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XI. — O.'i the Failure of Dap Draining on certain strong 
Cliuj Subsoils, with a few Remarks on the Injurious Effect of 
sinking the Water too far below the Roots of Plants in very 
Porous, Alluvial, and Peaty Soils. By William Bullock 
Webster. 
As I find the system of very deep draining (4 and 5 feet) on 
strong clay-subsoils is looked upon by many of our members as a 
practice altogether new, and one likely to lead to very advantageous 
results, I think it of importance to call their attention to facts 
which have come under my own notice or which I have collected 
from others, and which will be found strongly in opposition to 
such views. Before 1 do so, however, as I find that the part I have 
taken in discussions on this question has led to erroneous impres- 
sions respecting my opinions on the subject of draining generally, 
and as I not unfrequently see myself classed among the " shallow 
drainers," I wish to set myself right with the agricultural public, 
and to have it distinctly understood that I am not a partizan of 
cither faction, am not a deep, a shallow, or a medium drainer; but 
consider each of the several practices exclusively advocated by 
various zealous experimentalists proper to be applied in indi- 
vidual cases. It would greatly simplify medical art, could we find 
one mode of cure adapted to every constitution and every disease; 
but though we hear such vaunted, I have no faith in anything 
professing so much. For deep draining I am strongly an advocate 
on soils injured by under-water ; and on spongy, and some porous 
soils ; but am opposed to the practice of going to a greater depth 
than 3 feet upon the very strong clay subsoils, where the injury is 
not from underwater, but from rain. To guide me in forming 
that judgment I have had extensive opportunities of observation, 
which have led me to the strong conviction that this practice is not 
advisable, first, because (after a time) the water will not find its 
way to the drains at all ; secondly, because if it does so its per- 
colation is usually so slow as not to free the ground from moisture 
with sufficient readiness to insure the full benefit for agricultural 
purposes ; and thirdly, because even when the percolation is more 
rapid an effective drainage cannot be accomplished with the drains 
placed at intervals so wide as to compensate for the e.xtra expense 
of sinking them to the increased depth. In cases which have 
come under my notice where the experiments have been tried, I 
have seen that the land between deep drains at wide intervals was 
not in so perfect a state for cultivation as that between drains of 
more moderate depth placed at less distances. The cost of 
cutting an additional foot deep is very considerable ; in many 
cases it would double the outlay upon digging. I must observe 
here that, even among those soils which we class together as 
