On the Farming of Essex. 
11 
the windlass mole-plougb, which presses out a drain, of about 2 J 
inches in diameter, at 12 or 14 inches below the depth ploughed ; 
exactly as for the spade drains. So the leaders or main drains 
are mostly dug as before described, and filled with wood and 
straw, and are made either before the ditches are mole-ploughed 
or not ; but it is most important to have men to work upon them 
during the same time the ploughing is going on, for should heavy 
rain fall before the main drains are cut, it would destroy the 
ploughed drains altogether by the deposit that would be left after 
the water had drawn off. A mole-plough drawn by twenty 
horses is also used ; but the windlass mole-plough, from its steady 
action, and requiring but two horses, succeeds better. Drains 
effected in this way are found to run well for ten to fourteen 
years upon the chalk clay, but upon loamy soils they soon close in, 
by the loam, after a short time, again uniting and filling up the 
drain. 
The cost of the two operations differs so much in amount, that 
the latter mode is superseding the former to a considerable ex- 
tent — very much depriving the labourers of winter work, which 
was provided in a great measure by the former mode. 
The cutting and filling the drains 22 inches deep costs from 
35. to 45. per score rods ; but, probably, on sound clay, not 
exceeding the former sum. About 8 score rods are put in each 
acre ; this, at 35., would be 245. per acre ; if wood and straw are 
used, about 24s. more ; but if thorns or haulm only, about half 
that sum. The labour in cutting drains, and for hire of mole- 
plougb horses and driver's time, will not exceed 155. per acre 
for the same quantity of drains. The charge for the man and 
plough is from 8c?. to 12d. per score rods, or about 65. per acre 
over and above the additional sum for the horses' time and for 
cutting the main drains. 
When the land is regular in descent, and all the drains run in 
one direction, the better way is, in the second ploughing of the 
fallow, to put the stetches in the direction of the drains, and to 
make them of the same width as the drains require to be 
from each other ; thus nearly all the labour may be saved of 
ploughing out the drains, and again ploughing them in after the 
operation, as the merely ploughing of the stetches will effect that 
object in the ordinary way; care should, however, be taken 
always to plough over the drain as soon as it can be done, for in 
the event of heavy rain falling the drains would be injured by the 
soil washing into them ; and care should be taken to prevent the 
drains uniting with the main drains at less than an angle of 60°, 
as the accumulation of soil carried down by the water would be 
prevented escaping when the drains are first made, and probably 
spoil them altogether. 
