fact is, that our forefathers were just as scientific and utilitarian in their own time as we, suggesting the propriety of not boasting too loudly of our own attainments, for the lazy-bed system was the first system of furrow-draining, if we can believe Irishmen-one which has not yet been superseded by a more utilitarian; while our crooked ridges may with equal justice lay claim to the Keythorpe system as its offspring; for in many cases, if not the majority, they are, or rather were, formed on the geological ridges, on which that system is based; the open ditches at the bottom running across them, cutting the strata, and removing the water from between. It is among the oldest things we recollect of draining, of hearing our grandfather, upwards of thirty years ago, drawing attention to those strata, and the propriety of cutting them with drains and ditches; and we ourselves, and our father before us, have ever acted upon it since. To suppose that our forefathers were not men of observation, and cognizant of facts of this kind, is absurd. The golden maxim of "science with practice" was often better observed by them than by us, so far as the removal of the water from the wheat plants, and their preservation from drowning during the winter months, are concerned under the lazy-bed system, more particularly. In short, last winter proves that by our modern system of draining in many cases we drown our wheat; while under that of our forefathers it would have been preserved, comparatively speaking.

The lesson which we learn from the lazy-bed and crooked ridge systems is not to drown our wheat in winter; and the means to be used for effecting this important desideratum are-to keep the water in our water-furrows below the arable lands, or bottom of the furrows of the ridge; our ridges better curved, both above and below, on the subsoil as well as the surface, so as to prevent the stagnation of water; and to sow seed on a more equally prepared bed (we do not mean a fine mould) so as to prevent any of it from sinking too deep in the soil, which is best done by the drill or dibble, preceded by a sufficiency of harrowing. Our theories are becoming too fine-spun, as it were, for the wants of practice; so that in putting wheat into the ground we must look more to the demands of the young plants than to please the eye of the ploughman or his master; for how often do we find the ridge scooped out in the ploughing, concave towards the centre or crown, both top and bottom, instead of convex or rising in a curved form, as if purposely to effect the stagnation of water! It takes a good hand to keep down the first four furrows forming the crown, and up those forming the middle of the half ridge, so as to secure a proper curve, and avoid the dishing of the subsoil for holding water in the manner just noticed. In doing so it too often happens that the last furrows at the "outcasting" are drawn a little narrower, and of less depth, leaving the subsoil towards the furrow higher than half-way towards the crown, committing the very mistake of which we complain. Instead of this, the last furrows should be the deepest, and the water-furrows after sowing below the whole, as in the case of the lazy bed and "old

gathered ridge," and finished with the spade. It is not enough to go over the cross furrows only with the spade; for those between the ridges should also be cleared out from end to end, throwing the whole of the loose earth into hollows, and leaving the furrows so that no water will stagnate in them from the crumbling of the earth after frost. A man, if the ploughing has been properly performed, will go over nearly an acre per day; and this, although a little out of pocket in the shape of expenses, falls short of a tithe of the losses experienced from drowning and its consequences. The last year may be quoted as a sufficient guarantee for the soundness of this conclusion. The work could be done by the "task" at so much per furrow or acre, according to the nature of the ground and amount of labour required in cleaning and bevelling off the edges of the open furrows to prevent them crumbling in by the action of the weather. To trust to under-draining on tenacious clay soils, in the vast majority of cases, is yet to lean on a broken reed. We speak with all possible deference to science, and the progress she is making ; but, at the same time, for the information of those of her pupils who are prone to sneer at the cautious habits of practical men before they get through their own curriculum.

Many practical farmers, as well as amateurs and men of general scientific attainments, are making laudable efforts to acquire a thorough knowledge of the art of under-draining; but more progress must yet be made before their labours can be depended upon, for the removal of floods in winter and spring from tenacious clay soils, and even many soils not so very tenacious. Until such floods are removed by under-drains as fast as they fall, we must be excused for endeavouring to carry out and improve upon the practice of our forefathers, who removed them by means of open drains or furrows. Much is accomplished by narrow ridges, they being more easily curved, while they reduce the volume of water, and hence the damage done by it in traversing both ridge and furrow; but narrow ridges of themselves are not enough, for more attention must be paid to the furrows than was done last year, before our wheat plants can be considered safe.

Autumn weather in the southern provinces of the United Kingdom is generally propitious for getting in wheat; but in many of the northern provinces of this and the sister country it is otherwise, for there the wea ther can never be trusted to, after September, on clay soils. After the first of October, fallow wheats are got in as fast as possible, and the water-furrows cleared out immediately. If this work is neglected or overtaken by heavy rains and improperly finished, a loss of from ten to twenty per cent. is of frequent occurrence. Wheat after potatoes, beans, and turnips is sown as fast as the land is ploughed in doubtful weather. Indeed, the best farmers make it a rule not to trust the afternoon yoking with the morning work, every ridge being sown and water-furrowed as fast as ploughed, finishing up the whole at night as if no more wheat were to be sown that season. On such occasions the harrows and sower or machine follow at the heels of the last ploughman towards the close of the afternoon yoking-the ploughs

turning back and opening the furrows-a work never deferred until to-morrow, while men are pushing forward the cross or " gaw furrows" with the spade close up to the unploughed land. In ploughing for spring corn in such climates, there is always a man for so many ploughs, on the best conducted farms, whose duty it is to keep the cross-furrows open. These are never allowed to get closed for a single night; and the economy of labour (to say nothing of the consequential profits) is obvious, for, if cleared out when newly-ploughed, the work can be done at half the expense which it would cost after wards, especially if overtaken by rain. To many, such rules may appear somewhat particular and arbitrary; but to those accustomed to them, and who experience their benefits and necessity, it is otherwise, for they would be surprised to hear of water-furrows being allowed to lie for weeks in November not cleaned out with the spade. They would immediately conclude that they who trusted to the weather thus deserve to have their wheat plants drowned in winter.

