Under- Drainaye. 
581 
■and a means of individual and national wealth, and that it will 
proceed, let the consequences be what they may. It is admitted, too, 
that, as under-draining extends, it must be concentrated in the valleys 
for discharge by the main outfalls to the sea. The rejily, then, is 
made manifest. It becomes the duty of the country to provide for 
sudden floods by improving the outfalls and dealing ^vith the rivers 
systematically from the seaboard to their soiu'ce. The Land Drainage 
Act of 1861 is a good basis upon which to form districts for the im- 
provements of valleys and outfalls, and for the conservation of drainage- 
waters discharged in the spring for use during periods of drought, in 
those districts which sufier in the summer season. But there is the 
other point to which I have made particular reference, and which I 
consider of equal importance to the landed interest — I mean the proper 
mode of under-draining the different descriptions of wet lands. The 
mode and results of diaining the clay soils are fully imderstood, and 
but little advantage is to be gained by discussion. It is the drainage 
of the free soils to which attention is due, and which cannot be too 
much discussed, for with them it is possible to moderate the evil of 
sudden discharge, and, instead of committing injury, to improve, by 
their appropriate drainage, the water supply of the coimtry. It is a 
custom to designate systematic drainage a scientific operation ; and, of 
all misapplications of terms, it is impossible to conceive anything so 
inappropriate as to call the drainage of free soils by a parallel system 
a scientific work. So directly is it the reverse of science, that, fifty 
years hence, our children will look upon it as an absui'dity as gi'eat as 
the adoption of under-drains 18 inches deep is now regarded by those 
who are draining 4 feet, and more, deep. In truth, up to this time 
the engineering element has been entirely absent from the under- 
drainage of land. Equidistant jjarallel drainage is not science, though 
it reqmred the scientific writing of Pai'kes to render adequate depth 
Acceptable. 
But, while care and diligence alone are requisite in the clay soils, 
the best judgment and skill are required in the drainage of free soils. 
Frequently the som-ce of evil is far from the land we are about to 
drain, and the quantity of water to be removed many times the quantity 
that falls on its surface. It will be received, perhaps, as an indication 
of a want of knowledge on my part if I say that, in the drainage of 
free soils, the criterion of sufficiency applicable to the clays does in no 
■way apply. If water stands above the pipes after draining the clays, 
it is quite certain the drainage is not right ; but, if the water stands 
above the pipes in fi-ee soils, and the quantity of water discharged from 
the outlet is in excess of that which falls on the surface, the drainage 
is doing its work, whether the water be above the pipes or not. 
Carefid observations upon the rise and fall of water in a free soil 
have exhibited some extraordinary phenomena, which, in the majority 
of works, as now conducted, are disregarded. In several districts in 
which I am now operating, and in which I am keeping a record of the 
rainfall on the surface, the discharge of water from the drains, and the 
rise and fall of water in the test-holes, I am gathering information of 
the most valuable character. I may mention, as an instance, a case in 
