The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-19 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL DRAINAGE AND THE

_
RAINS.
them the deriewiterel °metre.)
Autumn rains are now beginning to tell which is
the drained and which is the undrained field. In many
cases the difference between the two (other things being
equal), is such that experience is necessary to give an accu-
rate idea of it. On an average of years the quantity of
rain which falls during this season is greater than that
which falls during winter, spring, or summer. If the
average depth of the twelve months be two inches apiece,
that for October will be 2i inches. The demand of plants
upon thin stock of water and the evaporation of it
from the surface of the earth are reduced to the
lowest level, and hence the miserable consequences
now visible on many ea undrained clay soil. The
farmer accustomed only to the dry soils of Berkshire, Ber-
wick, or Nairn, if transplanted into some of the fens of '
Lincolnshire, the wcalds of Sussex, cr the cares lands of
the sister country, would be entirely at a less ; certainly
the practice with which he has been the most familiar and
successful hitherto, perhaps that of eating off turnips with
sheep, would be the last he would think of ; and he would,
probably, have some difficulty in crediting the effects pro-
dared by such a simple agent as an inch and a half or two-
, inch draining pipe.
The grand work of the present month is the harvesting
of root crops, such es mangold wand and swede., and
the getting wheat into the ground ; and it is in these
operations that such differences as we have alluded
to are more particularly experienced. The ploughing
of wheat stubble for the ensuing green crops can
Jet be performed without experiencing any serious
inconvenience ; but it is far otherwise where the
teams have to be turned into the newly-ploughed fields
with the harrows and the drill, if the lands are not properly
drained. If they are efficiently drained, the soil will re.
ceive comparatively little injury; but where tenacious
clays are undrained, the getting in of wheat is now becom-
ing an unpleasant affair. Such soils cling to the feet of the
sower, the horseman, and the horses ; the lumps of mor-
tar which fall from the feet on such omissions are
often of great sae and so worked as to be fit
almost for the mould of the brickmaker ; they
form little= impediments to after culture. Every
impression thus made is a cap for bolding
wats r ; soil it the harrows following fill up the majority of
the holes, this does bat increase the evil, for the cups
become the recipients of a mass of well-worked clay, which
when hardened by the sun are impervious as so many
bricks. The conscqueness which follow such a state of

shiny need scarcely be mentioned, for the nil becomes a
solid body, so worked, that when the heat of spring returns,
It becomes hardened into an almost impervious mass long
before the scorching swaths of summer arrive to wind up
the Online season. if the latter months of spring have
been favourable for hoeing, and if an inch or two of the
surface soil have been got pulverised so as to retain a mill-
nosey of moisture for summer, and it the first months of
summer see also favourable, a fair crop may, after all, be
reaped; but these are but exceptions to the Fetters] expe-
rience of that failure in the harvest field which ordinarily
follows suck a state of things.
A closer examination of the chain of facts which leads to
such malts will show that the heavy showers of July and
August fill up the fissures ce tracks of undrained lands
hug before they make any inspremies en then of laud
kW hos bent demised, loading she when of the subsoil
with the mesinnat quantity of ease which it can
ankh If dile has taken plan began the land has
Men pleigked after harvest, and k generally is so,
the Miss ef the sea et the pin' sad the tram-
pling se the hes ef the Mum Is the farrow, will tend
to eempeas the whale We a pethest4 solid body.
On the ether heed, if the sal- les been properly
elegised, the heavy showcased's lance awls of ostionot
and the int natant= do net fill up the lamas ef tee
esth lough these hems is sash elms me net set Imes et
✓ameems, but are seethaeled by team to the desk. end
seamed faster than thy otherwise wadi bs,
_se that when
the sowing of wheat mews it finds the walled epee and
taming et that eases ef water MOM the madam soil
caner absorb. Ile ask the state ads soil at this meson
Mil easy mash deport spas the sherreav of the weather
Midi bee been eapedeaad, foe clay nib are very *bin-
anit. 1111111100. steastity of wane, whether drained
se ;if light sincere only hays bees experienced the
sell may aleseb the water as gnat se it falls in either case,
st•
tire diiaeoe* between the two may sanely be dis-
t bat light theme. ere net the general sla.
ttillir Zee se suesees. sag susibly ths puma eases
b sThus ot as stsopets Is Ile gong Ms.
is meths limp inn adttimposisesi by the heavy
tease ostastor and ENNIO cookers-
tint. They purify the drainal leas Wins they
realm thud el the nodule.* man sear mil
the reels of pkator la the beam ems they may dream
of thee* mineral snbilmees width give to wails of this
ciaa their peculiar eseasttg, time naming their sane-
quint porosity, and Mem their capability of hoississitlerie
easily and of penally maimed dstiott_ wisest when
are mass bequest sat Is. heavy. The quistig d sin.
ral UMW whisk relsonater remen• w finik inenisiM
mot Is eissisbeelie. bas in HostiesisetWee psi
water ams nia. so suit as 40 muss is the iseselsi
gallon; while water from wells yields as nab as 70
grains to the gallon, the mineral iubstanoe ewshllep
principally of the sulphates and carbonates id Ikea. The
quantity and quality of the substances thus MEW of will,
of course, depend upon the quality of the sea Where the
lands have been properly drained, such wooldop of the soil,
together with the action of manures, and of the beat of the
sun upon it, and the circulation of the ale thretthiLts
will soon change the bluish sterile appearing. at
of the has, °elite, and coal measures, into that of • bea;
and fertile loam. On the other hand, on undrained Ism&
until its Inures are completely closed, heavy rains being
up those substances from the subsoil, mixing them with the
active soil, rendering it sourer and more infertile; and
hence very often arises the necessity of naked Lill4ws.
It will thus be seen that It iv no easy teak either to eau•
manta the hermits arising from the proper drainage of
laid, or to recount the evils which undrained land suffers
during a season like the present.

