36 
On Thorough- Draining. 
subsoil admits water readily, which passes off quickly into the drains, 
which are also very durable. As to the antiquity of the system, as 
carried out in this county, the earliest writer that I have met with who 
mentions it is the author of a work entitled ' A Six Weeks' Tour through 
the Southern Counties in 1767,' and published in 1769. This tour is 
stated to commence at Wells, thence to Hadleigh in Suffolk, Norfolk, 
Essex, Kent, &c. 
Throughout the tour, extending over all the southern counties lying 
south of the line from Cambridge to Bristol (accurately described as to 
farming minutiae), the author makes no allusion to draining until he 
comes into Essex. He states, " a remarkable particular I observed in 
their husbandry was the care with which they drain their wet lands 
(especially in this district, Braintree). They make hollow drains, the 
main ones 2 feet deep, and the branches 22 inches ; they lay ;some 
small wood at the bottom, and a good deal of straw upon it, and then 
cover the whole with earth. The price of this work is 2d. per rod and 
their small-beer. It were much to be wished the practice were more 
general, for it is an admirable one, and well deserves imitation," &c. 
At page 2.55: — "One circumstance I should not forget, and that is 
their hollow drains, of which they do a great deal in their wet lands ; 
and this excellent practice I found scarce anywhere but in Essex and 
Suffolk. 
In Vancouver's 'Survey of Essex,' published in 1795, draining is 
mentioned as peculiar to Essex. " The drains," he says, " are laid 
off at 2i and 3 yards apart, 26 inches deep, and filled with wood and 
straw, at an expense of from 50i. to 60^. per acre." 
Draining has been considered indispensable to the well-cultivation of 
the chalk-clay lands of this nature, and is carried on extensively at the 
present moment. 
Other modes are, however, adopted both by the 20-horse power and 
windlass mole-plough — the latter in many districts has superseded the use 
of the spade. The cost of this method at 4 to 5 yards apart, with the 
leaders dug and filled with wood and straw, does not exceed 20i. per 
acre; 15s. is the medium price, including the horse-labour; the common 
plough is first used to the depth of from 4 to 6 inches, and the mole- 
plough passes at a further depth of from 12 to 16 inches. These drains 
draw quickly, and are durable on the best chalky-clay soils, and will if 
well done continue to work well from ten to fifteen years, but upon loam 
or gravelly subsoils the process will not succeed. 
Drains in the former mode by the spade are first opened by 4 furrows 
ploughed out by a common foot-plough, transversely of the stitches, at 
from 5 to 6 yards apart; the drains are cut by two operations of the 
spade — the upper spade being about 3 inches wide at the point, and 
10 inches long, the lower spade about 2 inches wide at the point, and 12 
inches long ; the drain is cleared with a long scoop ; wood is carefully 
placed at the bottom, about 2i inches high, and covered with straw 
about 2 inches more. In some cases straw or haulm is only used, in 
others the earth is rammed in upon a piece of wood made to fit the 
bottom of the ditch, which is drawn forward as the work proceeds, 
leaving a hollow drain. The cost of digging is from 'is. to As. per score 
