On Draining. 



55 



be measured in proportion — not to mention the actual rate of 

 superintendence ; and the excess of cost in the item of labour, 

 therefore, may be assumed at not less than 40 per cent, : I only 

 wish those who would be disposed to cavil at my statements of 

 cost to bear this in mind. 



Soon after I commenced my present system, one of my fore- 

 men suggested that the most convenient mode of executing it 

 would be to place the auxiliary drains not converging on both 

 sides into the deeper, as at GH in fig. 1, according to my first 

 intention, but on one side only of each 4-foot drain, as at IK^ 

 whereby the trouble of laying them out would be diminished ; 

 the labour of effecting the junctions, either by lowering the ends 

 or by placing some open materials under them, and the trifling 

 difficulty even of finding such materials, would be halved. The 

 reasons seemed good, and I adopted the advice, which I think 

 the result has justified. My method, therefore, now is (after 

 having examined each special case, and ascertained that it is 

 applicable), to lay my deep drains with l|-inch pipes, almost 

 universally at 4 feet deep and 20 yards apart, and to incline the 

 shallow into them in the intervals, but all on one side only of 

 each of the former, at 8 yards direct distance from each other, and 

 laid with inch-pipes at a depth of 2 feet^ which is well below 

 the workable soil, and beyond the reach of any supposable 

 cultivation. 



On these assumptions, then, how stands the calculation ? — 

 At 20 yards distance the number of drains contained within the 

 area of a perfectly regular acre would be strictly eleven, each of 

 22 yards long, making an entire length of 242 yards, or 34 J 

 roods of 7 yards, the ordinary measure in this district ; the 7^od 

 of 5J yards being almost unknown. Our usual payment for 

 cutting and filling, per rood of 7 yards, upon an average of mat- 

 tock or spade work, in good or bad ground (barring hard stone), 

 has been \s. 3d. This gives the sum of 2^. 35. Id. for the cutting 

 and filling of the 4-foot drains, per acre. 



Now let us suppose, to simplify the case for the moment, that 

 the minor drains are placed at right angles to the above. It may 

 be assumed that it will be unnecessary to carry them entirely 

 across the 20 feet intervals, because they and the deep drains 

 together will certainly be competent to dry a certain distance 

 between them at the opposite side from their junctions, as at 

 M_, fig. 1. If we can place these minor drains at 8 yards 

 apart, we may safely allow the half of this distance at those 

 points. In the supposed case, then, each of these 2 -feet drains 

 would be 16 yards long, and there would be one at every 8 yards 

 along the length of the deep ones. This will be found to give 

 about 30 such drains to the acre, measuring altogether about 



