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easily made, and will well repay the trouble of making them.

All drains, as well open as covered, should have fall enough to let the water run off gently; but if the fall be too great, the stream will acquire so much force as to carry away the soil at the sides, which soon chokes up the drains. However formed, the drains should be conducted into a natural water-course, or else into a main drain communicating with one, so that the water may have a free outlet by which to escape.

Draining in all its branches is well deserving of the farmer's best attention; and a new kind, called Thorough-Draining, has been of late years much practised with the very best results. The mode of effecting this operation, to be followed by Subsoil-Ploughing, we will now describe.

THOROUGH-DRAINING, AND SUBSOIL-PLOUGHING.

These operations are independent of each other, and are performed at different periods, although the object of each is the same. They are both now extensively practised, and have invariably produced the most beneficial effects upon the soil, rendering it deeper and drier, and increasing the quantity and improving the quality of the crops.

Thorough-Draining.-Almost every description of land will be benefited by thorough-draining, but on wet heavy clays, and on soils having a hard retentive bottom, the effects are most striking. Land, which before grew nothing but sedges and the coarsest kind of grass, has been converted into a good mellow soil, and fitted for the culture of every description of crop, by means of thorough-draining.

The mode of proceeding to thorough-drain a field, is, in the first instance, to make a number of parallel drains, from 16 to 40 feet apart, according to the nature of the land, and as it is more or less exposed to wet, and either across or up and down the field, as circum

stances may demand. If the land be low and wet, or if it consist of strong clay, the distance between the drains should not exceed 16 feet; if the subsoil is lighter and more porous, it may be 20, or 24, or 30 feet; and in very open subsoils the drains may be as much as 40 or 45 feet apart. When the ridges of a field are much raised, it will save cutting to run a drain up the furrow.

The drains must be 30 inches or 24 feet deep, and be filled with rubble or broken stones to the height of 12 inches from the bottom of the drain, leaving 16 to 18 inches clear from the top of the stones to the surface of the soil. Cover the stones with a thin sod, overlapping it at the joints, to prevent any of the loose earth getting in. The drains are then to be filled in, and a crop of grain taken off the land, after which the subsoil-plough must be put in operation, working transversely across the direction of the drains.

This is the usual way of thorough-draining, but the drains may be formed with tiles, where they can be procured at a cheap rate, or with flat stones set trian

gular fashion, thus A or one side perpendicular and the other angular, thus where suitable materials are at hand. In some cases shingle or large gravel may be obtained, or rubble-stones sufficiently small for filling the drains may be gathered off the land; but where large stones only can be obtained, these must be broken into tolerably small pieces (say two or two and a half inches square), in order that the water may filter readily through them. When tiles are used, they should have a flat tile or piece of slate placed at bottom, as a sole, to prevent the edges of the tile from cutting into the soil, and thus lessening or destroying the opening for the water. Circular tiles are sometimes used, and they appear to answer well; and in some places a tile formed somewhat like a horseshoe is used, having its thick ends bent back, so as to form a kind of feet for the tile to rest upon, thus N, which prevents its cutting into the soil, and supersedes the necessity for a sole.

A free passage for the water below the surface is the

great object to be accomplished in thorough-draining; and this must be so done as to leave 16 or 18 inches of soil above the materials used for the formation of the drain, in order that it may not be disturbed by the plough. Keeping this object in view, the thorough-drainer can hardly go wrong with respect to the depth of the drain, or the materials of which it is formed; and if he has provided a suitable main drain, into which these subsidiary drains may discharge the water which they have collected, the land will be left dry, and fitted for the production of crops.

The main drain, into which all the other drains must be carried, should run along the lowest part or hollow of the land, and if possible should communicate with some natural water-course, by which the water it discharges may be carried off. Its size must depend on the quantity of water expected, but it should be at least 6 inches deeper than the other drains. Submains will often be necessary along the bottom of a field, to receive the water from the smaller drains, and carry it into the main drain; and these ought likewise to be made somewhat deeper than the others discharging into them.

