l»^Sf2B ^^mSKIMi 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



^ 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (AoK.caLTun.. Wahchoubk.) 



L. A.V1U.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 5, 1840. 



CNO. 31. 



AGRICULTURAL. 



i'om the Journal of the English Agricultural Society. 



THE DEANSTON FREQUENT DRAIN 

 SYSTEM, 



iistinguished from and compared with the Fur- 

 )«• Draining and Deep Ploughing oj the Mid- 

 md Counties of England. By the Right Hon. 

 ir James Graham. 



iR — A recent inquiry addressed to me by Lord 

 icer, relative to the " Deanston frequent Drain 

 em," induces me to believe that I may render 

 ! service to agriculture, if I am so fortunate as 

 rect the attention of your readers to this im- 

 mt subject at this particular time, 

 be great object of our quarterly publication is, 

 conceive, the establishment of an authentic re. 



of practical experiments ; and by multiplying 



and proofs of this description agriculture will 

 eated as a science, and will advance, and the 

 sactions of our Society will become the depos- 



of useful information, verified by the name and 

 duress of the several correspondents, 

 r Smith, of Deanston, in the county of Perth, 

 ;.\arained as a witness before the Agricultural 

 nittee in 183G. He gave a detailed account 

 i sv.^ter.-, of draining, which very much resci- ^ 

 the furrow-draining of the midland counties of j 

 ind, e.xcept that at Deanston, stone being on 

 round, the drains are made with stones and 

 'ith tiles ; and at Deanston the cover of the 



is 23 inches below the surface ; whereas in 

 •stershire and Northamptonshire the top of the 

 1 the furrow is not so deeply laid. Mr Smith, 



his land is eftectually drained, lays it down 

 ut a furrow ; in the midland counties the fur- 

 3 carefully preserved. 



■ Smith, after draining, for the first rotation at 

 does not bring to the surface any of the sub- 

 but by a plougli of his own invention, which 

 'sa common plough turning up the surface, he 

 rates the subsoil to the depth of 20 inches, 

 reaks and pulverizes the lower crust without 

 ing it to the top. 'i his subsoil plough, such 



■ Smith has used, is a heavy implement, re- 

 g the draught of four, six or eight horses, ac- 

 ig to the tenacity and strength of the substra- 



Smith contends that the subsoil, by beinif 

 i, becomes pervious both to air and moisture ; 

 le efficacy of the drains is thus perfected and 

 luated ; and that the character of the subsoil 

 v.'hen relieved from superfliious moisture, and 

 ,0 atmospheric influence, is entirely changed; 



becomes mellow and friable ; and after°one 

 )n, or a lapse of five years, that it maybe 

 ht to the top, by deep ploughing, with safety 

 ropriety, and be mixed with the surface-soil 

 at advantage. 



Ihe midland counties of England, deep plough- 

 'ter furrow-draining has been the constant 

 ce; but the use of six horses in a subsoil 

 1 is a novelty in Scotland. In England a ! 



portion of the subsoil is raised at once to the top : 

 I at Deanston the subsoil, though broken, is not so 

 raised; and here t!ie important question arises, 

 When land is effectually underdrained, which is 

 tJie right treatment of the subsoil.' Will you 

 bring a portion of it immediately to the surface by 

 deep ploughing, or will you, with Mr Smith, delay 

 tills operation for some years, until the subsoil shall 

 have been mellowed, after having been broken and 

 penetrated by the atmosphere ? 



The advantages of the wide circulation of agri- 

 cultural knowledge, of the multiplication of e.xperi- 

 ments, and of the interchange both of theory and 

 practice between Scotland and England, will here 

 develope themselves in the clearest light. Furrow- 

 draining and deep ploughing have been practised 

 in England for half a century; yet the introduction 

 of an analogous system into Scotland is regarded 

 almost as a discovery. But in Scotland itself the 

 greatest difference of opinion prevails on the ques- 

 tion of turning up or only moving the subsoil after 

 draining. Some of the greatest authorities in East 

 Lothian differ from Mr Smith, and lean to the 

 English practice. In the fii-st furrow for green 

 crop after draining, by two ploughs following each 

 other, which is equivalent to trench-ploughing, they 

 go down to the depth of 12 or 14 inches" and bring 

 up a certain quantity of virgin soil. 



