D R A l N I N G. 
5i 
Why (liould I tell of ponds and drains, 
What carps we met with for our pains > 
DRAIN'ING,yi in luifbandry, the art of carrying off 
the lurcharge of water from wet, marfny, or fwampy, 
land, and thereby laying it fufficiently dry for the pur- 
pofes of agriculture. This art has been purfued fora 
long feries of years, with a degree of induftry and perfe- 
vc-ranee' equal to the importance of the object, though 
without tiie dc-lired fuccefs. But it has recently ap¬ 
proached very near perfection, through the ingenuity of 
Mr. Jofeph Elkington, a gentleman farmer of Prince- 
thorp, in the county of Warwick, whofuccefsfully adopt¬ 
ed a plan of tapping or boring the fubjacent fprings, fo 
as to let off thofe waters which are the conftant fupply of 
bogs, moraffes, and fvvamps. This valuable dilcovery 
not only detefts the latent caufe of water oozing over the 
furface of the foil, but points out a.method of draining 
by which the evil is effectually removed. 
Draining is, without doubt, the fir (1 flop towards the 
improvement of all wet land ; and, according to the prin¬ 
ciples laid down by Mr. Elkington, it depends upon three 
points : i. Upon finding out the main fpring, or caufe of 
the mifehief, without which nothing effectual can be 
done. 2. Upon taking the level of that fpring, and af- 
certaining its fubterraneous bearings; for, if the drain is 
cut a yard beyond the line of th$ fpring, we can never 
reach the water that iffues from it, but by afeertaining 
that line by means of levelling, we may cut off the fpring 
effectually, and confequently drain tlie land in the cheaped 
and molt eligible manner. 3. By making ufe of the auger 
to reach or tap the fpring, when the depth of the drain 
is not fufficient for that purpofe. 
In regard to the ufe of the auger, though it appears 
that Mr. Elkington was led to employ that inftrument 
from an accidental circumdance, yet there is no doubt 
that others have hit upon the fame idea many years, 
perhaps ages, ago, though without applying it in the ad¬ 
vantageous manner which this operator has done. It is 
faid, that in attempting to difeover mines by means of an 
auger, fprings have been tapped, and the adjacent wet 
ground thereby drained, either by letting the water down, 
or giving it vent to the furface. The auger has alfo 
been made ufe af in bringing water into wells, by boring 
in the bottom of them, to lave the expcnce of digging, 
efpecially in Italy, where it is probable that the practice 
is very ancient. 
Buffon dates, “ That, in the city of Modena, and four 
miles round, whatever part is dug, when we reach the 
depth of lixty-three feet, and bore five feet deeper with 
an auger, the water fprings out with fueh force, that the 
well is filled in a very Ihort fpace of time.. This water 
flows continually, and neither diminifiies nor increafes by 
tlie rain or drought.” Mentioning the different firata 
that are met with to this depth, he adds, “ Thefe Ric- 
cefiive beds of fenny or marfny earth and chalk, are al¬ 
ways found in the fame order wherever we dig; and very 
often the auger meets with large trunks of trees, which 
it bores through, but which give great trouble to the 
workmen; bones, coals, flint, and pieces of iron, are 
alfo found. 
The ancient mode of draining was well known to the 
Romans, as appears from many of their writers. Cato, 
Palladius, Columella, and Pliny, mention them particu¬ 
larly. Upon drong tenacious land, where the water 
could only be received at top, they preferred open drains-; 
on other foils, where tlie water could be drawn equally 
from both fides, or could rife from the bottom, they ufed 
covered ones. They knew the propriety of directing 
them obliquely acrofs the Hope of the field; a point in 
which modern drainers have often been erroneous. Their 
general depth was from three to four feet, filled half-way 
up with fmall flones ; for want of thefe, with willow 01- 
alder poles, and even with the fpray of wood twifted into 
a rope, which is one of the lated practices with ftraw 
that' has take place with modern drainers in England. Of 
that material, alfo, the Roman farmers availed them, 
felves, when others were wanting. The ends of their 
drains they were careful in fortifying with larger flones, 
in form oF bridges, and the mouths, or outlets, were 
laid in mafonry. From the depth, it appears that theiir 
drains were defigned to carry off the water of fprings, as 
well as that caufed by rain on a flat or retentive furface; 
for both which they were, in fome cafes, equally well- 
adapted. To tlie proper direction of water-furrows in 
their luifbandry, in order to convey all furface water into 
the drains, and to the clearing and cleaning out of the 
ditches'round the fields, they paid particular attention. 