A TOMB FOR A POET.

(them the /they s's.)

Among the tributes of affection or of respect
which already crowd that place of memories, the cemetery
at Kemal-green—one memory which should have a wider
keeping than meet is without tribute or token. There,
smog the graves of the obseure—save only to the love
which bas memorialised them—lice an dome grave with
no memorial to tell that the sorely-vexed frame which has
found net therein esiflosed the soul of genius. Here,
warn the silence below awakens something like thought
in the minds of the commend man, not even a stone re-
cords that one of the finest thinkers of his age is amongst
the silent people. The pave, which yielded many a quaint
and profound thought to Thomas Hood, has avenged keel(
by absorbing him into earth over which his very
name is unwritten. It is no honour to the
thoosands who for many years of suffering to him-
self drank at once wisdom and fanciful delight
from the full fountains of his muse, that this should be so.
Thomas Hood bas tn no form yet had that justice done to
him which is his due, and which posterity, if It be left to pay
the debt, will reproach the generatton of his contemporaries
fur having denied. His very popularity was not based upon
the best foundations that he had himself laid for it. To
the common eye, the onsintness of his forms often overgrew
the sweet and solemn thoughts out of which they sprang, as
an organised and informed world in space is known to the
unintelligent eye only by the outer light of the star. The
pun was to Thomas Hood what his cop was to the ancient
awcalled jester—the guise under which be was privileged
to utter deep wisdom—and many ears heard only the ring.
sit of the bells. But on such men, too, his memory has a
claim, for the bells made very sweet Marie for even those
who apprehended not the fine truths which they were
uttering. Besides all this, there is much of Hood's writing
of which we believe the world in general knows nothing at
all, or very little, and tome day a di.criminathig publisher
and a competent editor must pot him right before the nub-
lie in that respect. Meantime, a body of gentlemen have
undertaken, so far as In them lies, to remove the pith:mat
reproach that speaks from the undistinguished grave of
Hood. These gentlemen are members of the Whittington
Club; and we confess that remembering what the Whit-
tington Club is, we like bath the project and the
the
movement,
t,ta
andka' aU.v.e.• T
thhienkclupliaor by
especially have savoured the hooour to himself as
coming from the club. The object of these gentlemen is,
to collect tne means of raising some memorial over this
hitherto neglected grave,—and the form of that memorial
mast, of course, depend on the width, or the liberality, of
the answer to their appeal. So far as they are concerted,
it matters little what amount they raise ;—enough will he
dof to put some mark on the plate of Hood's rest, and to
o much credit to themselves. But we believe that very
many others will desire so be sharers in that credit —and
it is for the purpose of afording the opportunity to those
who would not willingly miss it, that we have given to the
project of the gentlemen in quake the benefit of our cir-
culation.

[Advertisement.)--liouowAt's Pule.—Ax Ex-
TWIL WAIT CABS Or NOWA. ATTACK, 11.4101IPTION AIM FLAW*
I some mato IT TIMM tett littalratre Khan. • MOSe merchant or
Pram, la the Caet li MIN wiland Impart hem Yea, tatbgmtkm,
mid datokary, mart, allhamili he serutherl the meet mimed memos
et the pt he POPP Windt hum lark Inielmes. het
Pah beams non Millabifra. !Was wear a mem situ&
Om iseml of awe diesest wiglaabr. ba Massobsed Is tri Bono.
Y awes ail ilie sullim villa Ira 'Wiwi sulb MO Igoe
Os vesWe volulooll lin is periketberilli
II ORM Maim Ws ioseibi“ am le is orb
Star aid at /WM= allowesurakia.
Ms