On the principles or Mr. Elkington's mode 

 OF DBAiNiNo.— It is remarkable, that the princi- 

 ples on which the draining of lands depends, 

 being so great a desideratum in agriculture, 

 should have been so little known or attended 

 to ; or that the practice of it, according to theee 

 obvious principles, should have been so much 

 confined, while improvements in the other 

 branches of husbandry have been carried al- 

 most to the highest possible perfection. 



However intricate or abstruse it may hith- 

 erto have been considered, even by those who 

 were otherwise well informed in the theory of 

 agriculture, of which it forms the most impor- 

 tant branch ; yet it will appeal*, from the fol- 

 lowing observations, to be founded on circum- 

 stances the most plain and rational, and which, 

 when reduced to practice, produce those effects 

 which a simple knowledge of the cause natur- 

 ally points out. 



Wetness in land proceeds from two causes, 

 as different in themselves as the effects which 

 they produce. 



It proceeds either from rain water stagnant 

 on the surface, or from the water of springs 

 issuing over, or confined under it. On clay 

 soils, "that Lave no natural descent, wetness is 



