56 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 27, 1858. 
DRAINING AND CULTIVATING A LEVEL 
TRACT OF LAND. 
The disadvantages of certain situations are very difficult to 
cope with. A dry, shifting sand, or a wet impervious clay, 
though they may be much modified by cultivation and good 
management, yet they still retain much of their original cha¬ 
racter. One thing, however, is happily apportioned to all; 
each one is sure to be suited to the production of something 
wanted by the community at large, and though that fine rich 
soil, which is characterised by so many poetical names, is the 
one to which the aim of all cultivators is directed, soils of 
extreme character are wanted for some purposes, and it is 
surprising to see how they may become suitable to the produc¬ 
tion of crops, to whicli a widely different soil is generally 
thought most favourable. Excellent Black Currants are often 
grown on dry stony ground, while a moist, stiff soil is usually 
said to suit them best. The fact is, the well-being of cultiva¬ 
tion depends on so many parts, that a defect in one of these 
is not always fatal to the health of the plant cultivated. 
Leaving to the chemist and others to define what descrip¬ 
tion of food each plant requires, and what it rejects, a glance 
at one of the most common of these agents will disclose a 
something, of which a greater difference of opinion exists, 
perhaps, than on anything else. Water, that all important 
agent so necessary to both vegetable and animal life, but against 
which a warfare has been waged by the various cultural poli¬ 
ticians, in the way of expelling it from the ground ; so much 
so that draining has been elevated into a science, and to speak 
a word against it has been regarded as treason to the state. 
Be this as it may, moist fields and wet meadows still remain, 
and are likely to do for many years to come ; some, from in¬ 
superable difficulties in draining them, and in others, from the 
apathy of their occupiers, or their doubts of its efficacy; 
leaving the latter class to settle then* own difficulties, let us 
see how the other can best be dealt with. 
In many parts of England, there are large tracts of rich, 
fertile lands, lying only some two or three feet above the level 
of the sea, or tidal river; and, in some cases, lying even below 
the level of high water at spring tides; extensive embankments 
being made to keep back the ocean, or river, as it may be ; 
and the water collected in this plain, or basin, is worked out 
by machinery, or some outlet provided for it, to empty itself 
when the lowness of the receiving channel enables it to do so; 
the communication being shut when the water rises in .the 
river, or sea, bordering the tract in question. The evils of 
this latter plan being the inconvenience of fresh water collect¬ 
ing for several hours, without its being possible to let it out; 
besides which, some will find its way in from the supply above 
it ; that, in most cases, machinery has superseded the dock- 
gate system of emptying the interior of its contents; then 
comes the question, after a provision is made for discharging 
the surplus water, how low should that be done ? This 
question has often been asked, and answered in many ways. 
Some contending, that it is impossible to lay the land too dry; 
others asserting, that the rich, flat tracts of perfectly-level 
ground ought to have the ditches of water bordering them 
reduced no lower than that the standing water be two feet and 
a half from the surface ; even less than that, they say, does 
good rather than harm. The facts being, that while one de¬ 
scription of land benefits by all the surplus water being deeply 
and properly drained away, another is better for its subsoil to 
be partially saturated with it; which, being drawn to the top 
by capillary action, gives moisture to the crops growing thereon. 
A universal rule in these matters cannot, therefore, be given ; 
besides which, Nature is so very accommodating, that a con¬ 
siderable amount of success will often attend means diame¬ 
trically opposed to eacli other. Nevertheless, there are some 
measures better than others, and it is better to adopt the best 
one. 
