442 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



rain, should be given to the speedy descent of the water. The surface 

 mould not being above six inches deep, the whole was deposited by the 

 first spit at the bottom of the trench. The next six inches consisted of 

 strong loamy clay, and were thrown immediately upon the first ; and 

 the last six inches, which were of as obdurate a clay (^Scottice Till) as 

 could well be imagined, formed the top of the new surface. 



Being in haste to return the land to its former condition of meadow, 

 I did not bestow the proper time, as I ought to have done, in working- 

 it by means of a complete summer-fallow, or drill-crops well manured ; 

 but, after merely reducing the clay to a good state of pulverisation, I 

 gave it an abundant top-dressing — first of mild lime, and then of dung- 

 compost, prepared with peat-moss — according to Lord Meadowbank's 

 method, and immediately sowed it down with grass-seeds. This took 

 place in 1810. The hay-crop that followed was immense. It has been 

 cut in hay repeatedly since that period, and twice dressed with lime 

 compost ; but since the time of the trenching, (now seventeen years^ not 

 a Rush has ventured to put up its head. Had the cure been only tempo- 

 rary. Rushes certainly would have appeared again in greater luxuriance, 

 in consequence of the culture, after the third or fourth season. 



The next experiment I tried was on the sheepwalk of the park, of 

 which a particular quarter, near the margin of the lake — being of strong 

 rich loam, eight or nine inches deep, with a clayey subsoil — was apt to 

 be rushy, after being some years in pasture. This space of ground 

 extended to about four acres. It was trenched in 1821, nearly twenty 

 inches deep. It was treated nearly in the same style as the meadow 

 just now mentioned, and got the same dressing of lime and compost 

 slightly ploughed in, and completely pulverised, and was then sown 

 down in pasture. After six years, I can truly say that no rush has 

 ever appeared upon it ; and now, after another year, (in October 1828,) 

 I can attest the same result. Let it be observed, that this experiment 

 differed somewhat from the other ; for pasture immediately succeeded 

 the sowing down, and no cutting of hay took place. 



In 1822 I made various other trials, all attended with the same 

 uniform success. From one and all of them I was led to the conclusion, 

 that in deep trenching on cultivated land, properly executed, a certain 

 cure will always be found for Rushes, proceeding from the worst cause 

 in which they originate, viz., tenacity of soil. The simple theory is 

 this, that if a new and permeable subsoil, composed of the uppermost 

 friable strata, be thus formed underneath, it will act nearly as if gravel 

 or sand had been substituted : and we know that, if either soils or sub- 

 soils be once fairly stirred, no complete consolidation will afterwards 

 take place. 



