590 



The Beginnings of Field Drainage. 



[Oct., 



this kind* and, among others, Arthur young regarded their 

 use with favour,! but in practice they seem to have shown 

 no advantage over hand iabouri and never came into general 

 use. They fall properly into the category of contrivances 

 " which have been invented but not found generally useful," as 

 the Farmer's Practical Instructor has it,§ although of late 

 years the essential principle has been revived in the Revolt 

 Excavator which has achieved a very considerable measure of 

 popularity in many countries. 



The multitude of devices and inventions attested to the 

 importance of drainage in the eyes of advanced agriculturists, 

 but such drainage as was done for a long time followed on 

 classical lines. It w^as not until the wave of improvements 

 that set in with the repeal of the Corn Laws and the issue of 

 public loans for drainage that modern methods became general. 

 In 1826 mole draining was still uncommon. "The mole 

 plough," it could be said, "is sometimes advantageousl}' used 

 in pleasure grounds, particularly such as have a declination of 

 surface. It is also used with a good team to drain wet turnip 

 land. "II The application of steam was necessary before mole 

 draining could become an easy and economical operation in 

 those districts where it was most wanted. Tile draining 

 remained hand work, and, although arduous, w^as not an over- 

 costly operation : many mistakes, however, were made and 

 large sums of money lost in laying tile drains too deep. Since 

 that time, about the middle of* last century, when, as Lord 

 Ernie says, "drainage became the popular improvement," 

 the practice has had its periods of eclipse and has risen and 

 fallen in popularity w^ith the prosperity of agriculture. Of 

 recent years the lack of skilled men, high wages and the 

 expense of tiles have combined to put a check on tile draining; 

 and its costliness has deterred farmers in many districts from 

 employing contractors for mole-draining, which, moreover, in 

 most cases requires to be combined with main drains of tile. 

 The introduction of the internal combustion engine has, how- 

 ever, introduced a new factor, and once again there are many 



■^Dossie, Memoirs of Agriculture, i, 79. 



t Farmer's Tour of England (1771), i, 61 : ii, 237, 483, 518#. 



% Ihid., iv, 473 f. This appears to be Young's final opinion : bis com- 

 ments upon actual working experience as contrasted witb a committee ex- 

 periment of one bour " are instructive. 



§P. 97. 



P Lawson, Farmer's Practical Instructor, p. 98. Cf. W. Lester, History of 

 British Tmplements (1804), pp. 186# ; A. Gray, PloughwrigMs Assistant (1808), 

 pp. 137 f\ Reports of H. of C. Selert Committee (1836), ii, 80, and iii, 6 ; 

 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, ix, 388 f, and N.S. (1849-51), p. 562. 



