250 
On Draining. 
ander Von Humboldt, in his recently published work, ' Cosmos,'* 
p. 71. He observes, " Science begins at the point where mind 
dominates matter, where the attempt is made to subject the mass 
of experience to the scrutiny of reason ; science is mind brought 
into connexion with nature." There is no difference in the sense 
of the two definitions, and the recommendation of the Council will 
put the members at their ease who have information to add to the 
common stock, and will, I trust, absolve them and myself from all 
charge of egotism, or desire of display, in speaking of our indivi- 
dual performances or opinions. 
Experience has proved that a soil surcharged with water cannot 
perfect crops — that excess of water is an impediment to the due 
mechanical division of the active soil — that it diminishes the ferti- 
lising power of every species of manure — that it lowers the tem- 
perature of the mass of the bed — that it precludes the free entrance 
and change of atmospheric air — that it prevents the free descent 
of rain through the soil, and its timely evacuation. The existence 
of water in excess is far from being confined to those absorbent 
and tenacious descriptions of soil which have obtained the name 
of clays. My own observation of the soils of Britain leads me to 
the perception and belief, that fully as large an area of its extent, 
consisting of loams, and of earths still more siliceous, need drain- 
age quite as much as the stiff and compact clays. Water is per- 
manently maintained too near the surface of many soils, whose 
natural texture for a few feet deep would allow to it a free pas- 
sage downwards, were it not for the existence of a clay or of some 
other impassable medium, at depths more or less great, which up- 
hold water. The evils referable to the excess of water in soils are 
rendered peculiarly apparent, by comparing such water-logged land 
with those free, deep, naturally dry and warm soils, as they are 
called, which are so coveted by farmers ; of which every one wants 
a slice, but which are so rarely to be met with, in comparison with 
the over-wet or too dry portions, of the superficies of our island. 
The object of drainage is to assimilate the naturally wet to the 
naturally moist soil, in so far as that can be accomplished by so 
simple an operation, and its effect upon the texture and physical 
condition of wet land will be the greater or less according to the 
knowledge and skill employed in performing the operation. In 
a former paper on this subject, entitled ' On the influence of water 
on the temperature of soils ' (Journal, vol. v. p. 1 19), I endea- 
voured to bring together and lay before the Society a succinct his- 
tory of the properties of water in its several states as a fluid, a solid, 
and a vapour or steam, and to show its effects upon soil ; together 
* ' Cosmos; a General Survey of the Physical Phenomenon of the 
Universe.' Bailiiere, 219, Regent-street, London. 
