400 
CULTIVATION OF WASTE LAND. 
it, as it were, and the two sides of the drain come together. Both 
principle and practice have taught and confirmed the writer in the 
opinion, that the only effectual way of draining deep moss is by in¬ 
serting drains at small distances from each other, and that in order 
to effectually drain, and at the same time, to keep the expenditure 
within a proper compass, it is necessary to make the drains of as 
great a depth as the moss will conveniently allow, without removing 
more of the moss than is absolutely necessary. For, of course, the 
expence of a drain will be in proportion to the quantity, weight, &c\, 
of the stuff removed by the workman. 
“ The late venerable Mr. Roscoe, who may with truth be styled 
the pioneer of moss improvements in the county of Lancaster, seems 
to have been of the same opinion in the early part of his labour to 
improve Chat Moss, though it appears that he afterwards ceased to 
act upon it, assigning as a reason that the process was ‘ too tedious 
and too expensive.’ He then ‘ made drains four feet wide at the top, 
and one foot at the bottom, and four feet and a half deep.’ These 
drains were fifty yards apart, and Mr. Roscoe, in his account of the 
improvements of Chat Moss, which is printed in ‘ Steele's History 
of Peat Moss,' says, that he believes ‘ that they will sufficiently drain 
the moss without having recourse to under-draining.’ In another 
part of the account, Mr. R. expresses an opinion that the time ne¬ 
cessary to effect the desired degree of dryness and solidity in the 
moss, will be in the same proportion as is the distance of the drains 
one from the other. But the truth of the matter is this, that the 
tract of the moss so attempted to be drained by Mr. Roscoe, twenty 
years after these same drains were cut, was in no instance, even where 
the drains had received several subsequent sinkings and cleanings, 
possessed of the necessary degree of dryness ; and in other parts, 
where this after-attention had not been paid, the drains were so 
squeezed together by the lateral pressure, that they were with much 
difficulty traced at all. Mr. Roscoe, was, no doubt, strengthened in 
his opinon as to the inutility of under-draining bv the confirmation 
it received from the writings of, and, perhaps, personal communica¬ 
tions with, Mr. William Aiton, of Strathaven. This latter gentle¬ 
men, to whom the agricultural world is indebted for his ‘ Essay on 
Peat Moss,' and other works on rural economy, has expressed an 
opinion that, under-land draining is ‘ not necessary, and can do no 
good,’ Notwithstanding the weight which the opinions of such gen¬ 
tleman necessarily and properly carry with them, the writer begs to 
be allowed to differ. He cannot believe that the quickest way 
of draining a moss ought to be abandoned on the plea of its be- 