Thefe circumdances are fufficient to fiiow that the Ro¬ 
mans brought the bufinefs of common draining into Bri¬ 
tain with them ; and that our bed cultivated counties had 
little to boaft in this refpeCI, in fuperiority to the ancients, 
till Mr. Elkington made the difeovery of the prefent me¬ 
thod, with which they certainly appear to have been 
wholly unacquainted. 
This modern principle of draining, by tapping fprings, 
or by perforating with an auger through a retentive into 
an abforbent or porous ftratum, being afeertained, its 
application in theory is obvious ; though it requires fome 
judgement to direct its practice. Tlie method of per- 
forming it has been molt laudably inveftigated by the 
board of agriculture in England, and tlie Highland fo- 
ciety in Scotland; to whom it decifively appeared, that 
barren moraffes might, by, this art, be converted into 
rich meadow and fertile arable fields ; that cold wet four 
grounds might, by" the fame means, be made equally 
productive, and that thus an adonidiing proportion of the 
word hinds in Great Britain fend Ireland might be re¬ 
deemed from the curfe of infertility. It appears like- 
wife, by thus collecting the large fupplies of water pent 
up in foils to which it is highly injurious, that what now 
operates as an evil, might be converted into a permanent 
good, by making thele waters fubfervient to the pur- 
pofes ot irrigation, of fupplying ponds, or refervoirs, 
or houfes, or directed in aid of turning mills. To re¬ 
ward fo ufeful an invention, and to purchafe it for tlie be¬ 
nefit of the public, the board of agriculture, highly to 
its honour, obtained to Mr. Elkington a grant from par¬ 
liament of one thoufand pounds fterling. Mr. John John- 
done, land furveyor, at Edinburgh, has dnee publidied the 
method at large, illudrated by explanatory engravings, 
w hereby the practical farmer, or gentlemen, who wiihes 
to improve his land, might have recourfe to it, under his 
own direction, without difficulty or impofition ; and from 
the above work, which we earnediy recommend to tlie 
perufal of all men, we have extracted the following out¬ 
line of the principles and applications of this new mode 
of draining. 
Wetnels in land proceeds from two caufes, as different 
in themfelves as the efreCts which they produce. It pro- 
ceeds either from rain-water dagnant on the furface, or 
from the water of fprings iffuing over, or confined under 
it. On clay foils, that have no natural defeent, wetnefs 
is commonly produced by tlie fird of thefe caufes ; but, 
in a variety of fituations, it proceeds from the latter. 
From the perforations made in quarries, wells, and other 
fubterraneous pits, the earth is known to be compofed of 
various drata, which, being in their nature of oppolite 
confidence, are here didinguidied by the names of po¬ 
rous, and impervious. Thofe drata, which, from their 
more open compofition, are porous, and capable of re¬ 
ceiving the rain water that falls on them, include fandy- 
rock, gravel, fand, and fuch marles as are of an abforb¬ 
ent quality. Clay, and a certain kind of gravel having 
a proportion of clay in its compodvion, which, by bind¬ 
ing and cementing the fraall bones together, renders it 
equally dole and tenacious as clay itfelf; with Rich rock 
as is of a clofe and compad nature, without any fiffures 
in it, are the principal drata that refid the water, and that 
are capable of unholding or retaining it on their furface, 
and are termed impervious. Springs, therefore, com¬ 
monly 