It is obvious that this difference of practice in 

 the treatment of the subsoil involves a most impor- 

 tant question, which can only be solved by accu- 

 rate and multiplied experiments. 'Jhe outlay of 

 capital, which is common to both plans, consists in 

 effectual underdraining; and no subsequent man- 

 agement, no fresh application of capitnl, can be of 

 any avail, unless, on retentive soils or ;i substratum 

 of clay, the water be quickly carried off. This I 

 take to bean axiom undisputed in agriculture: but 

 after effectual draining, when the outlay has been 

 incurred, the mode of treating the subsoil affects 

 only production, and does not involve expenditure ; 

 and greater produce ivithout additional outlay is 

 the grand object of the practical farmer. 



We have seen that in draining, Mr Smith uses 

 stones, because he has them on the spot. Tiles 

 are substituted in the midland counties of England 

 because stones cannot be obtained easily, anil be- 

 cause in the clay districts tiles are cheaply and 

 easily manufactured. 



It has always appeared to me that skill in;- agri- 

 culture does not so much consist in the discovery 

 of principles of universal application, as in the a- 

 daptation of acknowledged principles to local cir- 

 cumstances. 



The peculiarities of soil and climate, what na- 

 ture gives or nature withholds in each particular 

 district, must be carefully considered and judicious- 

 ly investigated, before any given experiment, though 

 locally successful, can be pronounced to be gene- 

 rally useful or universally applicable. The neo-- 

 lect of this consideration has brought agricultural 

 experiments into disrepute, on account of the heavy 

 losses which they have occasioned. If the record 

 now opened in these Transactions be faithfully 

 kept, this evil will be averted; for I hope that each 



experiment detailed will be authenticated by the 

 name of the party who makes it, and that every lo- 

 cal circumstance of a peculiar character will be 

 carefully particularised. 



My attentioif having been thus directed to the 

 various treatment of subsoils after under-draining, I 

 tried an experiment in the year 1838, on a field of 

 about 8 acres of the poorest and wettest land. The 

 surface-soil is about 5 inches deep, of black earth 

 of a peaty quality: the subsoil is a weeping reten- 

 tive clay ; with sand and rusty gravel intermixed. 

 This clay goes down to the bottom of the drains, 

 which are of tile, laid 30 inches deep, in every fur- 

 row.* This field is in a farm lately taken into my 

 own hands, and was rented by the out-going tenant 

 at 4s. 6d. an acre. It was in pasture of the coar- 

 sest description, overrun with rushes and other 

 aquatic plants. 



After draining, on one-half of this field I used 

 Mr Smith's subsoil plough ; on the other half I 

 trench-ploughed to the depth of 10 inches by two 

 ploughs following in succession: in the first part 

 not mixing with the surface any of the subsoil ; in 

 the last part conmiingling the surface and the sub- 

 soil in nearly equal proportions. The whole field 

 was heavily but equally manured and planted with 

 potatoes; and though the potato crop, even on good 

 land, in this neighborhood, was below an average, 

 yet the crop in this field exceeded an average, and 

 yielded abotit twelve tons per acre, '''ho field is 

 equally drained in every part. I filled up the tile 

 drains with porous materials, such as stones, moor- 

 turf reversed, and tops .of thinnings of young plan- 

 tations, to the e.xclusion of the retentive clay which 

 held the wattr. The crop of potatoes was so equal 

 throughout the field, that I am unable to pronounce 

 positively which part was the best ; but I am in- 

 clined to give the preference to that portion where 

 Mr Smith's subsoil-plough was used. Since the 

 potatoes were taken up, the land has not been 

 ploughed or ridged up, but remains perfectly flat ; 

 and I observe, where Mr Smith's subsoil plough 

 was used, that no water whatever, notwithstanding 

 the wetness of the season, has stood upon the land ; 

 where trench-ploughing was adopted, and a portion 

 of the clay brought to the surface, after heavy falls 

 of rain the water has stood for a time in hollow 

 places; and here the land, in consequence, would 

 seem to be rather soured. The field will be sown 

 out this spring with oats and grass-seeds, and I 

 shall watch with anxiety the future effect of the 

 past different treatment. 



In the mean time I have relet the farm: the out- 

 lay in draining and extra ploughing cost me£G ISs. 

 4(/. an acre ;t but the field in question, which was 



•The size of tile tiles used ivas 6 inches for the main 

 drains, and 3 inches for the commnn drains. The tile 

 drains wt.re laid 10 yards apart. 



(70 roods of draining, culting, laying the tilus 



ami upfillingat4d. per rood, 13 4 



150tl tiles per acre, al 308. per thousand 2 5 



Carriage of do. (is. do. 9 



00. of turf, 4'C., for covering the tiles, 70 