The water thus collected, may often be most advantageously employed for the purposes of irrigation, and this should never be omitted wherever it is practicable. Brooks and rivulets constitute the natural drains of the country, and should in like manner be applied to irrigation, whenever the levels admit of this being done. Nothing can be worse than to allow streams to run to waste, which, if properly applied, are capable of imparting the highest fertility to the land.

As regards the space between the drains, it is obvious that this must depend upon local circumstances, some stiff wet lands requiring the drains to be placed close to each other, in order to secure a dry seedbed for the crops, whilst in lighter soils the drains may be placed wider apart. As a general rule, however, it may be said that the drains should be formed at from 5 to 15 yards, or from 15 to 45 feet apart, according to the nature of the soil, and other circumstances, of which the farmer must in each case be the judge.

Subsoil-Ploughing. The land being thoroughly drained, the next step is to loosen and break up the inferior crust, and thus to obtain a greater depth of active soil, by means of the subsoil-plough. This im

plement is larger and heavier than the common plough, and is constructed without a mould-board.-It penetrates the soil to the depth of 16 inches, and although it effectually breaks up and opens the inferior crust or subsoil, none of it is brought to the surface.

The subsoil-plough is made as thin as is consistent with its necessary degree of strength, in order that it may pass through the soil with as little resistance as possible. From 4 to 6 horses, according to the nature of the land, are employed to draw it-these require care and temper, on the part of the ploughman, to bring them to take kindly to the work; and some dexterity is also required in the management of the plough itself, which, however, is easily acquired in practice.

As soon as the land has been cleared of the grain crop, the operation of subsoil-ploughing is to be commenced. A common plough goes first, turning up a furrow to the depth of from 6 to 9 inches, and the deeper the better; the subsoil-plough then follows in the same furrow, passing through the lower soil to a depth (including the first furrow) of 16 inches, breaking it up and loosening it; the common plough then comes round again, turning another furrow from the upper soil upon that which has been subsoiled, and is again followed by the subsoil-plough as before; and this process is continued until the whole of the field is subsoiled. If a subsoil-plough cannot be obtained, a common plough may be made to answer pretty well, by removing the mould-boards.

The drainage is so perfect after this process, that furrows are generally found to be unnecessary, as the surface-water readily passes through the soil, and sinks into the drains which have been prepared for that purpose, in the way above described. It is found that the subsoil never consolidates again, after being thus broken up; the constant circulation of the air, and the filtering of the water, keep it open and friable, and speedily fit it for affording nourishment to crops.

The ground which has been thus treated, may be ploughed to a greater depth, after a few years, and even to the full depth of 16 inches, if it is desired; and the subsoil, now become mellow and active, will thereby be mixed up and incorporated with the original surfacesoil, freshening and strengthening it, and crops of unusual excellence, both in quantity and quality, will be obtained from the land.

The harvest will, moreover, be considerably earlier than on the same land in its previous state, in consequence of the greater dryness and warmth of the soil: whilst the increased depth of the soil, will enable it to absorb and retain sufficient moisture for the nourishment of vegetation; and this moisture will be given back precisely as it is required, under the influence of the sun's attraction, for the nourishment of the crops.

Draining in all its branches, and in all situations, is so important, and so obviously essential to success, that the farmer who has the means of effecting this operation, and possesses an undrained rood of land, deserves to be poor, and to be pointed at by his neighbours as an idle and improvident person.

IRRIGATION.

Irrigation, or the watering of land, is a process by which, with little trouble or expense, large crops of hay and luxuriant pasturage may almost always be ensured. It is difficult to account for the very general neglect of irrigation, in situations where it might be adopted with so much advantage by the farmer. Meadows in which only coarse or scanty herbage now appears, might easily, by watering, be rendered highly valuable and productive.

The use of running water on the surface has been practised, for promoting the growth of grass, from the earliest ages all over the East, and seems to have been known in some parts of England in the time of the Romans.

Irrigation acts as a means of giving food to grasses

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