nuring more frequently than his neighbours; the cause of which is, that the hard crust of subsoil prevents the escape of the rain-water, and keeps the soil wet and cold; but if this crust were broken up, the land would become dry and fertile. Yet how many instances are there in which nothing has been done to break up the subsoil, and thus to give a greater depth for cultivation, although complaints are constantly made about the poverty and thinness of the soil.

When the land is trenched, the stones should lie upon the surface for a season, to consolidate the earth, and rot the turf that has been turned down. They should then be taken off; the smaller ones for under drains, and the larger may be used to make a fence round the field. If any of the stones are too large to be removed, they may be readily broken into pieces, by first digging around and under them, and then lighting a fire on the top, when there is wind enough to make it burn briskly, and blow away the ashes; by this means they will, in a short time, crack and fall to pieces. Large stones may be broken in this way, at small labour and expense. The land must afterwards be formed into regular ridges, 18 feet broad, with small furrows between each, so formed as to have a gradual fall, and that the surfacewater may run gently off, without cutting and carrying away the soil.

In spring, the land thus prepared may be planted with potatoes, after which a compost of earth, peat, sand, lime, or marl may be laid on as a top-dressing, and it should then be sown with oats. The third year it may be dunged, and planted with potatoes again, or be sown with turnips or mangel-wurzel, followed by barley and grass-seeds, after which it may come into the regular rotation, and will be nearly as good as land originally of a more fertile character.

Bog, peat, or moss land, contains more vegetable matter than any other, and becomes highly productive when properly treated.

In reclaiming bog, and coarse wet broken land, the first object is to attend to the drainage and get rid of

all superfluous water, after which you must bring the surface to a level, by throwing the rough heights into the holes and crooked water-courses, and forming the whole into ridges 18 feet in breadth, leaving a cut about a foot deep between the ridges, which must be slightly raised at the centres, to allow the surface-water to run off. If there is more of the rubbishy turf than is required for filling up the holes and hollows, it should be formed into heaps, and when dry, burned to ashes for manure. The black bog yields a large quantity of valuable ashes, and may be thus profitably burned: but the red bog is softer and more spongy, and yields scarcely any ashes, and these so light and volatile that the least breath of wind disperses them.

Paring and burning land is generally disapproved of by agriculturists, but with respect to bog and peaty soil, all the heath, fog, and coarse grasses, together with the surface, to the depth of five or six inches, may profitably be burned for manure. When burned, the ashes should be kept in heaps, and protected from the weather by a covering of sods, until it is regularly spread when the land is cropped.

Lime, marl, and sea-sand always improve bog, moss, and cold wet lands, by mingling with and decomposing the coarse sour vegetable matter with which such soils abound, and rendering the land more solid and productive: but no moss land can be considered thoroughly reclaimed, until it has had a coating of clay, gravel, loam, or some kind of earth, to the depth of from three to six inches, with a dressing of lime or sand, and until sufficient drainage has been provided to carry off the surplus moisture.

In spring, the land prepared as above may be planted with potatoes, dibbled in; and oats may be sown the following spring, with or without manure, according to the condition of the soil. The next crop should be turnips, potatoes, or mangel-wurzel, manured again with sand, marl, or lime, if possible; and then barley with grass-seeds, rolling it well afterwards. This will next year give a sward of grass, which, at the end of summer, may be cut for hay, or it may be pastured by

sheep or calves, heavy cattle being kept off, as they would be apt to poach the ground. After two years' grass, oats may again be sown, followed by potatoes or turnips, manured; and the land will then be fit for any purpose, if kept free from water, and liberally supplied with manure.

In reclaiming any great extent of waste land, it ought to be divided into the number of fields best suited for the size of the farm, and the regular rotation of crops. The enclosures should all be square; for it has been found that in square fields, five ploughs will do as much work as six when the sides are irregular; and there is also less waste ground in the borders.

DRAINING.

Draining is one of the most important, as well as one of the most necessary operations in agriculture; and, when properly conducted, it is uniformly followed by beneficial results.

