18 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Jaw*- 
Explanation—a. First Spade, common shape.— b. 
Second Spade, which follows the first, and is narrower. 
—c. Pick, used when the subsoil is stony.— d. Large 
Scoop-Shovel, for removing the loose earth after pick¬ 
ing.— e. Smaller Scoop-Shovel, for the bottom. 
Fig. 6—Draining. 
Explanation.—-/. A flat Scoop, with turned-up edge? 
for cleaning out the bottom.— g. A Flauehter Spade? 
used for cutting turf to cover the small stones in the 
Frequent Drain. 
The old theory as to the location of drains was, that 
they should run across the slopes, so as to cut off the 
springs and catch the descending water. This method 
is now, however, entirely abandoned in all the best 
districts of England and Scotland ; the drains are run 
straight down the slope, exactly parallel to each other, 
and without reference to wet or dry spots, excepting 
sometimes a short branch to a strong spring. The 
layers of earth in the subsoil generally lie in such a 
direction that the water flows from them at a more uni¬ 
form depth, into the straight than into the cross drains. 
The accompanying cut (fig. 7,) shows how the layers 
run into the cross drains at unequal depths. A drain 
straight down would cut them all to the same level. 
Fig. 7— Draining. 
In those directed straight down the slope, the current 
is also greater, and usually suffices to wash away any 
small obstructions ; should they become quite stopped, 
however, the great pressure will cause them to burst 
out, and show where the mischief really is. In cross 
drains the descent is slight, and they may remain 
choked for a long time before the cause of evil is dis¬ 
covered. 
Where the declivity is very gentle, the drains made 
of small stones do not work well; it is in such cases 
necessary to employ tiles. Mr. Smith says, “ that 
with careful management a drain will act efficiently 
when the fall is only four inches per mile.” At the 
foot of each declivity, or half way down if it is a long 
one, a main drain made of large tiles, or built of stone 
with a smooth floor, should run across to carry away 
the water from the small drains ; these should not be 
of a great length without thus discharging,** as the 
friction against the sides of so small a tube, unless the 
descent is considerable, seriously retards the flow of 
water. Such main drains should be sunk three or four 
inches below the small ones. Tiles of a large size 
are made expressly for them. 
Having thus explained the structure, and the theo¬ 
retical advantages of the drain, it is necessary to say 
something more definite as to its practical benefits. 
The farmer who cultivates his land for a subsistence, 
must always fall back on this inquiry—will this im¬ 
provement repay me ? Profit must be a test of suc¬ 
cess with him. The verdict of this class in England, 
Ireland, and Scotland, is most decided. During the 
last year of my stay in those countries, I visited dis¬ 
tricts where the utmost efforts of the tile works could 
not supply the demand. The farms are almost all in 
the hands of tenants, but the landlords generally bear 
a part of the expense of draining: in some cases they 
furnish the tiles, if the tenant will do the cutting and 
filling of the trenches; in others they allow a certain 
per centage of the amount expended. The landlord 
feels that the permanent improvement of his land by 
this simple process is so great, that he is willing fre¬ 
quently to bear much more than half 'of the charges. 
In Scotland, where long leases are prevalent, tenants- 
do not hesitate to drain entirely at their own expense, 
especially towards the commencement of a lease. 
Many of them state that the increased produce repay* 
the whole cost of the improvement, in from two to 
three years. Five or six years was the longest period 
that I heard stated, and that only in peculiar cases. 
The actual outlay in the operation, of course varies 
greatly on different soils, and with the distance of the 
drains from each other, but it may be stated generally 
at from £3 to £8 per acre, or from $10 to $40. This 
gives little information as to the probable cost in this 
country, as our rates of labor and modes of working 
are entirely diverse from theirs. The extent to which 
some large tenants and proprietors have carried their 
operations, is far beyond anything thatjsingle farmers 
here can do. 
In 1846, I visited the farm of Mr. Dudgeon, of 
Spylaw, at Kelso, near the English border. The sur¬ 
face soil was stiff, and the subsoil almost impervious to 
water. He had then drained about 900 acres, and the 
length of drains was nearly 300 miles. His landlords 
defrayed about half of the expense. He had a tile 
work which turned out from 4 to 5,000,000 tiles in a 
year, but not sufficient to supply his wants. He was 
then in the beginning of a new nineteen year lease, 
and was draining as fast as possible, in order to reap 
the utmost advantage. The drains immediately raised 
the value of his land from a rent of $2.50 per acre, 
to one of $6.50. Owing to their ameliorating and 
drying influence, he had fine crops of turneps on stiff 
clays where it had never before been thought possible 
to grow them- The system of draining across the 
slopes had been tried on this farm, but abandoned as 
ineffetual in comparison with Smith of Deanston’s 
method. He was even going over those fields anew* 
at the time of my visit workmen were cutting straight 
down one of the slopes, across the old drains. Mr. 
Le Roy, a proprietor in the same neighborhood, had put 
in about 250 miles of drains on his own estate, thereby 
increasing the rent of many of his farms from $5 to 
$14 per acre. These were men of large property, but 
instances of equal or even greater success on a small 
scale, are frequent in many districts. In travelling 
over an unusually large portion of Great Britain, and 
hearing the experience of a very great numher of 
