On the Deanston frequent Drain System, 



31 



the outlay lias been incurred, the mode of treatino; the subsoil affects 

 only production, and does not involve expenditure ; and greater 

 produce without additional outlay is the gi'and object of the prac- 

 tical farmer. 



We have seen that in draining Mr. Smith uses stones^ because 

 he has them on the spot. Tiles are substituted in the midland 

 counties of England, because stones cannot be obtained easily, and 

 because in the clay districts tiles are cheaply and easily manu- 

 factured. 



It has always appeared to me that skill in agriculture does not 

 so much consist in the discovery of principles of universal applica- 

 tion, as in the adaptation of acknowledged principles to local cir- 

 cumstances. 



The peculiarities of soil and climate, what nature gives or nature 

 withholds in each particular district, must be carefully considered 

 and judiciously investigated, before any given experiment, though 

 locally successful, can be pronounced to be generally useful or 

 universally applicable. The neglect of this consideration has 

 brought agricultural experiments into disrepute, on account of 

 the heavy losses which they have occasioned. If the record now 

 opened in these Transactions be faithfully kept, this evil will be 

 averted ; for I hope that each experiment detailed ^\-ill be authen- 

 ticated by the name of the party v>iio makes it, and that every local 

 circumstance of a peculiar character ^ill be carefully particu- 

 larized. 



My attention having been thus directed to the various treatment 

 of subsoils after under-draining, I tried an experiment, in the year 

 1838, on a field of about 8 acres of the poorest and wettest land. 

 The surface soil is about 5 inches deep of black earth of a peaty 

 quality : the subsoil is a weeping retentive clay with sand and rusty 

 gravel intermixed. This clay goes dow*n to the bottom of the 

 drains, which are of tile, laid 30 inches deep, m every furrow."^ 

 This field is in a farm lately taken into my own hands, and was 

 rented by the out-going tenant at 4.s. 6c/. an acre. It was in pas- 

 ture of the coarsest description, overrun with rushes and other 

 aquatic plants. 



After draining, on one-half of this field, I used jMr. Smith's sub- 

 soil-plough; on the other half I trench-ploughed to the depth of 

 1 0 inches by t^'o ploughs following in succession : in the first part 

 not mixing with the surface any of the subsoil, in the last part 

 commingling the surface and the subsoil in nearlv equal proportions. 

 The whole field was heavily but equally manured and planted with 

 potatoes ; and though the potato-crop, even on good land, in this 



* The size of the tiles used vras 6 inches for the main di-ains, and 3 inches 

 for the common drains. The tile-drains were laid 10 yards apart. 



