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II. — On Draining, under certain Conditions of Soil and Climate. 

 By Lord Wharncliffe. 



To Mr. Pusey. 



My dear Pusey, — If you can afford me a small space in the 

 next Number of the Journal, 1 am tempted to ask it, in order to 

 lay before its readers a brief explanation of certain conclusions 

 and methods to which I have been led — or I may say driven — in 

 the course of my experience of draining- operations, now not in- 

 considerable in extent. Everything connected with the subject 

 is of primary and vital interest to agriculture, as few will now be 

 found to dispute ; and I think it may be useful if I make this 

 unpretending contribution to it, for discussion, at any rate, if not 

 for adoption by others. 



I have been executing such work here, since 1847, upon rather 

 a large scale, by means of an advance from the first parliamentary 

 grant, and have had, therefore, good cause to look carefully into 

 the whole matter, that I might qualify myself for directing it, so 

 as to satisfy Her Majesty's Commissioners as well as my own 

 mind. I have lost no opportunity of studying the best au- 

 thorities, or of inspecting the works of others whenever they came 

 within my reach ; and I offer these assurances as the credentials 

 for my information and opinions. 



All that I heard, read, or saw, worked in me the early but 

 profound conviction, which has never since been shaken, that in 

 the vast majority of cases m.ere shallow draining is but shallow 

 trifling. The evil lies generally as deep as the vegetation, and if 

 the limit of this is often beyond our reach, at any rate we should 

 approach it as near as may be in our power. There are few in- 

 stances in which I would now willingly stop short of a good four 

 feet ; — three feet I believe to be a minimu7n for the main frame- 

 work of the system. I add to this that of all materials the best 

 are good pipe tiles,* not too small in size ; and that the dominant 

 direction should in almost all cases be that of the slope to be drained. 

 These appear to me to be almost the axioms of the science ; and 

 in whatever I may hereafter say as to certain specific variations or 

 modifications, I beg to be understood as proceeding confidently 

 upon this basis. 



Still, experience, reflection, and observation, have convinced 

 me that they are not, any more than other excellent canons, abso- 



* I have seen and heard of so many cases where the pipes have become choked by- 

 various means, that I doubt if they are universally the best materials. I have also 

 seen so many drains in excellent order, of considerable age, formed with materials 

 suited to the locality where pipes tried in modern drains have already required to be 

 taken up and cleansed, that 1 believe the question of "What are the best Materials?" is 

 to be decided in each locality by local experience, and that no general rule is safe. — 



PORTMAN. 



