INTRODUC TFIGN; XXVil

till they at laft were perfectly freed by it from all the fuperfluous moifture. And not only were his own fields thus drained, but the contiguous land, for a-confiderable diftance all round, was made ‘drier alfo by the operation. This circumftance led him to fufpect, that in other cafes, where the furface-appearance of wet land was fomewhat fimi- lar to his own, they might be drained by making openings refembling thofe above named. Suc- cefs attended his operations in many cafes; and he gradually went on in his prattice, corre€ting his firft errors by experience, and improving upon it till the prefent time.

From this account, it would feem that the dif. covery was, as to him, merely accidental; nor does it appear, from the above, that he had any clear idea of the manner in which the draining is thus effected, or the principles on which it de- pends, fo as to be able to diftinguith, a priori, thofe cafes in which that mode of draining could be of no ufe, from thofe where it muft of necef-

fity prove efficacious.

As to myfelf, the difcovery of that mode of draining was made in the following manner:| had a field of wet land that lay very flat, but fo furrounded by ditches, that no furface water could come to it from higher ground any where,

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