276 



On the Drainage of Land. 



both quantity and sample : yet numerous instances might be ad- 

 duced of not only such lands, but of soils of every description, 

 which were reduced almost to the state of worthless swamps by 

 the retention of stagnant water, having been converted into sound 

 turnip land, worth more than double the rent at which they were 

 originally held ; and that simply by the simultaneous operation of 

 subsoil- ploughing and under-draining, at an expense which, in 

 many cases, has been repaid by the increased value of a couple of 

 crops. Indeed, it appears, by a communication recently received 

 from Mr. Robson, the land-agent of Earl Grey, in Northumber- 

 land, that the entire charge of drainage has been covered by a 

 single crop of swedes ; and many communications from other 

 quarters have been made to the same effect. 



In order to remove any doubt which might be entertained of 

 the success of the operation, the following accounts, taken from a 

 variety of cases, may be not inappropriately quoted. 



One of these, lately published, contains the particulars of a 

 purchase made by Mr. Denison, of Kilnwick Percy, of about 

 400 acres of rabbit-warren, of an apparently sterile sand, with a 

 heavy ferruginous subsoil, the hills covered with heather, and the 

 hollows a bed of marshy aquatic plants. The cultivation had 

 been abandoned, as it was found, though pared and burnt, not to 

 produce more than 3 quarters an acre of oats, and the land 

 was let at 2s. 6d. the acre. Mr. Denison then subsoil-ploughed 

 a portion of it, and tile-drained it with soles at every 12 yards 

 apart, at the cost of 5/. 4s. 8d. the acre, exclusive of the carriage 

 of the tiles from the manufactory. The land, being afterwards 

 manured in the common way, has produced 10^ quarters per 

 acre of Tartarian oats, which fetched 266". per quarter; and now 

 bears wheat and oats on a property which was previously con- 

 sidered useless.* 



In the same publication it is also stated, that some land belong- 

 ing to the Rev. Mr. Croft, of Hutten Bushel, which was not 

 thought worth 5^. an acre, is now let at a guinea : evidently 

 from the effect of the drainage by the breaking up of the Moor- 

 Pan."! 



Sir James Graham likewise mentions his having recently let a 

 farm at 206". an acre, after its having been subsoil -ploughed and 

 drained, which had been valued before the operation took place 

 at 4s'. 6d. per acre. The cost of this improvement was 

 61. I8s. 4.d., as follows: — 



* See Transactions of the Yorkshire Agric. Soc. ; and Journal of the 

 Royal Eng. Agric. Soc, vol. ii. art. 2. 



t Journal of the Royal Eng. Agric. Soc, vol. ii. p. 35. 

 I Id., vol. i. p. 32. 



