On the Farming of Suffolh 



311 



" These drains, whether they be the great or small ones, must be 

 made two full spits of a spade deep and half a spit, sloping on each side 

 from near three feet wide at the top to about half a foot at the bottom, 

 and then some large rough stones or cows' horns * laid at the bottom 

 for the water to run through, wuth some straw over them ; or else a few 

 boughs of elm, white-thorn, or hawthorn' rammed into the bottom, and 

 straw laid over them, and then covered with the earth that was dug out. 

 When all are completed and settled, then you may plough the piece and 

 dispose it equally on such a level as it will bear. This method is 

 accounted the best and cheapest v/ay of hollow-ditching or draining, 

 and will make the wettest squally land fit to bring very good corn, or 

 to be laid down for grass, or other uses. The common price for digging 

 and laying the stones or bushes and filling up the drains is about two- 

 pence halfpenny or threepence a rod in length, but the owner or pos- 

 sessor of the ground must find bushes and straw, which, together with 

 the digging and laying, will amount to about sixpence a rod. A large 

 field, I confess, will amount to some money, as suppose there may be 

 required one thousand rods of this work to drain twenty acres, the ex- 

 pense at sixpence per rod will be twenty-five pounds, or after the rate 

 of one pound five shillings for the improvement of each acre, which is 

 but a trifle considering that the ground before was neither good for 

 bearing corn or grass, and w-ill now bring good crops of any kind. 

 This improvement is chiefly practised in Essex ; I have seen it at 

 Navestock, in the forest, at an estate belonging to Aaron Plarrington, 

 Esq., and is lately brought from that part of the county to the north of 

 Essex about Wicken-Benant,t and near Sir Kane James's ; and I doubt 

 not but will be generally used upon all the squally wet grounds in 

 England when it comes to be known, for it is but a late invention : only 

 it is to be noted that the ground should lie sloping or declining one way 

 or other to be mended by this means." 



The prediction of Mr. Bradley that this improvement of wet land 

 would become general show^s that his work on husbandry was not much 

 read by the farmers of the eighteenth century ; for if they had been of 

 more studious habits they would, on trial of the practice, long ere this 

 have seen the benefits of (what is generally considered to be the modern 

 invention of) thorough-draining. That the system of which Bradley 

 speaks is a thorough-draining system is proved by his mentioning the 

 number of rods required on a given space, viz. 1000 rods on 20 acres, 

 which being 50 rods to the acre will make the drains about three times 

 the distance apart that they are at present in the eastern counties. 



The term tliorougli-^mmm^ is perhaps derived from the old word 

 ^'thorrow^," which Bradley mentions as " a distinguishing character for 

 a trench cut purposely for carrying off of water." 



* Mv. Hill m his article on Suftolk Draining (Journal, vol. iv. p. 31), mentions 

 instances of old drains being found filled with bullocks' horns. 



f Wicken-Benant or Bonhunt is a village in the noi th-west corner of Essex, 3i miles 

 from the borders ofHerts, 5^ from those of Cambridgeshire, 11 from those of Suffolk, and 

 15 from Great Thurlov/, Suffolk, where Mr. Jonas has shown thorough-draining to have 

 been practised more than a century. 



Y 2 



