SPRING. 



sb«ve it, where boring oppofite to them has not that efFeft. 

 The bottom of thefe mull be higher than the level of that 

 of the open cut, to preyent any of the water in it from 

 flowing back into them. In thefe the auger muft alfo be 

 ufed to tap the fprings, if the depth of this level does not 

 reach the ilratum containing the water. There will be no 

 occafion for any crofs-drains betwixt the open cut and 

 the river, as all the water that is intercepted will be car- 

 ried along the bottom of the bank, and emptied into the 

 river at a lower level, unlefs the ground be of fuch extent 

 that it may be divided by crofs-ditches into feparate in- 

 clofures. The open drain along the upper fide will ferve 

 as a divifion betwixt the meadow and higher ground. 



This fort of land, from its peculiar fituation, and the 

 nature of the foil, is mollly well adapted to the purpofe of 

 being watered after it has undergone proper drainage. 



In cafes where a miU-lcad, or other fimilar artificial runt 

 of water pafs through land, there are many valuable trafts 

 whicli are not unfrequently confidered as imprafticable in 

 •Jicir drainage. Alfo where they glide along the fides of 

 hem to which the falls incline. From the low fituation of 

 the ground in fuch circumltances, and the height of the 

 water in the leads or runs, there is no fall for difcharging 

 into them the water of any fuch drains as may be cut to the 

 necelfary depth. The only expedient for the remedying 

 of this difficulty is fuppofed to be the following, which has 

 been had recourfe to in different inftances, where no otiier 

 mode was prafticable, witli the molt complete fuccefs. In 

 all fuch cales, the firft thing is to begin, it is faid, at the 

 river or natural ftream, and bring up a cut to the lead or 

 run at the point where the outlet of the upper drain is to 

 crofs it. This cut mull be as deep as the river will permit, 

 or the drains above require. A cut mult then be made 

 acrofs the lead or run to the fame depth, and a flrong 

 wooden trough, or fquare box, for which larch wood is the 

 bell, made of a fufficient fize to admit the water collefted 

 above to pafs through it, be placed acrofs it. The length 

 of thi« trough mull be fevcral feet on each fide more than 

 the width of the lead or run, and mull be fecured by ftakes 

 firmly driven down into the ground on each fide, with crofs- 

 bars or pieces above, to hold it fecurely down. The fpace 

 between the top of it and the bottom of the lead or run, 

 mult be well filled with clay clofely beat or rammed down. 

 After this, the cut to the higher fide of the ground may be 

 made as deep as the level of the trough will allow, and con- 

 tinued along the upper fide of the wet land, fo as to cut off 

 the fprings that rife in that quarter. This may either be a 

 covered or open drain, as circumllances may require. From 

 the trough, alfo, an open cut (hould be made parallel to, 

 and along the back of, the lead or run, to receive the fur- 

 face-water from the ground above, and from the divifion 

 ditches that may be necefiary, if the ground be of great 

 extent. The earth from this cut Ihould be laid between 

 )t and the lead or run, to ftrengthen and fecure the bank. 

 In like manner, an open cut may be necelfary along the 

 other fide of the lead or run, to receive the water that may 

 ooze from it, and injure the ground between that and the 

 river ; and this ground, if extenfive, may likewife be divided 

 by crofs-ditches, or luch as ferve the double purpofe of 

 fences, on the fides of inclofures, and drains. The crols 

 or divifion ditches, in the upper part of the ground, Ihould 

 not join the upper drain, but a fmall fpace be left uncut, to 

 prevent any connedtion between the fpring-watcr in the 

 upper drain, efpecially when it is covered, and that which 

 is coUefted in the crofs open ditches ; and which may like- 

 wife ferve as a palFage from one divifion of the field to 

 another. The parte of the land between the divifios 



ditches are moftly well calculated for watering', where' 

 there is a full command and fupply of water from the leads 

 or runs. 



Something of this manner of <'.rainage has fucceeded, it 

 is faid, in a cafe of land lying along the fide of a river, 

 below gently rifing ground, where the wetnefs was com- 

 monly believed to be owing to a mill-lead penning up the 

 water above the level of the low meadow-land ; after at- 

 tempts to drain it, on the fuppofition of the wetnefs origi- 

 nating from fprings rifing in the higher grounds, by cutting 

 them off by means of a trench, had completely failed. 

 This was lately done at Petworth by lord Egremont, ac- 

 cording to the writer of the " Corredled Account of the 

 State of Agriculture in the County of Sullex." In thit 

 cafe, the water in the river was higher than the meadow- 

 land to be drained ; but there was an old ditch for carrying 

 the water from the low meadow-land into the river, at fuch 

 times as when it was low. This ditch was intended to be 

 Hopped up in cafe of the fuccefs of the above mode of 

 drainage, as the trench-drain would, it was thought, ferve 

 the purpofe. But on the drain or trench being cut, the efFeft 

 was, that when the ditch was Hopped up, the low meadow- 

 land was flooded by the fprings, as the drain did not anfwer 

 the purpofe of taking away the water ; and when the ditch 

 was open, the fame meadow-land was flooded by the river. 

 The banking of the river out at the ditch, and the building 

 of a wind-pump to render the ditch dry, were afterwardi 

 advifed as the only means to be taken for accomplifhing 

 the drainage. 



A difFerent method, of fomewhat the above kind, was, 

 however, had recourfe to with complete fuccefs. Upon 

 the levels of the meadow-land, on each fide of the river, 

 having been taken, it was found that the meadow-ground 

 on the oppofite fide was beneath the level of the meadow- 

 land which required to be drained, and confequently that 

 the drainage of it could be cfFefted by a trunk-drain laid 

 acrofs the bed of the river ; a wooden pipe was, of courfe, 

 laid at the bottom, to receive and convey the water of the 

 ditch, and which was carried on forward by an open drain 

 being cut fo as to pafs through the other meadow-land, 

 on the oppofite fide of the river, which was alfo drained by 

 the cut thus made, quite up to the bridge under which it 

 paffes, clofe to the turnpike gate, fixed there by means of 

 a pipe, and which empties itfelf into the river at the mill- 

 head. This mode of drainage has anfwered, it is faid, moft 

 efFedtually, fo that the water in the old ditch now Hands 

 always a foot below the furfacc of the meadow-land which 

 was wet ; and more than one hundred acres of contiguous 

 meadow-ground have been highly improved by the new 

 drains which have been thus made : much of it, which was 

 a mere bog or fwamp before this drainage of it was com- 

 pleted, is now, it is faid, converted into a fine water- 

 meadow, and worth full tlirce pounds tlie acre. Their 

 grounds are, it is remarked, at any time capable of being 

 flowed by means of lluiccs made througli the towing- 

 path, which adts as an enbankmcnt ; and in the fummer 

 fealon, if the river be too low, by frelh ll reams which How 

 into it from the upper grounds ; .iiid belidos, tlic water can at 

 pleafiire be drawn olF by drains into the lower lovel, below 

 the locks, fometimcs, when particular circumllances render 

 it necellary, by llie means ot culverts c.irried acrofs the 

 bottom of the river. This interelling manner of frceiii* 

 fuch law dammed up meadow-lands from the clFedls of 

 the water lo kept up in tliem, may be applicable in many 

 other cafes and lituations of a fimilar nature. 



Drainage in boggy and other wet GroiinJ, by perforating 



through a retttitiir tv <; porous Sub Jlralum. — There it a fort of 



4 I 2 hoggy 



