Farming of Dorsetshire. 
427 
In 1849 the Lord Portman called the attention of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, through the pages of its Journal, to a very 
curious stoppage of drains on the property of John Goodden, 
Esq., of Coiiipton. A chemical examination of the substance 
taken from the drain, by Professor Way, showed that it con- 
sisted chiefly of carbonate of lime, which was referred to the 
circumstance of tlie drain being only partly filled with water, an 
opj)ortunity being thus afforded for the escape of the carbonic 
acid which held the carbonate of lime in solution, the result 
being a crystalline deposit, which in time choked up the drain. 
These drains have since been taken up and larger drains formed, 
which Mr. Goodden informs me have not been subjected to 
stoppage. The turf-drains at the sides are now, after forty years' 
use, as good as ever. 
A great desideratum seems to be the faculty of determining 
l:ow little is necessary in works of drainage, for not unfrequently 
hundreds of perches are cut under the idea of doing the work 
completely, where a quarter of the labour and outlay applied 
with judgment and skill would have been more effectual. This 
is especially the case where springs, suffused from higher grounds, 
saturate for a long way below the subsoils until the level at 
which they break into day is attained. Interception at the head 
is here the effectual remedy, at whatever depth it may be neces- 
sary to go in order to reach the percolating substratum, when the 
leading off the water thus collected becomes easy enough, and 
the expense and necessity of a chequer of drains doing imperfect 
duty is avoided.* 
On some parts of the banks of the Stour sufficient outfall 
cannot be obtained, owing to the penning back of the stream by 
mills — a subject which naturally leads us to 
Injuries injiicted hi/ Brooks and Rivers : which may be grouped 
under three heads — 1. By floods to pastures; 2. By hindrances 
to irrigation ; 3. By obstructing the outfalls of drains — and these 
are mostly referable to the imperfect construction of mill- weirs; 
to the sinuosity of the river course ; and to a neglect of scouring 
and cleaning the bed of the river. If these impediments did not 
* The draining in Dorsetshire is, like draining everj-nhere else, still a matter 
of experiment. In many parts of the vale the plans, adopted by the landlord, 
tenant, and surveyor, well selected to suit the locality, work well ; in other 
parts, when executed under the orders and rigid rules of some surveyor (appointed 
to see that money borrowed is not wasted) the drains have proved worthless, and 
in a few years the tenant has been obliged to do the work over again. In 
Dorsetshire examples abound where pipes succeed, where turf is best as m ell as 
cheapest, where iron in the M'ater corrodes, and lime deposit forms a rock, and in 
both cases stops the drains, where rabbits or moles spoil the turf drains, &c. &c. ; 
and I would advise any drainer who wishes to expend his money with the least 
risk to examine our varied success and failure. — Poutjiax. 
