0 
carrying off springe by means of a few deep 
drains aided by auger holes, and leaving un- 
remedied the greater evils of rain-water flowing 
over the surface, or its stagnation in the soil. 
London gives an extensive description of the 
system, book III. chap. i. To remedy the 
latter evils many persons have devised various 
remedies, but they had only been partially 
carried ox t, owing either to their first expense 
or their want of durability. The first 
reference to tile draining is in “ British Hus- 
bandry,” published in 1834, at which time 
Mr. Smith, of Deanston, seems to have agita- 
ted the matter of having a thorough drainage 
of all arable and pasture lands in the country. 
The system which Mr. Smith advf cated con- 
sisted in having parallel drains in the furrows 
between the ridges, and from two to two and 
a-half feet deep ; and to him is justly due the 
merit of reducing thorough drainage to a 
system. Of late years drains have been made 
deeper and further apart with great advantage. 
There are few events in the history of drain- 
ing which have had a more direct influence on 
its extension than the invention and improve- 
ment of tile-making machines, by means of 
which, and the improvements of draining tools 
in general, the cost of the operation has been 
lessened fifty per cent, w ithin the last twenty- 
five years. 
Results of Draining . — The beneficial effects 
which result from complete drainage of land 
may be clashed under two heads — chemical 
and mechanical. 
The Chemical Division is a copious one, and 
embraces more than our philosophy even 
dreamed of twenty-five years ago. It includes 
all that great class of phenomena relating to 
the improved fertilising powers of manures 
and alternatives ; the improvement of climate, 
the rising of the temperature of the soil, the 
acceleration of the period of harvest, the de- 
composition of substances in the soil injurious 
to vegetation, the improvement in the nutritive 
value of herbage and other crops, and as a 
consequence of all these, improved races of 
animals, including man himself. 
Mechanical Advantages — Let us consider 
the mechanical advantages. Every one at all 
acquainted with the conduct of agricultural 
operations, must be aware of the great difficul- 
ties which a wet state of the soil throws in the 
way of performing those operations with pro- 
priety, despatch, or economy of labour. The 
great object of all the operations of tillage is, 
along with the removal of weeds, to reduce 
the soil to a finely-divided state, through every 
part of which the fine, filamentary roots of 
plants may spread themselves, in order to 
obtain supplies, not only of moisture and air, 
but of those substances of which they are 
partly composed. The tempering of mortar 
or clay affords a very apt simile for any opera- 
tions performed on wet land, and furnishes a 
true analogy as to the results. 
It will, therefore, be evident that 60 far from 
furthering the object in view, ploughing, or 
other working of land when wet, will have the 
directly contrary effect of rendering it more 
stiff and close ; and instead of producing a finely 
divided and porous state of the soil so indispen- 
sible to the healthy and vigorous growth of 
crops, will leave it, when dry, a hardened mass, 
in which useful plants will find it difficult to 
obtain even the most scanty subsistence. 
The economical effects of drainage is evident 
by getting crops put safely in, especially green 
crops, the getting of them easily removed, the 
getting of better quality and larger quantity of 
all crops ; it is found that in some instances the 
first crop has repaid all the expenses of drain- 
age. 
There are few cases in which the value of 
drainage is more strikingly illustrated than in 
the case of wet grass lands. The first effect of 
a judicious and thorough system of drainage on 
such lands is the speedy and sudden disappear- 
ance of rushes, and the coarse sub-aquatio 
grasses, and the substitution of a rich sward of 
sweeter and more nutritious herbage, which not 
only maintains a larger number of animals, but 
keeps them in better health and condition. 
There are no more effectual means for the extir- 
pation of that most destructive disease — the rot 
in sheep — than by removing the superfluous 
-water in the soil. So efficient has it been 
found, that on farms where rot annually des- 
troyed large numbers of sheep, not a single 
instance of the disease had occurred since the 
land had been drained. 
Drainage has a most important effect in pre- 
venting land from burning in dry seasons, and 
in preserving a certain degree of moisture in 
the soil. This arises wholly from the more 
perfect division of the soil, which takes place 
after the land is drained. Soil has the power 
of absorbing much moisture from the air, and 
this power is increased in proportion to the 
surface exposed. 
This peculiarity of soils is thus referred to 
by Sir H. Davy : — tr The power of the soil to 
absorb water by cohesive attraction depends in 
a great measure upon the state of division of 
its parts ; the more divided they are the greater 
is their absorbing power.” And again : “ The 
power of soils to absorb water from air is much 
connected with fertility. When this power is 
great the plant is supplied with moisture in 
dry seasons, and the effect of evaporation in 
the day is counteracted by the absorption of 
aqueous vapour from the atmosphere, by the 
interior parts of the soil during the day, and 
by both the exterior and interior during the 
night.” 
“ The stiff clays, approaching to pipe clays 
in their nature, which take up the greatest 
quantity of water when it is poured upon them 
in a fluid form, are not the soils which ab- 
sorb most moisture from the atmosphere in dry 