A certain indication of the want of draining in arable land, is where the crop grows strong on the summit of the ridges, but weak and thin at the sides, and little or none in the furrows. Whenever this is observed, no time should be lost in setting about draining the land, without which it will never produce good crops. No labour and expense in working and manuring the soil, can possibly yield a remunerative return to the farmer, until the land is relieved from the excess of moisture which these appearances indicate. Until this is done, the application of manure in any shape will be useless, for its fertilizing qualities will be immediately diluted and destroyed.

The effect is the same, whether the moisture arises from springs below, or from the atmosphere above; and the excess must in either case be removed by draining, before the land will be capable of yielding a due return for the labour and manure bestowed upon it.

If any springs appear, they must be kept from the surface by cutting an under-drain, of sufficient depth to intercept them, where the wet appears, and filling for

16 or 18 inches with small stones, over which a thin covering of turf or heath should be laid, to prevent the earth from getting in; and the drain must be then filled in and levelled, taking care to have 16 or 18 inches of earth above the stones, in order that the drain may not be disturbed in ploughing. This is the most common and durable sort of drain: but tiles and other materials are often used; and so long as a free outlet for the water is secured, leaving the surface dry for cultivation, it matters little how this is accomplished.

In some stiff wet clay lands, it has been the practice to drain with thorns, by cutting a narrow trench of the depth of about 3 feet, with a small groove or gutter at bottom, in which a rope of straw is laid from end to end of the drain, and over it the thorns are placed, and the trench is then filled in. This mode of draining costs but little, and will answer for several years, and in stiff clays perhaps affords a readier means of escape for the surface-water than tile draining: but where the land is once well tile-drained, it lasts for ever, whereas the thorns decay in 15 or 16 years, and the whole process will then have to be done anew.

In filling in the drains, however they may have been made, care should be taken to use the lighter portions of the earth thrown out in forming them, in order that the surface-water may pass more readily through it, and be carried off in the drain below. The heavier portions of the earth may be scattered over the surface, where it will soon become mellowed by the action of the atmosphere. This is especially necessary to be attended to in draining stiff clay lands.

There are other modes of draining practised in different parts of the country, each probably suited to the circumstances of the district, and effective for its object; for if a free outlet is provided for the spring and surface water, it matters little, except on the score of expense, how this object is accomplished, always presuming that at least 16 inches' depth of soil is left above the drain for the purposes of cultivation.

Care must likewise be taken to carry off the rain and surface water, by means of open drains, which should

always be kept clean, and the outlets and watercourses must be scoured out as often as necessary, and always at least once a year.

If the surface-soil rests upon a shallow compact subsoil, the latter forms a kind of dam or reservoir for retaining the water, and the remedy in such case is, to cut through this obstruction, and thus to give the water a free passage to a lower level.

When water rests upon and overspreads the surface, the carrying it away in open channels is termed surface-draining. When water has penetrated the upper surface, but is unable to escape, being retained there by the tenacious subsoil, and kept soaking through, and rendering cold, wet, and unproductive all that is above it, the process of cutting through the obstruction, and collecting the water into a fixed channel, is called under-draining.

In the case of springs, the line where moisture appears on the sloping surface of a field, is generally perceptible, by the change of colour and other indications of wetness, as the production of rushes, coarse grasses, &c. By cutting a drain along the upper side of this line, sufficiently deep to intercept the water before it reaches the surface, it may be carried away to some convenient outlet. In such case, one drain well laid out, and of adequate dimensions, will often in this way effect a purpose which no multiplication of smaller drains could so cheaply and effectually accomplish.

The surface-water should be carried away in open drains. These consist of the ditches, which ought to be so made as to facilitate the escape of the water-the open furrows, which are formed by the ridges-and open trenches, cut in places necessary for giving the water a free passage. A good arrangement of ridges and furrows will generally of itself effect the purpose of surface-draining a field; but before the approach of winter, a few open drains, a foot wide and six inches deep, or more, according to the quantity of water expected, should be cut with a spade across the field, to catch surface-water, and carry it to the main drains. These water-furrows are