44 



A DISCOURSE 



For «art]i which is too light, there is nothing better than pond-miid, 

 after a winter has passed over it. 



Earth over rank (for there be some too fat as well as too lean) sand and 

 ashes will take down, but still liav.e regard to what you design to plant 



spade, takes out the turf, or sods, eighteen inches wide, (the drains being before marked 

 out,) and lays them carefully on one side; the second man, with a common spade also, 

 digs out two, three, or more spits of earth, (laying it on the other side of the trench,) till he 

 has cut through the soil, or staple, and come to the under-stratum of clay, marl, or other 

 hard and solid body of earth. The bottom and sides of this trench must be cleanly wrought ; 

 and, allowing for the sloping of the sides in working, should, at the bottom, be clear sixteen 

 inches wide. 



" In this trench, the frame, Jig. 5, plale 1, is laid ; and, in the middle of it, the third man, 

 who ought to be strongest and most expert, works the long narrow-draining spade in the 

 body of the clay. By taking care to work it at its full depth, he is always sure of his level, 

 if the drains are properly laid out. The wooden frame is of great use ; it gives a firm sup- 

 port to the feet of the workman, keeps the bottom of the trench smooth and clean, and serves 

 as a purchase to the wings of the narrow tool. Fig. J , 2, 2, 4, 5, plate 2. 



" When thirty or forty yards have been cut out by the draining spade, the fourth man 

 cleans the bottom of the drain with the scoop. Jig. 6, plate 2, and works it .quite smooth ; 

 he then covers it with the sods, laying the grass side downwards. In this part of the 

 work too much care and attention cannot be used. The sods should be sound and diy, cut 

 even on the sides, and fitted closely to each other. No broken or rotten pieces should 

 be put in; and if any of the sods taken out, in cutting the trench for the narrow drains, 

 are bad, good ones, firm and full of roots of rushes, strong grass, &c. should be got in 

 the other parts of the field, and their place supplied with the decayed ones. In marshy, 

 bad fields, where sound turf cannot be had, little sticks may be placed across the trench, 

 and the loose and tender sods safely laid upon them. The narrow drains being thus 

 covered, the earth must be thrown in again, taking care that the clay, &c. brought out 

 by the narrow tool, be not mixed with it. No greater length of these drains should be cut 

 than can be finished the same day. The price varies with the depth. For the main drains, 

 cut thirty inches above, and thirty-eight deep, laid with bricks, covered, &c. I give about 

 ninepence per rod (eight yards). For the narrow drains, constructed and completely 

 finished according to the foregoing directions, their whole depth (including that of the 

 trench, and that of the draining spade) being thirty-two or thirty-four inches, I give five- 

 pence halfpenny per rod (eight yards *). 



" From my much-respected friend, the Rev. Mr. Whateley, of Nonsuch-park, in Surry t, 

 I first received an account of the Hertfordshire and Essex method of draining ; at the same 

 time, he obligingly sent me a set of tools made use of there, with very particular 

 directions. 



" The great price of stone and brick in my neighbourhood, rendered the Hertfordshire 



" At this price my labourers, after they were a little acquainted with the work, earned, even in winter, 

 two shillings a-day each. 



\ Professor of Rhetoric in Gresham College. 



