The Agiiculture of Staffordshire. 
4-foot work has not drained tlic land, and shallower drainage 
would have done so. This is the case on a large portion of Need- 
wood Forest, where the subsoil is paved with an impervious floor 
of hard clay, which prevents the water from sinking. The con- 
sistence of a subsoil depends on the materials of which it is com- 
posed, and the pressure to which it has been subjected ; it may 
have been consolidated into a hard rock, or it may be a soft 
absorbent soapy clay, with great powers of expansion and con- 
traction. In the case referred to, it is a hard solid clay, intO' 
which water does not penetrate. The retentive subsoil forms a 
watertight bottom, and the surface-soil becomes a reservoir. 
The pipes, therefore, must be laid on the bottom or floor, and 
not underneath it. In strong clays, the excess of rain-water does 
not sink into the subsoil quickly enough, if at all. Some clays 
crack to a considerable depth at the period of the year when they 
contract, and water then flows freely through them ; but there 
are hard solid clays which have not this property, and in 
these tough clays the drains should not be laid deep, because 
very little cleavage takes place in them and the water does 
not sink rapidly. The power of contraction in drought, and 
of expansion when the soil is again Avetted, varies with its 
composition. In general the soil is harder and less per- 
meable to moisture as the depth increases. Sometimes the 
surface stratum passes into an impenetrable subsoil at between 
20 and 30 inches. The mole-plough is then as effective as pipes, 
and very much cheaper. Mr. Willoughby Wood informs me 
that he has re-drained land at 3 feet (and 6 yards), which had 
been drained at 4 feet, ineffectively, under Government super- 
intendence. On that land he finds, at the former depth, traces 
of a brashy gravel, below which is a hard impervious clay. Mr. 
Bass has re-drained at Rangemoor for the same reason, and many 
other instances could be given. The late Mr. Arkwright, of 
Dunstall, induced Mr. Parkes to drain his land at 10 yards' dis- 
tances, instead of the usual distance of 12 yards. But the depth 
(4 feet) proved too much for that soil, and it has been re-drained 
by a subsequent purchaser. At Croxden Abbey, 4 feet by 10 
yards has answered well in an open subsoil, a soft good-cutting 
marl, which the drainer undertakes readily at l^d. per yard, and 
earns 2s. 6d. a day. On the heavy shale of Trentham the Go- 
vernment draining, at 8 yards and 4 feet, did not master the 
rushes, and has been replaced by drains at 6 yards, and the 
1^-inch pipes, which were soon choked by a white earthy mat- 
ter, were abandoned for larger ones. I refer to these exceptional 
instances of failure to show that there is no golden rule applying 
to depth and width. If the object be to remove the water, the 
drains must be laid at the depth and width indicated by the 
