522 
On Cheapness of Drainiiifj. 
clay I should be afraid of cutting my drains deeper than 3 feet. 
There is moreover another point to be considered. Such land is 
frequently laid up in ridge and furrow at different widths, two or 
three feet high in the centre. The stronger the loam, the narrower 
did our forefathers form their lands, and thus the ever-circling 
plough, which in the course of ages has brought the solid mould 
to the resemblance of a rolling sea after wind, has imprinted on 
the very surface of our fields the varying character of the soil 
beneath. Thus too vou may often adopt the ancient furrow as 
the fittest interval and the most convenient course for the modern 
drain ; and the consequence will be, that when it is no longer 
needed for carrying off the surface water, you may gradually 
plough down these high ridges, and so increase safely the depth 
of the drains by raising the surface above them. 
Having then proved my former estimates as to the cheapness 
with which under-draining may be effected upon the strong clays, 
I will now go a step further, and attempt to show that in many 
cases under-draining mav be dispensed with altogether. I mean 
on level boggy land, with a gravelly subsoil : and I am the 
more desirous to bring forward the facts on which this opinion is 
founded, because now that Ireland is to be so largely improved 
there is great danger of a wasteful e.-cpenditure in draining the 
Irish bogs if the necessity for ?/«f/e;'-draining them be overrated; 
and I will first mention some mistakes of my own. 
Many years since, adopting, with the zeal of a novice, the 
theory of thorough-draining, believing in its novelty, and there- 
fore slighting the experience of farmers, I under-drained 30 acres 
of bog-land, at an expense of 10/. an acre, notwithstanding the 
opinion of my neighbours that the drains were far too numerous : 
several other bogs were also under-drained by me at the same time. 
But one green moor of 40 acres, parts of which were hardly 
passable, was accidentally postponed on account of a doubt as to 
the j)lan. Inllic meanwhile, observing that on some of the moors 
which had been intersected by deep ditches the drains only ran 
after violent rain, ar.d that for a very short time, I determined on 
attempting to drain this particular moor without any under-drains. 
Having secured a good outfall for other purposes, I dug a ditch, 
5 feet deep, round 24 acres of this field. The water sprang from 
the gravelly bottom, and hns c(mlinued to run ever since, winter 
and summer, in a brisk little stream ; and the inclosed space 
of 24 acres became at once thoroughly sound. The expense 
of cutting the ditch was but 20/., or less than \l. an acre. Its 
efficacy certainly strengthens Mr. Parkes's principle of cutting 
drains deep on suitable soils. Another moor, which 1 have just 
surroundeil with a deep ditch, seems to me to be equally sountl. 
In reclaiming lei'cl marshes, therefore, with a porous subsoil, I 
