On TrurJi Draiiiac^e. 



of tlie Ian J and deepening the ditches on many estates occasioning 

 the llow after rams of a bociy of water at once into the rivers, 

 which in former times either reached them bv slow degrees or 

 remained stagnant in the land till evaporated by the snmmer's 

 heat ; the consequence of such an addition of water must be. that 

 in some localities sudden and high iioods will become of more 

 frequent occuri'ence. 



The present state of brooks and rivers in tolerably level dis- 

 tricts is that for which my aim is to gain chief consideration, the 

 lands there being more or less subject to be ilooded, or so little 

 above the water in its course that they cannot be effectually 

 di-ained ; and there are many of these lands that would, if properly 

 di-ained, rank among the best. Considerable disappomtment has 

 resulted from imder-di"ainmg some lands thus situated. I have 

 occasionally heard complamts of the lands being less productive 

 after draining : this I believe has been the case where land, before 

 it was drained, produced heavy crops of coarse grass : the drains 

 being placed only deep enough to diy the sm'face, the subsoil still 

 remaining full of water, the grass has diminished in quantity 

 without any coimterbalancing improvement in quality. 



The produce of lands bordering brooks and rivers, where the 

 sm'face of the land is at all times so little above the lowest level 

 of the water that the subsoil immediately mider it is never freed 

 from stagnant water, is usually rushes or grasses of the most in- 

 ferior description : and even lands that are only occasionally 

 flooded, and which are at other times sufficiently above the water 

 to get enough drainage to allow the growth of large crops of grass 

 in favourable seasons, are liable to have the crops of hay spoiled 

 or washed away and the feed rendered of little value by smnmer 

 floods. 



Floods in winter on the last-described lands may increase the 

 produce when the water remains on the surface but a short time ; 

 but when the water is often out, or remains lying over it for days 

 together, or late in the spring, it does decided injury to the crops : 

 the produce, too, of land subject to floods is much inferior in 

 feeding quality to that grown on land not flooded. 



In smaller brooks the floods and retention of water in the land 

 axe occasioned by the tortuous and shaUow channels often full to 

 the brink with their ordinary supplv, and also not imcommonly 

 covered at the sides with trees and bushes of all descriptions 

 stretching across the stream, and so impedmo: the water that when 

 an addition is made by rain there is no escape but by overflowing 

 the land. 



In larger brooks and rivers the obstructions are the abrupt turas 

 and windings of the course, shallows, islands, trees and bushes 

 growing into the stream ; bridges which appear to have been built 



