JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 
OF EXGLAm 
I.— On Tninlc Drainage. By John Algernon Clarke, 
Prize Essay. 
WE have not to combat in this Essay that unbusiness-like style 
of husbandry so frequently found to neglect the internal 
ditches of a farm, allowing them to remain choked with a semi- 
aquatic, semi-sylvan growth of weeds, bramble, and underwood,. 
Our business is with the natural or anciently-excavated water- 
courses, over which individual occupiers and landowners have only 
alimited control, including the minor drains and rivulets into which 
our farm-ditches discharge, together with mill-streams and rivers of 
all degrees of magnitude. We have to discuss the questions — Are 
these channels at present equal to the duty of carrying off all the- 
waters that an improving agriculture may have to void ? Can 
they be made of sufficient capacity for our purpose ? and on whom 
ought to devolve the task of adapting these " public sewers " of 
nature's providing to the ever-increasing demand for a well-dried 
soil ? The momentous importance of these inquiries is felt 
wherever our waters flow : disaster visits tlie upland valleys 
from the sudden descent of swollen becks ; and our rivers periodi- 
cally inundate the lower plains through which they pass. Nor 
are the husbandmen upon the hills uninterested in the question : 
the lofty turnip and corn land being commonly associated with 
wet meadows in the vales. 
Now we cannot give a minute outline of the hydrography of this 
kingdom, or cast up the number of acres in want of a better out- 
fall ; but we may present a summary of facts illustrating the univer- 
sality of defects in our trunk drainage, at least as to the principal 
streams and their tributaries. Let us first observe that the direc- 
tion of the hill and mountain chains influences both the lines of 
the rivers, and the quantity and force of water discharged. Xhe 
VOL. XV. B 
