650 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE, 
milking Ute a a Sete fen the perma- 
nent injury in i es done to the lungs. 
v aLi rh he weather 
me in the 
Potato disease, which appears to be gen dally more 
ania this year than it has been for many 
In our remarks last week on the subject of Land 
water, to its powers as a solvent, 
Sons to are the three shataateicehion on which its 
fertilising siete and its mischievous influence 
both depe n the cases of well and ill-drain 
land venpiaibed _Our attention has been directed 
to the three wa water soil 
(i) by falling on the surface y 
tke subsoil under pressure from vin above 
the ere akitii of the soil itself on water 
lodged i the subsoil. The three ways in panier 
water faries from the soil have ag a 
git to 
Tun o 
which, especially in wet ooh eva kipnik teb from the 
surface ; we know the benefits received by k perco- 
wnwards through ma soil well- 
cor a ier 
ase moist though full of air, but with all its parts 
elung together and excluding air, presenting reel 
fore to o thie action of e > atmosphere ot 
ace is repre y th 
anichcion of all the aati of whi 
_posed,- but merely so much surfac 
the eye. Such lands are wet in wi 
in summer, for it is on the quantity "of this active 
surface within the soil that its absorbent powers on 
the moisture in the air depen 
tus now consider the artificial means by which 
water may be induced to percolate through the 
‘ace a is visible to 
burnt 
gulari 
which the water distributes itself w within t 
after its en 
correspond wit 
> ~~ distribution of 
drains, i en gad jus o far as the under 
structure of the land Fat with that regular 
distribution of the water within hi 
regulari 
n 
of the district 5 
w 
ihe depth of drains as limited by the outfall 
course a matter to which all subsequen 
rations m In 
ipewe Pe ws rm the 
: n from its outfall 
i Ade es niais aes sar os — 
cases e opera 
~ | que 
be of fertility Stay ?—and we 
ch it is com- | ¢ 
d B 
determined b 
e 
| 
ji 
— | raised 
within 
drainage 
toa adie ect property ty of the soil to which we are 
1iof that 
tion on a higher district, when that happens to be 
d of the la 
the feeding ground of t nd below it, so that |o 
this lower. land, mes the removal of this ccna 
from the land abov may not require so expens 
sy ter Ma drainage as i would had it been. gikt 
take But this is only an exceptional inter 
pene wiih the ended rule which, as we have 
said, eh that we commence our drainage on 
the to west le 
lay our drains at w choose, the 
1estion arises, what is the depth Which the inte- 
have no hesitation 
ericul- 
eneral experience of a 
diel as to land a da from 2 to 3 feet, si i from | an 
ed} 8 to 4 fe 
et deep respectively, has pro oved the supe- 
pets ie ot Hse greater depth. Our tillage oat 
w em interfere with drains laid so 
saat ae the smallest depth here ‘ikstied, ata 
Perea except perhaps in een lands—and there 
they are not justifiable— ver hear now 
et Pg laid so near the sur eike A as D4 and 30 inches. 
© 
med ; | The roots of poa would use a greater depth if it 
pi accessi 
would indtsed do well H think of the mass 
of KEA through which you can get rain-water to 
percolate, not as so many ‘tele deep of soil, but 
as so many tons weight or cubic yards of material, 
which by seisivition an 
te and from 
ving re ‘aes 
ave 
nd rain-water you have to 
by rain-water and by |t 
have to extract and a the 
conferred. No dou 
inage does not justify 
and 3, 
5i. “respectively per acre, must 
that the mass of soil actually drained 
4 
o 
palar an 
by the 
pth 
«Dear? pou, 
ugh it, amounts to proba aby a at lens 
and 4200 tons in the several ¢ : 
ke 
ooking upon drainage, therefore, as ne means 
shvende ering fertile not so much a surface as a mass 
of soil, it is plain that the deeper and more costly 
dtainage y acre may be the cheaper of the two. 
scorn x de o oÈ on s to some extent 
attraction 
in the Be Pong for, in 
of ling 
on it yw at once travel through it downwards, it is 
plain the whole mass of soil of that depth 
which it is thus desired to la 
above the 
my qu noted the proceedings at 
armers’ Club some years 
largely in 
declared with energy that give him 
rds o soil, and he eared 
of the Hellespont ran 
=] 
e arguments 
for the dee that was being advoca 
g aa that it is because, owi 
that though by drains cut 4 feet deep in such clays 
we should draw off water from them at that level, the 
earth above that level would remain we up to 
such a height as a attraction lifts it; and |i 
it is only above the level to which it is thus lifted 
that the land can be said to be dry. It 
ALL DRAINED because every addition by 
rain to the adagi in dyp soil, rR to the height 
which i capillary 
attraction, forces Š corre spending g qu antity out 
lo e original oteki is regained, so that 
circulation of the water is thus effected ‘alah 
wn 
s$, 
a 
T 
ca 
upposing, Tih, aa the a re us to | th 
depth 
of | every particle, and not wash me 
eracks and fissures ; 
en oui to fore 
r | obvious relationship of cap 
ean be | be 
standing that the 
or circulation 
object of drain 
ow, the fore of c 
soil is greater in finely dial 
coarse sand 
earth is wet: a 
in we have seen 
t n 007 
that cirenlstion $e of w zig om at 
dr ee has to effect depends, 
ny one who has read on the s 
drainage hank had his attention ¢ 
extension of the network 
the speculation is, we believe, en: 
If water found its wa 
o the drains 
water passing thro ugh our ‘ol 
in its 
cracks it ‘il i pass through it out of 
These remarks upon capillary | 
general enough. We cannot g | 
sive of the actual on 
cap: 
tains it; but it is : plain that ir» 
attraction i is rora asin clays, tl 
ill hay hi and drains, th 
ears ye to this rE of the maie 
deepest. In practice of course we 
deep in sands as in clare, 
have a greater dept h of drained 
than in the fate Our ric 
ovements of 
the soil to the m 
i e in hi 
; e 
calculated to excite surprise, 
neon 2 cance of a a 
sure 0 
through the air in 
the ere Fair yrs 
i may be posed that 
s dried thro tae and the 
rae must itself find its 
