On Cheapness of Draining. 
523 
should advise, in the first instance, to try the effect of dividing 
them first icitli deep ditches in blocks of 10 or 20 acres. These 
ditches will serve as boundaries, and the material that comes 
out of them helps to consolidate the surface of the field, which 
is often lio;ht. If these blocks of land standing 5 feet above 
the water-level should still be wet, it is easy to put in two or 
three under-drains afterwards : but I hope that my own preci- 
pitation may warn others not to waste their money as I have done 
in nnder-draining such land. This method is in fact the practice 
of our great fen district, which is the best and largest example 
of such improvements, as Essex is of clay-draining. In the Fens, 
I believe that these boundary ditches are found to give ample 
drainage. In summer indeed they are often allowed to stand 
full of water, and thus keep the land cool. Every one who 
is practically acquainted with moory land knows that such 
land may be easily over-drained, so that the soil becomes dusty, 
or hiishg, as it is called — that is, like a dry sponge — the 
white Crops flag, and the turnip-leaves turn yellow in a long 
drought. 
On strong clavs, therefore, I w'ould recommend the English 
form of under-drain, as cut of old in our southern counties, with 
the more modern pipe laid in its bottom : and if any one be 
afraid of the inch -pipe, he may increase its bore with a very 
slight increase of expense. 
On level swamps, with a porous subsoil, I should decidedly try 
deep boundary-ditches first ; and, in support of that view, will 
conclude by a quotation from an excellent account of Sir James 
Graham's improvements at Netherby, published by the Society 
for promoting Useful Knowledge as long ago as the year 1830. 
The evidence is the stronger because that was the first estate, I 
believe, on which cheap tiles were produced, and because even 
at that dale under-drains were cut as deep as from 4^ to 5 
feet : — 
But previous to so expensive an improvement as under- 
ground draining of any description being set about, let every 
agriculturist, whether landlord or tenant, examine carefully the 
slate of the ditches round his field, and he probably will find, in 
nine cases out of ten" (this proportion appears to me rather too 
high), " that the real evil consists in their insufficient condition, 
arising from their want of depth and want of scouring. Let them 
be all deepened to 4^ feet in depth, and wait a season, and he 
will probably save a large outlay, that would have been expended 
to little or no purpose It is proved from that which takes 
place in the greater jiart of England, that very large and serious 
outlays take place in underground drains which the more simple, 
the more obvious, and the least expensive improvement of deepen- 
VOL. VII. 2 N 