Generally speaking, flat, marshy land, on being reclaimed 
from the waste, is intersected by open ditches, from four to 
six or seven feet deep; water standing in these ditches mostly 
all the year. Now, where this is the case, it is useless to drain 
with pipes, excepting a little above high-water mark, which, 
in some places, is not more than two feet from the top; and 
if the soil for that depth be porous, and accessible to water 
passing lreely through it, draining in the usual way can do no 
good; for the water rising, perhaps, a little above the moutbs 
of the pipes, efcfbrs them, and fills them with a muddy sedi¬ 
ment, very difficult to remove. Unsightly, therefore, as open 
ditches are, there are really no other ways of getting rid of the 
water, excepting in that way; unless an effective piece of 
machinery exist at the outlet, capable of quickly removing all 
the water that collects there at all times; and as the tract, that 
may be drained to one source, is often a large one, and the 
principal drains being capacious—almost like canals—a pow¬ 
erful steam engine is often employed to lift it'out, the various 
landholders in the district, which it drains, paying a sort of 
water rate to some officer or manager, who works the engine. 
And a specified depth is guaranteed to be maintained above 
water mark : the depth has, however, been altered much of 
late years, since draining became so much the fashion of the 
day; but I know of one case, in which the maximum height 
at which the ground surface was above the water being only 
twenty-four inches, and some additional machinery being em¬ 
ployed to increase that distance to thirty-six inches, the neigh¬ 
bouring farmers complained much of the injury done to their 
crops in consequence. Now this is one of the few cases in 
which draining did harm, but there seemed little doubt that 
it really was so. A certain amount of moisture seemed neces- \ 
sary to render the ground fertile, and removing an undue ; 
quantity of that water did harm to a certain extent. It, there- j 
tore, behoves those having lands of this description to deal j 
with, to consider well before they too hastily rob it of its most | 
important agent to success. 
Those not acquainted with rural affairs must not suppose 
that every marshy place can be properly drained, by all the I 
surplus water being carried off by 24-inch drains. Nothing j 
can be more erroneous; the case above only proves that a J 
certain place was injured by that depth being increased ; long- \ 
continued cultivation had rendered that depth, no doubt, avail- j 
able to the wants of the plants, and when it was increased, 
the roots probably were unable to descend so far for their food; 
but there are few soils requiring water so near the top, while | 
the great bulk cannot well be drained too thoroughly nor too j 
deeply. Perfectly level tracts cannot well be thoroughly drained, 
otherwise than by a great number of open gutters, or ditches, 
unless the outlet be some four feet or more deep ; as drain | 
pipes require some fall, while a wide open ditch will discharge 1 
its waters with very little descent. 
The above will, probably, meet the w r ants of a corre¬ 
spondent, who is about making a garden in such a position as 
the one described; and he asks, if it would do to trench it ? 
For vegetables, I should certainly say, yes; but by all means 
keep the top soil to the top again; and if the subsoil be a stiff 
clay, anything dug into it that will lighten it will do much 
good ; at the same time, beware of mixing dung, or anything 1 
very tempting, in the bottom, where fruit trees are to be i 
planted ; otherwise they will root down there, and be injured 
in consequence, the clayey subsoil very often subsiding into 
the same impervious mass as before. Stones, brickbats, lime, 
or lime rubbish, might be dug in advantageously ; and if there 
be a fall of one in three hundred, it can be drained by pipes 
in the ordinary way; but less fall than that cannot well be 
depended on to do much good, unless very carefully executed. 
However, where the water in the open ditches never stands 
higher than within four feet of the surface, pipe drains may 
start from them, and traverse the ground for 150 yards on each 
side, rising eighteen inches in their course; and if another 
ditch was 300 yards from the one in question, the drains 
might meet and work it all. The correspondent who wishes 
to make a garden, in such a situation, might perhaps do this, : 
and fill in all intervening open ditches. But let him not 
depend on drain pipes alone, in a perfectly level district; and 
if t he land has been long used to these open ditches, he must 
act cautiously in filling them up ; if, however, there be sufficient 
fall to get rid of the water, then we say, by all means fill | 
them up at once. J. Robson. 
SEA WORMS. 
Among the many odd things that I am particular to keep, 
as objects of interest, there are few more interesting than 
large oyster and whelk shells, that have been cased over by 
Serpulre and Barnacles ; they are the most picturesque of any 
of the gatherings from the deep sea, and when the creatures j 
that inhabit the calcareous tubes and galleries, with which I 
