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On the Drainage of Land. 
in saying that there is no land, let it be ever so tenacious, but 
will drain, if the drains be done properly. 
With regard to the draining ol grass-land, there is a difference 
of opinion, especially on good land that is wet but feeds sweet ; 
I never had any such, or I should certainly try drainage, though 
it is said that less grass is produced ; and if such be the case where 
the quality is previously good, there must of course be an injury ; 
but it is my opinion that you cannot Injure any land by draining; 
you may put a drain on very dry land, but that would not Injure 
it, as no water would run off through the drain. Strong land 
that is wet in the winter becomes dry in the summer, cracks, and 
requires more rain to make the grass grow than land of the 
same nature that is drier ; but, after strong land has been 
drained a few years, it becomes milder, never getting so hard in 
summer, nor so wet and soft in winter. I should say that when 
water stands on the surface, or whenever to prevent it from stand- 
ing it is made to run off the surface by furrows (except where 
there is sufficient for flooding or drowning, which is not an excess 
because it is beneficial), but where It is stagnant on the surface, 
and left to evaporate by the heat, then there is an excess of 
moisture. On wet, sour-feeding, middling grass-land I think 
there is no doubt that draining would be beneficial, but it would 
be more likely to lessen the quantity of grass on this description 
of soil, which generally grows a coarse, sour sort of herbage, still 
the quality will be improved, and the old saying will apply here, 
" a lark is worth a kite." Some, perhaps, will argue differently, 
saying that the wettest part is at present the best, viz., the furrows : 
so they are, if they are not trenched out, because the water run- 
ning off the ridges by the furrows causes a natural water-meadow 
just down the furrow; but it is easy to see which is predominant, 
the injury to the ridge, or the benefit to the furrow. You cannot 
Indeed expect by draining middling or bad grass-land to make It 
good directly, but the land will Improve afterwards : the manure, 
whether carted on, or produced by feeding-off the grass, will be 
more beneficial by being all washed into, not off the land, as Is 
now the case. What can be plainer than that after the land has 
been fed through the summer a good portion of the manure is on 
the surface at the fall of the year ; the first rains naturally wash a 
portion in, until the land gets saturated ; after that every suc- 
cessive rain carries a portion off, besides encouraging the growth 
of a coarse herbage, to the detriment of the finer grasses. I 
drained a piece of very poor clay-land last winter, when a sort of 
grass, of which I do not know the botanical name, but known 
here as pink or carnation grass, a dwarf sedge-like grass, was very 
strong ; now this winter it is not nearly so strong, and the sward 
appears thinner, making room for the better sorts of grass when a 
