On Draining. 



59 



deep one measured along the latter (which determines their num- 

 ber), upon the suppositions, first, of their being placed at either 

 of the angles, varying by 5^, from 45° down to 20° ; and, secondly, 

 of the above fundamental distances being fixed, as in my practice, 

 the former at 16 yards, the latter at 8. 



But I give the table only as an illustration of the fact. When 

 once this is ascertained and established, the practical result can- 

 not fail to be attained empirically by the actual laying out of the 

 work, if properly arranged ; and the director may adapt his system 

 to his case in confidence that by any variation in this respect his 

 outlay wdll remain unaffected. 



I have thus, I think, shown that, whatever may be thought by 

 others of the system which I have myself pursued, and have here 

 undertaken to expound, it is at least capable of being carried 

 into practice within reasonable limits of expense, and is, never- 

 theless, susceptible of varied adaptation in its elements to the 

 inevitable diversity of actual cases. A certain miCasure of such 

 pliability is indeed a necessary ingredient in the intrinsic value of 

 any plan of the kind. If it were usefulh^ or easily applicable 

 only to circumstances essentially of an exceptional nature, I 

 should scarcely have thought it worth wdiile to bestow so much 

 pains or words upon it, or to make so considerable a demand 

 upon your indulgence and that of my improving contemporaries : 

 but there is nothing that can be properly called exceptional 

 in my case. There are assuredly a multitude of districts and 

 localities in these islands which share with this in the charac- 

 teristic features of soil or clim.ate, or both, to which I have 

 invited attention ; many in which they are still more marked 

 and more povrerful in their aofency. Whether those who have to 

 deal with them will think that there is enough in what I have said 

 to induce them to try my practice, T of course neither presume 

 nor wish to decide, I have already before declared that I pre- 

 scribe for no one else, content with detailing and explaining what 

 my own experience has taught me for my own interests. If any 

 deem what I have recorded deserving of attention, it will be for 

 them to determine, after all, how far it is likely to bear upon 

 their exigencies ; I shall be quite satisfied with having con- 

 tributed something to the more complete discussion and elucida- 

 tion of the first and surest of all agricultural improvements : 

 though I shall not be insensible to a farther gratification if it 

 should prove in any degree more immediately and directly ser- 

 •viceable. With the view of laying the whole subject before you 

 m such a manner as to give it a fair exposition, and not to exclude 

 this possibility, I have allowed my disquisition to run to a greater 

 length than I originally designed ; and, I am afraid, so far as to 

 try your patience. Bui I doubt whether I could have satisfac- 



