THE CULTIVATOR. 
151 
EXTRACTS. 
DRAINING. 
We consider this branch of agricultural improvement all essential to good 
husbandry; and having experienced great benefit from it in our own 
practice, though performed, we confess, in an awkward way, we are 
confident we cannot do a more important service to the readers of the 
Cultivator, than by laying before them the following practical directions 
for draining,by George Stephens, who has spent a great portion of 
his life in directing and managing these operations, and who appears to 
understand perfectly the principles upon which they can alorte be suc¬ 
cessfully conducted. 
The Agricultural Society at Orebro, in Sweden, anxious to introduce with¬ 
out delay, Elkington’s system of draining into that kingdom, procured 
Mr. Stephens, in 1806, to practice and teach it, at an expense of a 
guinea a day, besides his expenses. So highly were the Swedes pleas¬ 
ed with his labors, and of such high value did they consider the im¬ 
provements to agriculture,'resulting from them, that Mr. Stephens was 
employed, subsequent to his first engagement, to. survey and make 
plans for the drainage and cultivation of about one hundred and eighty 
thousand acres of wet land in that country. Appended to the work 
from which we make the following extract, is the report made to the 
Royal Agricultural Society of Orebro, highly complimentary to Mr. 
Stephens, and creditable to the Elkington system of draining which 
he pursued.— Cond. Cult. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The importance of draining, previous to the commencement of any 
other improvement in agriculture, being acknowledged by every cultiva¬ 
tor of the soil, it is Of the greatest consequence that these undertakings 
should be conducted on principles which will insure complete and per¬ 
manent success. The full advantages of this primary improvement can 
only be obtained when it is well -done. It is, indeed, the mother of all 
other improvements in laud; and, to make it effectual, it is necessary that 
the qualities of the soil, the nature of the stratification, and the laws that 
govern the rising and running of water, should all be taken into conside¬ 
ration. Any drainage, not conducted with due regard to these, however 
apparently successful at first, will, in the end, turn out a complete failure. 
If the work is executed in an insufficient manner, it will often be attend¬ 
ed with more expense to remedy the evil than the first outlay; and the 
operations being concealed under ground, the defects cannot be discover¬ 
ed until a great loss has been sustained. 
If landed proprietors were alive to their own interest, they would as¬ 
sist their tenants, to any reasonable extent, in draining on the best prin¬ 
ciples and in the most substantial manner; for, when properly executed, 
it is equally as advantageous to the proprietor as to the tenant; and it must 
be of the highest importance that the interest of both parties should be 
combined, by performing the -work in a complete and permanent manner, 
as land that is imperfectly drained can never , produce crops, either in 
quantity or quality, equal to land that has been properly dried. 
There are few agriculturists or people employed in draining land, that 
pay proper attention to the stratification of the earth, to which, and the 
want of a knowledge of hydraulics,'may chiefly be ascribed the many 
mistakes that happen. The stratification of many districts, more especially 
in North Britain, is so much broken by volcanic or some other eruptions, 
that a person unaccustomed to the investigation of the causes from which 
wetness in land proceeds, has very little chance of discovering it, or of 
drying the land, without a much greater number of drains than is neces¬ 
sary. It is not my intention, in this essay, to enter upon an elaborate de¬ 
tail of the various systems of draining land which are at present practised 
in this country; but I shall only endeavor to state, in as plain and concise 
a manner as the nature of the subject will allow, the necessary rules to 
be attended to in draining the different kinds of soil, and which-1 have 
always found, during the course of my practice, to be uniformly success-, 
fui 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF DRAINING. 
Wetness in land proceeds either from rainwater lodging on the surface 
or from subterraneous water confined in the bowels of the earth, which, 
by its own pressure, forces itself to the surface in the form of springs.— 
On tenacious clays that are nearly level, wetness is often produced by the 
first of these causes, but it much more frequently proceeds from the lat¬ 
ter It is necessary to be able to distinguish from which of these causes 
the wetness proceeds, to insure success, (for surface draining, when the 
water is subterraneous, can only alleviate the effect, in place of removing 
the cause,) to accomplish which, requires no small extent of knowledge 
of the nature and source of springs. 
