CULTIVATION OF WASTE LAND. 
399 
ARTICLE XII. 
ESSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF WASTE LAND, 
For which the Prize was awarded by the Agricultural Society of Liverpool, to 
MR. REED, PROFESSIONAL DRAINER, &C. 
(Extracted from the Irish Farmer’s and Gardener’s Magazine.) 
“Perhaps there are few objects on which money has been expended 
more injudiciously, or in the pursuit of which more disappointment 
lias occurred, than in the attempts to drain moss. The great 
stumbling block in the road to success, seems to have been the want 
of duly considering the 'principle by which the water is retained in 
mosses. In many instances much labour has been thrown away in 
endeavouring to cut deep and wide drains, at a considerable expence, 
under the impression that they would produce every desirable effect 
over a large extent of surface. But, if what has been advanced, 
namely, that ‘ the water to a considerable depth from the surface is 
held in a great degree by capillary attraction,’ be correct, it follows, 
necessarily, that the only way to get rid of the water is to destroy 
the principle by which it is held, and this can only be done by pier¬ 
cing the moss lo a considerable depth, at such distances as will set 
the water at liberty between any two incisioi^s. In all cases where the 
soil to be drained is of an uniform character, and somewhat porous, 
the distance to which any drain will have a beneficial effect is in pro¬ 
portion to its depth. Breadth in a drain only increases its capability 
of conveying water away after it has received it, but does not aug¬ 
ment its power to dry the land. As a matter of course, the width of 
a drain at the top must he determined not only by the depth which 
it has to he sunk, but due regard must also he paid to the inclination 
at which the earth on the sides will stand, and preserve the required 
form. But without saying it is absolutely impossible, it may safely 
be asserted that it is very unprofitable, to attempt even to cut deep 
drains on white or flow moss. The semi-fluid character of this sub¬ 
stance, in consequence of the quantity of water held in the multitude 
of capillary tubes, of which the vegetable mass is composed, causes a 
pressure upon the sides of any and every drain that is cut and the 
pressure will be as is the depth. The water, in fact, seeks to find 
the lower level which has been created by the drain, but it is held in 
the moss by capillary attraction ; a sort of conflict then ensues be¬ 
tween the two principles, which in all cases where the drain is made 
of an improper depth, ends in the water taking the moss along with 
