LLL

ON DRAINING.

To the Editor of the Commercial and Agricultural Magazine, SIR,

LAST month ſent you a method of Draining as pradiſed by

me and many others with conſiderable advantage, which, altliough not bew in itſelf, is ſtill ſo‘far from being generally Kknown,that I ſhould hope it might prove acceptable to-ſome of your Readers, under which idea I ſubjoin the methods invarl- ably purſuéd’by me.

My fuſt care is to examine minutely the land intended. to be drained, I mean with regard to the poſition, the natufe: of the ſoil and its. ſubſtrata, how much fall it„ay have, and to aſcér- tain from what cauſes it is rendered wer and boggy,- as without thoſe precautions, every future attempt to drain it might prove avortive.

Should the fall be gréat,‘of courſe there will be but little trouble and expence in executing the work, keeping, in view this firſt grand principle, the hinge on which every part of Draining turns, never fail(where there is a-poſſibility of doing it) to cut of all kinds of ſprings and every other kind of water z as without doing ſo, I can venture to aſlert, that every other operation, no matter how well executed, will in a great mea- iure, loſe its effed, to the certain loſs and diſappointment of the proprietor and diſgrace of the drainer.—I will ſuppoſe for a mo- ment, that in every othér reſpe&, the land had been properly drained, what would be the conſequence? The wet would fill foak down through the whole, render the draining imperfedt, and the expence and labour incurred in its execution, would bé perhaps almoſt wholly thrown away. That this. has been thé cáſe is but too true, and I truſt I ſhall be excuſed for relating an inſtance, as it may ſerve-as a beacon to warn thoſe of their danger who might incautiouſly in a fimilar ſituation place too great confidence in the drainer; not that IT‘wiſh to caſt any gene- ral refleélion on a very uſeful claſs of men, as there are many who, no doubt, thoroughly underſtood their buſineſs, and alſo unfortunately many of the contrary deſcription, through whoſe ignorance and inattention this molt uſeful branch of Agriculture is greatly fallen in the public opinion.

A Gentleman in Hertfordſhiré, employed a man to drain a large garden upwards of four acres, ſituate at the bottom of 2 gentle hill. Inſtead of endeavouring to‘cut off the wet, which muſt be for ever oozing down the hill, which he could have done moſt effeéually by cutting a maſter drain immediately above the higher wall, he contented himſelf with making a few buſh or faggot drains, all drawing to one point, by which he ren- déred,‘as might be well expedted, but little benefit, and has at the ſame time left it open to all the former inconveniences ariſing from the“wet ſoaking down the hül,