The earth is composed of strata of very various kinds, which, when ap¬ 
plied to draining, may, without regard to their other characteristics, be 
divided into two classes, viz. porous and impervious. All those kind of 
strata, whose less coherent parts receive water freely, and through which 
it runs with ease, such as rotten rock, gravel, sand, and loamy clays, are 
called porous. On the other hand, tenacious clays, and a certain kind of 
gravel, having a proportion of clay in its composition which, by binding 
the small stones togeiher, renders it equally as impervious as clay itself, 
and such rock as is of a close and compact nature, without any fissures in 
it, are the principal strata that resist the reception of water, and are there¬ 
fore called impervious. Springs undoubtedly originate from the rain and 
snow water subsiding through porous strata, till it meets an impervious 
stratum that presents an obstruction to its further descent, and here form¬ 
ing a reservoir or considerable collection of water, it is thus forced, ei¬ 
ther to filtrate along such a substance, or rise to the surface, where it 
oozes out in those different ways that are so frequently met with. When 
the stratum which contains ihe water composes part of a hill or rising 
ground, from which the water has descended, it will force its way to the 
surface wherever it finds the easiest passage; this is sometimes by a na¬ 
tural outlet, but often this is not apparent, and it is confined so near the 
surface as to injure it by constant moisture, or by oozing imperceptibly 
through any small pores in the soil. The great object, therefore, in drain¬ 
ing, is to cut cff'entirely the source of the springs or subterraneous water, 
which causes the wetness, by flowing over the surface, or being confined 
beneath it. This was discovered by Mr. Elkington, whose leading prin¬ 
ciples are, j first, to find out where the" water lies in different soils and si¬ 
tuations, and under what circumstances; second, to lay out the drains so 
as most effectually to remove the water; third, to make the drains the 
most perfect for this purpose, either by digging alone, or by digging and 
afterwards boring in their bottoms with an auger—the chief object being 
to dry the ground effectually and at the least expense. When the sub¬ 
terraneous water lies at such a depth that the level of the outlet will not 
admit of a drain being cut so deep, or where the expense would be too 
great, the auger is used to make bore holes in the bottom of the drain, 
through which the water rises by its own pressure. The truth of the 
principles of this system of draining has been proved by the extraordina¬ 
ry results which have attended it, not only in this country, but in others, 
as will be seen by the annexed account of draining in Sweden. By it 
not only the land that was intended to be drained, but also springs, wells, 
and wet ground at a considerable distance, with which there was no ap¬ 
parent communication, have been made dry.* As, hotvever, the whole 
depends upon the situation of the ground, and the nature and inclination 
of the strata of the adjacent country, a knowledge of these must be ob¬ 
tained before any of the operations are commenced, which will be fully 
explained in the following details- of the different cases. 
DRAINING BOGS AND MARSHES. 
The bogs and marshy grounds injured by springs, which form a very 
great proportion of the wet land of this country, are thought by many in¬ 
capable of being drained; but however impracticable it may appear, the 
many thousand acres which have been lately brought into cultivation, not 
only show that they can be easily drained at little expense, but that when 
they axe made dry, they are, in many instances, more valuable than the 
lands in their vicinity. It is quite apparent that bogs and marshy grounds 
originate sometimes from water breaking out of the adjacent heights, in a 
regular line along their upp.er side—at other times from springs rising pro¬ 
miscuously over the whole surface, forming generally what are called 
welleyes; but more frequently from both causes conjoined, and forming 
quagmires, which shake all around, so as to be dangerpus for a person to 
walk across: they are easily distinguished at a distance, by the verdure 
of the grass around the welleyes. Under the peat earth, which varies in 
depth from five to twenty feet, and, in some instances, more, a bed of 
clay is sometimes found, and under that, a stratum of sand or gravel; but, 
in others the whole of the sub-strata is composed of the same substance 
as the adjacent eminences. The clay bed between the moss and the po¬ 
rous stratum being, in many places, very thin, the pressure of the water 
in the high ground.forces that with which it is connected under the bog 
through the more porous part of Ihe clay and moss to the surface, form¬ 
ing the appearances just mentioned. Such are the general features of 
bogs and marshes; nevertheless, in every district of the country, much 
ground still lies waste from the same cause, although containing no peat, 
on which the same mode of draining ought to be resorted to. 
In draining boggy or marshy ground, the first thing to be considered is 
the best direction for-the outlet, and to ascertain its level; the next thing' 
is to fix the direction in which the drains are to be cut. When the wa¬ 
ter breaks out. on the upper side of the moss, a drain must be carried 
along the line pf the wetness, sufficiently deep to intercept it, with out- 
* The author experienced a case of this kind lately in draining some fields 
for Lord Willoughby de Eresbjr, in Lincolnshire, where a well, in the pos¬ 
session of the tenant, about a mile distant from the operations, was completely 
drained. 
