502 



On the Advantage of Deep Drainage. 



of the Journal. Other circumstances prevented its appearance in the 

 Journal of July last; but this delay has enabled me to add an additional 

 proof of the superior advantage arising- from deep drainage. On the 5th 

 of this month of August the Earl of Ellesmere wrote to me from Lan- 

 cashire, that " he was busy organising further drainage, and that he shall 

 have enough to do in that way for the rest of his life. He had been 

 obliged,' 5 he says, " to redrain land which remained wet after a Z-feet 

 drainage, and to insert ^feet drains.''' 



I know from Lord Ellesmere himself that he had on the chat moss 

 gone from necessity so deep as 10 feet before he put in his drains, and 

 that the part of the moss so drained had been rendered quite dry. 



August 7, 1849. Charles Arbuthnot. 



Note by Mr. Pusey. 



There can he no doubt that agriculture is much indebted to 

 Mr. Parkes for the talent with which he has pointed out the ad- 

 vantage of deep-draining upon the majority of soils. The only 

 question is, whether it be applicable to all soils without exception. 

 Mr. B. Webster, in the paper referred to, brought forward cases 

 in which farmers, having laid down deep drains in tenacious clays, 

 had taken them up, and replaced them with shallower drains at 

 their own expense. It still appears to me, therefore, that caution 

 is required in employing very deep drains on very tenacious clays, 

 and that Lord Portman * is right in saying, — 



" I am more and more convinced, by experiment and observation, that 

 no rule can be safely fixed for the depths and distances of drains. I think 

 that in each case it would be wise to make experiments prior to the en- 

 gaging in any large work of draining, having regard to the strata of the 

 earth, as well as the sources of the supply of water." 



Quite recently two careful but contradictory experiments have 

 been made in Scotland on this very subject. They are here sub- 

 joined from the Mark- Lane Express. The first tells in favour of 

 deep draining : — 



"At the last monthly general meeting of the East of Berwick- 

 shire Farmers' Club, D. Milne, Esq., of Milnegraden, the pre- 

 sident of that very efficient club, read the following report of 

 experiments he had recently made on the above subject: — 



" Mr. Milne stated that, having to drain a 24-acre field, he took 

 the opportunity of trying the effect of drains varying in depth and 

 distance. He divided the field into four parallel breaks — each 

 about 6 acres in extent. In the westernmost the drains were 3j 

 feet deep and 30 feet apart ; in the one next to it the drains were 

 3 feet deep and 15 feet apart; in the third the drains were 3| 

 feet deep and 15 feet apart; in the fourth they were 3 feet deep 

 and 30 feet apart. The furrow-drains in each break led into a 



* Roy. Agric. Jourri., No. XXII. p. 452. 



