264 



DRAINING 



Sect. XI. i. S. 



Another method of draining moift meadows has been by making 

 or opening drains almoft annually by a large plough with two con- 

 verging coulters, and other adapted parts, for the purpofe of cutting 

 both the fides of a ditch at the fame time, and turning out the inter- 

 vening turf and foil. Thefe large ploughs have been kept in fome 

 -pariflies, and drawn over moid commons by twelve or twenty horfes, 

 to form parallel ditches. 



• Mr. Adam Scott has invented for the fame purpofe what he terms 

 a mole-plough, which confifts of a coulter fifteen inches long, and 

 two and a half wide, to cut the fward ; and behind this an horizontal 

 coneof caft iron twenty inches long, and two and a half diameter at 

 the bafe, to the middle of which is fixed an upright bar two feet lono;, 



d three inches and a half broad, w 



fharp ed 



£> 



As th 



ft 



drawn along fix or eight inches beneath the turf in moift 



■lands, either in the fpring or autumai, in many parallel lines, the 

 water for a confiderable time is conveyed away, and no injury done 

 to the furface ; which thus feems to be an ufeful machine, and may 



be well managed, I am informed, by fix or eight horfi 



In 



very 



moift lands, or at very moift feafons, if more horfes be ufeJ, their feet 

 will not fink fo deep into the turf, as each horfe will draw lefs ; or 

 a contrivance of adding broader fhoes of wood to the horfes like the 

 fnow-fhoes of higher latitudes, might anfwer this purpofe. See Tran- 



faa. of Society of Arts, Vol. XV. 



8. There are neverthelefs fome fituations, where the water is con- 



yed beneath the firft ftratum 



thin bed of clay 



fand-ftone beneath it ; 



In thefe fituations by boring many auger-hol 



over a porui 

 as in the grotto at Lichfield above defcribed 



by finking well 



& 



h the ftratum of clay th 



penetrate the fand-fto 



beneath it ; and either pafs away by the porofity of this kind of ftone, 

 or by the cracks or joints which are always found in it ; of which 

 the horizontal joints were formed at the time of the produ6iion or 

 accumulation of the fand beneath the fea, which was then formed in 



horizontal 



