REMARKS ON DRAINING. 



121 



trees of bad sorts. In 1842 he remarked that the orchard at 

 Norton Heath had proceeded from bad to worse. In August, 

 1842, he writes, " I have just returned from visiting my orchard, 

 with, I am sorry to say, little or no hopes in favour of its con- 

 tinued existence. The five Bigarreau cherry-trees, three of which 

 were blossoming well, and two but feebly, when I left them at 

 blossoming time, I found dead on the 2nd of July. There was 

 about the same proportion of blossoms on the eleven May Duke 

 cherry-trees, three trees only of which I found alive, and those 

 in a sickly state." When some twelve or fifteen pear and cherry 

 trees were rooted up, the holes not filled up were found some 

 time after filled with water to the brim. Subsequent observations 

 led to the idea of draining, as will appear from the following 

 extract: — " In remarking that the highest ground is the N.E. 

 corner, and the lowest the S.E., to which the fall is between three 

 and five feet; that the bulk of the fruit comes from near the sides 

 of the moat, or the southern boundary-ditch, and that the three 

 rows next, that ditch are the three most healthy rows in the 

 orchard ; and that half the orchard on the north, taken in a line 

 diagonally from N.W. to S.E., does not produce above a tenth of 

 the fruit, though protected on the two cold sides by the fir-trees, 

 some useful thought may surely be gained. I have observed 

 that the disposition to be in a bad state, before the death of the 

 Bigarreaus, was almost entirely confined to that north half. My 

 mind seems to be made up, that the want of a thorough draining, 

 as water stands in many places, is a main cause of decay and 

 death. In many parts, where the trees had died, water stood all 

 the winter of 1841-2 in holes dug only a foot deep ; I have it, 

 therefore, in contemplation to tile-drain the whole orchard ; my 

 speculation being, that should this not resuscitate the orchard, 

 the land, if reconverted into a field or meadow, will be valuable 

 in proportion to the expense incurred, inasmuch as my farmer 

 says, if he were to take the land into cultivation he would have 

 to encounter a great expense in draining, although his draining, 

 it is true, would not be with what I am told are everlasting tiles, 

 but with the old wood draining, 22 or only 20 inches deep, which, 

 he says, would last ten years, to a much better purpose than the 

 deeper tile-drain." 



Faggot-drains are not, I think, to be despised if they work 

 well for ten years ; and if they last that time at 20 inches 

 deep, they would certainly last much longer at a greater and 

 more preferable depth. However, in the orchard in question 

 3000 feet of draining-tiles were laid, 3 feet deep, in parallel lines 

 48 feet apart, in the spring of 1843 ; and in the autumn of the 

 same year 3000 feet of drain-pipes, 1^-inch bore, were laid at 

 30 inches deep, so that the drains were then only 24 feet apart. 



vol. v. k 



