452 
Manarjcment of Cattle. 
to the food consumed is the chief object to keep in view ; nor 
should we lose sis:ht of other important qualities, but endeavour 
to produce animals possessing- the aptitude for obtaining a fat 
carcass with a well filled udder. 
XXIII. — On Draiiiinfj with Fir-hou(jhs. By Lord Portman. 
My dkar Pusicy, — I have much pleasure in complying with 
your request that t should send you the particulars of my ex- 
periment of draining with Scotch fir boughs. In 1824 I drained 
a large meadow near the Stour, at the depth of 3 feet, at distances 
of 24 feet, and filled the th ains with Scotch fir boughs cut in 
June and July, laid longitudinally in the drains, filling the drains 
18 inches thick. I filled up the remaining 18 inches of the 
drains with the earth taken out, and covered them with turf. The 
subsoil is a stiff clay, fit for making bricks. I had occasion last 
winter to make a cutting across the meadow, and I found every 
drain that I crossed in full work and the boughs of the fir still 
sound, and indeed harder than the fresh-cut fir. I observe in 
Mr. Webster's Essay on the Failure of Deep-draining, pub- 
lished in the last number of our Journal, that he quotes me as 
telling him of an instance of failure on an estate of mine ziear 
Bland ford. This is not quite correctly stated, and if you think 
fit you may print the particulars of the case to which, I suppose, 
he refers. In a conversation with Mr. Webster, at No. 12, 
Hanover Square, I stated to him some facts connected with an 
attempt I had made to drain some stiff" clay on blue lias at 
Blckenhall, in Somersetshire, which facts tended to show the 
danger of systematic draining according to any fixed rule as to 
the depths of and spaces between the drains. 
In that district I had tried drains at different depths and of 
different distances, from 2 feet to 10 feet deep, from 3 feet to 20 
feet apart, and four months afterwards I saw the water standing 
by the side of each drain just as it stood on the undralned lands 
adjoining, almost on the surface, within one foot from each drain. 
I drained in 1844 a field in that district as an experiment, at 31 
inches deep, 20 feet apart, and I have this year examined the 
land and found it as dry as in such a season is possible ; and as 
I have had four years' experience of this trial, I am encouraged 
to go on with my attempt to drain that land, having patience to 
wait adequate time for the opening of the pores of the land by 
tillage, &c. 1 am moi e and more convinced, by experiment and 
observation, that no rule can be safely fixed for the depth and 
distances of drains. I think that in each case it would be wise 
to make experiments prior to the engaging in any large work of 
