The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-10-16 00:00:00

LAND DSAINAUE AND OUTFALLS.

As the season for the county agrictiltmel meetings is
commenced and county usembers are looking about them
for topics to speak upon, allow me the opportunity of
suggesting • theme which may save them from the
necessity of touching upon forbidden political matters.
The object lum about to suggest is not, it is true, so
seductive as the forbidden ones, but as it has conaidera-
bl, bearing upon the fi.al. steps in agricultural advance-
ment, and concerns nearly every landed proprietor in
the kingdom, it is possible it may hod some advocate
who will not be daunted by is magnitude and difficul-
ties. 1 refer to the crying necessity for a general mea-
sure fo.- the improvement of out:ails. Last year at this
time several popular speakers endeavoured to amuse the
tenant farmers who assembled to hear their speeches by
declaring that the drought which then prevailed in the
Midland and Eastern Counties war the result of the
over drainage of England ! and they elicited • cheer by
this direct evidence of what they were pleased to call
with a sneer, the " misapplication of science to agri-
culture.' One year has sufficed to show how short-
! sighted such observations were. It is impossible, in
fact, to conceive a wore perfect answer than the fre-
quent rains of the last 12 mouths have given to that
piece of after-dinner philosophy. It would not be sur-
prising to tind these sauie speakers this autumn pointing
out the insufficiency of the drainage they before ridi-
culed, and gaming even more emphatic cheers from their
audience by reversing their former declarations. And
In doing so they would be very much nearer the facts.
for, in truth, she frequent rains of the post siumwei have
served to exhibit resulis which earnest students of 110i011-
triiiC facts will 40 well to study.
The drought of the summer of 1859 was She result of
a comparat,vely dry summer succeeding a winter
I (October to March inclusive) mu which only ha inches of
rain fell in the Midland and E stern Counties, the rain-
fall of the 12 mouths ending June 30, 1339, closely
Vild'raznidna::tiiirLs2telrnineciliulesntie(s"hkihnit. tliiieirru:enatnhesof the
the state of things in the 12 mouths ending the 311th of
dune, 1860! Tim fall of rain during the last winter
(1850.00 h was nearly double that of 11458-59, via. 12
ioches, and the total rainfall of the year ending June
30 last will be found to exceed 33 inches. Nature is •
sure pay-mistress, and will nit rest till the balance is
struck. The past summer has shown with unmistakable
decision the iiimimmensmc advantage of under-draining the
cold retentive clays of which this country has so large •
proportion. Uudrained lands of this dereription have
produced crops which are literally not worth harvesting,
if they are ever in a state to be carried, whereas lauds
of precisely the same nature, hut which have Leen
drained, have produced some of the best wisest and
beans, and have allowed of the wheat crop* being already
cut :old carried, and, in some cases, threshed and sold.
. _

kouw of sever;l in.:taints in which the difference in
value of this year** produce of the name land, drained
and nudrained, would pay the whole
.coat of draining.

But however great the simple difference between
drained and undrained lands, that difference has been
greatly increased where the land has been cultivated and
the furrows gut rid of. Where the furrows have been
retained, the water bas been occasionally seen in the
growing crops, even on some of the best drained lands,
where the natural form of the ground leads to its col-
lection; but where steam cultivation, or conviction of
mind, has led to the flattening of the aurfeee, no such
evil has existed. The past Ma aier has +lmo proved with
equal clearness, though not with the sawn difference in
value of the crops produced, the superiority of deep
over shallow drainage. In one particular case which
have examined, the difference was an MIIOII as two to one
in quantity in favour of the former, and as much as a
week or ten dive in point of time; and having myself
WO acres of corn now standing in the field with every
prospect of being spoiled, I can speak feelinily on the
advantage of a week's advance at hurvest. flier. can
be but little doubt that the superiority of deeper
draidage in the earlier ripening of the corn is due to
, the higher temperature of the soil as the depth is in.
I creased, and which at 4 feet is found to be 2 higher
I than in minified land at 2 feet. .

I do not make thews remarks to provoke discussion
upon the oft-disputed point, lie proper depla of under-
drumcure, but to draw attention to the data afforded in
the premut aeiseiti for determining the nature and
extent of. measure so long promised, and daily becow•
jog inure and more required for the improvement of
out-falls. The floods that have covered the valleys and
silted the grass, and spoilt thousands of acres of meadow
hay, hays given self-evident proofs of the necessity of
remedial measures with respect to the main arteries. By
the various unconnected works of under-draining already
executed, which form but a very small prollortioll Of
what will seine day represent the drainage of this coun-
try, vent has been given to pent-up waters previously
dispersed by driblets and evaporation. They have con-
verted hugs and beds of free soil, in which water stag-
naiad, into filteis of rapid action, and have compelled
tenacious clays to let go their hold of water, which had
hitherto been claimed solely by the atmosphere. These
waters of drainage have been got rid of regsrdless of the
fact that water set free from above commits injury
below, unless it be securely guided to its ultimate dis-
charge ; and thus it is that uuderdrainage, at certain
seasons of the year, has augmented the floods in particu-
lar valleys, and will continue to augment thew still
more, as the practice (which may be said to be only
, commenced) extends.
But I du not desire to occupy your space at this
moment by dwelling upon this branch of the subject. I
prefer coubiling my observationiu to the obstacles we
have to wowed with in uuderdramage itself, from the
wont of effective outfalls where no engineering diffi•
culties present themselves, but where the right* of in-
terposang private property, and the weakness of the
law with respect to existing public ditches, impose •
positive veto, to sound and creditable works. In Lom-
bardy, where irrigation is carried to perfection, every
irrigator lits the right to bring water through the pro-
perty of his neighbour upon payment of due outupensa-
tiou. In BugLuul, where we talk of drainage as the
foundation of our superior agriculture, we cannot con-
vey the water of drainage to the natural outfalle, if the
land of an objecting landowner intervenes ; nor can we
deepen or atraighten • public watercourse passing
thrJugh a neighbour's property, nor can 99 proprietors
desirous to improve an unprofitable, unhealthy marsh,
effect their object if one negative voice is raised.
Ought we not to have wine moral and facile mean* of
overcooling such potent evils as thicie I It aim be the
opinion of many that each evil should counnaua its own
remedy, and that a special Act of Parliament should he
obtanied fur each bit of district drama...o and each
twoarote outfall, but those who have had to pay for
such Acts, awl those who have tested the practical diffi-
culties remlting from the incompetent ch.irActer of the
tribunals before whom ouch measures are brought, will
agree with ice that confusion will only become worse
confounded if we be left to ouch remedy.
The statistics of the cost of parliamentary proceeding.
mu the matter of drainage are not inviting. The CO,G of
the Norfolk Estuary Acts was 1:40,112 10s., while
Mears. Polo and Betts' contract for the works was
1:142,000. The cost of the Neve Valley Drainage Acts
h. been £30,083 os. 10d. ; the extent of land proreed
to be benefitted is 16,1.120 acres, 60 that nearly I-2 Per
acre has been expended in parliamentary proceedings
• alone. The average coat of underdraining ts Lu per
, acre, as it is executed under the Drainage CWOMI.I.O,
the administration of which dues not exceed 2s. per
acre—a cost it will be wall to compare with the Par-
liamentary expenses I have quoted, when it con-
sidered bow the remedy is to be applied—J. Bosky
Deislors, Weagelri, Siermalle, &Pg. WA, 1860.

HEALTH, HAPPINESS, AND LONG LIFE
Are within the reach dell. Every one may be his own
Physician, by the uve of

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The process of coating the pills with sugar has coin-
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