402 
CULTIVATION OF WASTE LAND. 
and to receive the water from the under-land, or as they are termed 
in Lancashire, hollow drains, may be placed at any distance not ex¬ 
ceeding one hundred yards apart. It is desirable to have them as 
far apart as possible, on account of the operations of cross-ploughing, 
harrowing, &c., which is sometimes necessary in such land, and 
which is greatly impeded when the horse or horses have to turn so 
very often; on the other hand, it must be kept in view, that the 
drainage is the first and most important step to improvement, and 
that all other matters must conform thereto. The hollow drains 
should run at right angles to the line of the open or divisional drains; 
it follows therefore, that they will be of precisely the same length as 
is the distance between any two open drains, and, as the chances of 
stoppage in the hollow drains are in proportion to their length, it is 
most prudent, especially in the early part of the improving pro¬ 
cess, to let them be as short, and, consequently, the fields as 
narrow, as is consistent with the convenient carrying on of the other 
operations. After having tried all distances between fifty and a 
hundred yards, the writer has fixed upon sixty-six yards, or three 
statute chains, as the best width of the fields. By having the fields 
either so many chains, or so many perches wide, a considerable fa¬ 
cility is afforded in estimating or measuring the quantity of work 
done by the workmen employed in the after-cultivation : for instance, 
where the perch of seven yards is in use, the fields might be made 
seventy yards wide, and then, in any case where mowing, shearing, 
&c., has to be measured, sixteen perches in length of the field would 
be an acre; in like manner, where the perch consists of eight yards, 
the width of the fields might be made sixty-four yards, and twenty 
perches in length of the field would be an acre.* The open drains 
should be set out four feet wide at the top, and, when finished, they 
should be from three feet six inches to four feet deep, and about four¬ 
teen inches wide at the bottom. To get them down to this depth, 
and still to preserve their form, is a work of time ; the operations of 
the improver must be governed by the degree of fluidity possessed by 
the moss; in proportion as this is great, so must the operations be 
slow, but there is scarcely any conceivable degree of wetness which 
may not be overcome by judicious treatment. The practical opera¬ 
tion by which these drains are made, are as follows: the direction of 
the drain having been determined, the workman stretches a line to 
* Although the writer mentions these figures, he hopes to live to see the day 
when there will be but one standard measure for an acre througout the kingdom, 
as well as for the produce of the soil. The multiplication of terms expressive of 
quantity is productive of much inconvenience, to say the least of it, and is not 
unfrequently made use of by the designing to deceive the unwary. 
