26 
On Thorough- Drainint] . 
sidered as producing a new creation around liim, iuid should be held up 
by every friend to agricultural improvement to the admimtion and imi- 
tation of all who have to do with heavy land from which it is necessary 
to remove the surf ace -icater." 
As to the districts which require draining:, 1 do not know which 
to specify : all tenacious soils — I should think the neicrhbourhood 
of Hardwick, Tadlow, Gransden, in Cambridgeshire, and the 
bottom of the hills in Surrey and Sussex, and a large jiortion of 
Lancashire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Kent, and Berk- 
shire.* 
In our own district, where the lands are under drained, we 
detect the want of fresh draining instantly on walking across a 
field after wet weather : we detect it on our neighbours' land as 
well as our own, in passing through the country, by black spots 
on the surface, as the lands begin to dry in the spring. 
Lands of a gently undulating nature are the most easily drained : 
our great difficulty is with flat land, where the watercourses are 
not for a sufficient distance under the control of the farmer, as is 
frequently the case in small occupations. 
Our mode of cutting the drains is pretty uniform; the filling 
up varies : and here, as I am writing for the information of 
persons supposed to be altogether ignorant of the practice of 
draining, T would correct a misapprehension that prevails as to the 
term " filling up." 
We do not, as in the case of stone and tile draining, "fill up'' 
with any material through which the water drains ; but our " fill- 
ing up ' is merely for the purpose of supporting the earth till an 
arch is formed ; by which time the material with which we " fill 
up " is for the most part perished : a channel for the water is left 
clear beneath our " filling up." 
We fill up either with haulm (stubble), or ling (heath), or a 
scud of straw, or turf, or hop-binds twisted. Tiles and stone are 
disregarded by us, excejit for boggy soils, even since their use has 
been recalled to our notice by Scotch agriculturists ; for our own 
system answers well, and is tested by time. 
The tributary drains are drawn slantingly across the slope of 
the ground with a moderate fall. These tributaries at their lowest 
points are connected together by main drains, of the same dimen- 
sions as the tributaries, in such a manner that a group of tribu- 
taries and its corresponding main may take the water from half 
* As a rule, under-draining should take the place of superficial draining, 
and high ridges and deep furrows be discontinued. One exception occurs 
to me, namely, peaty land — to whicli I think surlace is more applicable than 
under draining : the peat seems to grow and fill up underground drains 
almost as soon as they are cut, and tiles are no defence against its encroach- 
ments ; it finds its way through the points of junction of the tiles readily. 
