Farming of Oxfordshire, 
267 
to act. Some of the pipes were taken up and found to be com- 
pletely filled with the fibres of the turnip root. 
The clay deposits of the county are wet from the rain falling 
on them, and also at their conjunction with other strata from 
the water which has percolated through more porous soils. As 
all the clay land is formed into ridges, varying in height from 18 
inches to 4 feet, and in width from 8 to 12 yards, there is usually 
no choice but to place the drains in the furrows, which direction 
is usually tlie line of descent. In cutting across the lands there 
is much more soil to move, and it is also less efficacious. Some 
land which has been drained under high authority in this manner 
has disappointed the expectations of those who recommended it, 
and has since been newly drained in the furrows : the depth of 
such drains is from 3 to 4 feet, which is much greater than was 
usual twenty years ago. This depth is found to answer best on 
clays, but in the argillaceous chalky soils, where a bed of com- 
pact rock is often within 2 or 3 feet of the surface, it is of no 
use pounding into that stubborn mass deeper than to bury the 
pipe in the rock. Cross draining, wliere the malm is rubbly, 
and also on the upper greensand, may often answer by catching 
the water of the land-springs ; but as a rule it is safer, and in the 
end cheaper, to thorough drain all land of that description. It 
is difficult to say what is the proper depth to drain clays, but 
while thousands of acres that had been drained at 18 inches and 
2 feet have since been redrained at a greater depth, there is 
hardly an instance where a well executed system of sufficiently 
close 4 feet furrow draining has failed. A system of cluy 
draining^ without the use of pipes, stones, or bushes, has been 
for many years successfully practised at Middle-Aston and its 
immediate neighbourhood. After the drain is properly shaped, 
a piece of wood about 6 feet long, 10 inches deep, and 4 inches 
wide at the top, but tapering to 1^ at the lower end, is placed 
in the bottom of the drain ; a coating of well tempered clay is 
thrown on it and tightly rammed down ; by means of a lever the 
plug is pulled forward, and so leaves a channel, which is very 
durable. Some land has been thus drained more than twenty 
years ago, and still runs well. The drains on pastures are not more 
than 2 feet, and on the arable land 30 inches deep, but both are 
■perfectly dry. To prevent the entry of rabbits, moles, and rats, 
several pipes are laid at the mouth, in one of which a grating 
is fixed : the parallel drains empty into the main drain which 
runs along the headland. The labour of this sort of draining 
generally exceeds the cost of the common plan by a penny per 
pole, but the saving of pipes and other mq,terials is of course 
very considerable.* 
* It does not appear essential for this plug-draining that the land should be a 
