Oil Thorough- Draining. 
37 
rods," and in some cases 5^.; 8 score rods to the acre averages about 
30s. ; labour, the ploughing, and for wood and straw about as much 
more, making altogether from 21. lOs. to 31. per acre; if wood and straw 
are not used, 1/. per acre may be deducted. 
This system is practised upon about two-thirds of the whole county, 
of which one-half is well drained. The drains upon the best soils will 
last from ten to fifteen years. The average time is considered to be 
about ten years. By actual calculations entered into with others on 
various occasions, the expense of maintaining a good system of draining 
amounts to 5^. per acre per annum by the spade, and about 2s. 6d. per 
acre by the mole-plough. 
The tenacious lands, consisting of the London clay as the subsoil, are 
very retentive of moisture, and most of them will answer well for 
draining : the same mode as described above is resorted to ; but the 
drains are not more than two-thirds as durable. Tile and pipes have 
of late been introduced, but do not answer well unless covered about 
2 inches with shingle-gravel or cockle-shells, which are found in abun- 
dance on the coast. Drains of this character are very durable ; but the 
cost is too great for tenants, unless under long leases, to introduce into 
practice. The cost varies from 51. to 8/. per acre, according to the 
distance of cartage, and must be equivalent to as many shillings per acre 
on the annual rental value. The pipes of 1^ inch bore are 1 foot in 
length, and cost from 25*. to 30^. per thousand ; tiles and bottoms cost 
from 40^. to 50s. per thousand. One-fourth of these lands only, it is 
presumed, are at present drained. 
The gravelly and mixed subsoils are now pretty generally drained 
(where the farms are under good management), and probably answer as 
well as upon any other description of soils. Until within five or six 
years scarcely any pipes or tiles were used ; but they are now more in 
use, but not generally so. The drains on these soils by the spade, as 
before described, and filled with wood and straw, soon Ijecome useless, 
but with pipes or tiles are far more durable ; the cost is the same as 
before enumerated — but the original system is nearly as expensive as 
by pipe when the short duration of the drains upon this land of land is 
taken into consideration ; but the pipes are too expensive for tenants 
generally to adopt. About one-half of this description of soil only 
requires draining, and not one-half of that is drained. 
The depth of 22 inches is almost universally adopted, except in a few 
instances, but 30 inches has been lately practised. 
The drainage of bogs and morasses is not well understood in this 
county ; there are still many hundreds of acres that might be doubled in 
value by a judicious application of the system, and at a less cost per 
acre even than by the before-described method. 
If draining is well effected upon the chalky clay soils, the drains 
should not draw off the water too quickly, as a great portion of manure 
would be thereby lost. No system can be better to effect the object 
than the wood and straw drains cut with the spade at 5 yards apart 
and 22 inches in depth upon soils suitable; and the white chalky- 
clays are especially adapted for this process, and upon such soils I 
think this system nearly equal to tiles, as the latter do not draw freely 
