OF EARTH. 



41 



laid apart, and oh that throw your other mould, which, being cast up 

 in heaps for some time, will be much improved with spreading ; lastly, 

 sow it over with hay-seeds \ 



But the cure is yet easier, if the land lie considerably sloping ; and if it 

 happen to be a planted ground, then cut your trench deeper than the 

 roots of your trees, and apply the foresaid rubbish to intercept the 

 moisture. About the latter end of October, trench the ground all over 

 for near a foot and a half in depth, and when you are come within three 

 or four feet of the stem, cut off all the larger roots sloping inwards, spa- 

 ring only the fibres, and such of them as you find tender, and about as 

 big as your finger : leaving also the more perpendicular to keep the tree 

 steady. This done, cast in some rubbish of brick-bats, limestone, (not 

 chalk,) and other materials, that the mould may lie easily about them, and 

 with a mixture of good earth, plenty of rotten stubble or other soil, ap- 

 ply it near the root, and fill your trench with the rest ; and if your ground 

 require it, (as being too cold it commonly does,) add to your compost 

 the dung of sheep, pigeons, or poultry, very well consumed ; and because 

 moss is oftener caused by starving and wet grounds, than by hot and over 

 dry, (for both produce it,) the cure is likewise to be effected by abla- 

 queation, and baring the roots as above ; and for the latter, by a mix- 

 ture of loam, with the scouring of ponds or ditch earth, which of itself 

 is the most excellent manure, and the planting your trees at greater inter- 

 vals, for admission of air and sun ; since the scraping of it off, which may 

 also be done in wet weather, is but temporary, and if nothing else be per- 

 formed, it will be sure to grow again. And here upon observation how 

 men carbonade and cut so many rills and narrow trenches, irregularly 

 crossing one another, to drain their meadows and lower grounds, which 

 take not up a little part of the turf, I should rather recommend the cut- 

 ting of a large trench through the whole length of the pan and bottom 



^ A few years ago, Mr. Elkington obtained a bounty from parliament for making public 

 Ins mode of draining land ; and in order that the information should be properly warranted, 

 the Board of Agriculture sent Mr. Johnstone down to visit the principal drainings that Mr. 

 Elkington was then making. This gentleman, in the most satisfactory manner, has, in a 

 quarto volume, described Mr. Elkington's mode of draining, of which the principal merit 

 seems to consist in tapping the drains with an auger, in cases where the water lies lower 

 than the drain. 



Vohww 11. 3 L 



