326 
DRAINAGE OF SOILS. 
inches high with broken stones or, gravel, or laid with tiles covered 
with the impervious clay that has been taken out of them, more 
especially if they are made straight up and down the declivity, can 
have the same effect of drying the land as when they are carried 
across the slope and made of larger dimensions; neither can such 
drains be so durable, as they are much more apt to blow, owing to 
their small dimensions, when made up and down the slope, than 
when they are made the reverse way. This assertion is founded on 
facts and practical knowledge; and I am convinced that nine-tenths 
of the land that is attempted to be drained by furrow drains, would 
be much more effectually and permanently drained at half the ex¬ 
pense, if proper means were employed. I have lately had many 
opportunites of seeing this verified; but one, in particular, drew my 
attention in a field near Glasgow, which had been furrow drained in 
the summer of 1832. I observed, in passing it in the following spring, 
that many of the drains were already blown. The soil is of a sandy 
nature, and the ground has considerable declivity to the south; 
which circumstances ought to have pointed out the necessity of deep 
drains, and having them carried across the slope, by which means a 
complete drainage would have been effected, and the permanency of 
the drains secured at a much less expense. Among many other in¬ 
stances of this kind which have come under my immediate observa¬ 
tion, is a field of nine acres belonging to Lord Strathallan, in Perth¬ 
shire, which was attempted to be drained some years ago. The soil 
and sub-soil were a somewhat stiff tenacious clay, mixed with thin 
veins of fine sand. No less than three hundred and ninety-six roods 
of drains, averaging from two and a half, to three and a half feet deep, 
were run in straight lines up and down the slope, and filled 
promiscuously with stones, from the size of a man’s hand to that of 
the largest ox’s head. The first three or four years after the)" were 
made, the ground appeared tolerably dry, and produced a few mid¬ 
dling crops; but, in very few years, the drains were choked and 
blown, and the land became much less productive than it was even 
in its natural state, on account of the blown drains having formed 
springs where the land was perfectly dry before the draining was 
attempted. The failure of this ill-judged and ill-executed drainage, 
obliged the proprietor, in the autumn of 1830, to lift the whole of the 
old drains, as stated by the factor in the annexed note,* and renew the 
* “ Castle Strathallan, April 29/A, 1831. 
“ Sir,—T he drains you lined off in November last are now executed, and the 
land appears completely dry. The expense of lifting the old drains, which were 
quite useless by being stopped and bursted, was as follows :— 