after being ploughed wet in November, would doubtless be considered by some of our neighbours rather premature work. At the same time, it must be admitted, in years like the past, that it was perhaps the best of the two alternatives to choose; for if the seed can be got covered when the land is newly ploughed, and the horses kept in the furrows, less injury is sustained than some may imagine, who have never tried the practice. In ordinary seasons, however, of dry weather, it is not to be recommended. This year furnishes numerous examples where lands ploughed wet, about the end of last month, were sown in fine order by the middle of the present (November). But the mode of keeping the water-furrows open in unpropitious climates is deserving of our imitation, both on the score of economy of labour and utility as to produce.

In conclusion, the proper drainage of the winter.. rains from our young wheat plants is a work of the highest importance; and the different practices of the provinces afford much useful information as to how it

The drainage of the Woolwich and Plumstead Marshes is now beginning to attract attention in a sanitary point of view. It ought to have been undertaken long ago, for its economical importance. It speaks little for the agricultural enterprise of the county of Kent, that so large a tract of fine alluvial land should be allowed to remain in probably the same condition as in the times of the Norman Conquest. The increase of "opulent, enlarged, and still increasing London," is encroaching every year, more and more, on the belt of market gardens, which surrounds the metropolis; and every year, the cultivation of the vegetables required by its two millions of inhabitants is driven further into the country. In these marshes we have a large extent of fertile soil, favourably situated with respect to the London market and manure. On their drier portions the cultivation of garden crops is beginning to establish itself, and nothing is wanted but effective drainage to render this general. So little, however, has the drainage of this tract been hitherto considered worthy of attention, that, though these lands are below the tidal level, no attempt has been made to divert the upland waters, which might easily be discharged, even at high tide, above the embankment, by means of a raised drain, or fleet as it is called in Norfolk, or by some other better device of modern engineering.

In consequence of their position below the tidal level, these marshes can only be relieved of the water which falls on their own area, by means of steam-power drainage. The great obstacle to the success of such an undertaking will be the difficulty of inducing the many owners and occupiers interested in these lands to co-operate for an object which would be as profitable to themselves as it would be beneficial as a sanitary measure to

the neighbouring community, including no small portion of the population of London.

We therefore recommend to their attentive consideration two articles on district drainage, in the last number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. One of these is a report by Mr. Henderson, on the Drainage of the Rye and Derwent Valley in Yorkshire. In the other, Mr. White of Warrington, describes the drainage by steam power of a portion of Martin Mere in Lancashire.

It is observed, very justly, by Mr. Henderson, with respect to valley drainage, that, generally speaking, a river will preserve for itself a sufficient fall for the discharge of its waters, proportioned to the tenacity of the soil and the elevation of the basin of the valley above the high-tide level; but that, unfortunately, in a long settled and densely peopled country like ours, there are few rivers, or even minor streams, which retain their natural features, and have not been dammed up above their primitive levels, so as to interrupt or even entirely to destroy the drainage, either for the sake of ob taining water power for mills, or head water for inland navigation.

Such artificial obstructions caused the flooding of a large portion of the Vale of Pickering, which contains about 100,000 acres of valuable land unwatered by the united streams of the Rye and Derwent, and receiving the upland waters of a much more extensive catchment basin. The case is so different from that of the Plumstead Marshes that it is only brought under the notice of the proprietors of that tract as an example of the improvement which may be effected by judicious co-operation. The destructive effects of floods in that valley had long attracted attention, and some progress had been made since the year 1800, in draining the

lower part of it, by diverting a portion of the upland waters directly into the sea by means of a sluice and a new cut, and by means of another new cut which drained a portion of the valley, amounting to about twelve thousand acres. Several proposals had been made for draining the upper portion of the valley; but it was only in 1845 that sufficient unanimity could be obtained to enable an act to be carried, incorporating fifty-three parishes and townships for draining, and appointing seventy commissioners, who were chiefly landowners or their agents, with power to purchase and remove mills, mill-dams, locks, weirs, and shoals, and to assess the lands benefited in proportion to the benefit derived, in asum not exceeding thirty thousand pounds. At this stage of the proceedings, there were three mills to be purchased, having an estimated available water power equal to that of 109 horse's power. This water power was valued at £19,700; in addition to which there was mill property, exclusive of any tenant's interest therein, valued at £7,759 more, making in the whole £27,469.

Adding to this, compensation to the tenants, and the purchase of impediments arising from navigation locks, the gross sum required to carry the proposed improvement into effect would have absorbed an amount exceeding by £2,000 that which the commissioners were empowered by their act to expend. Under these circumstances, it became a question whether the commissioners should proceed any further with the scheme, or abandon it, with the loss of the expense of procuring the act, and of surveying and taking the levels of the valley. Lord Fitzwilliam, who owned threefourths of the mill property, having met the difficulty in a most liberal spirit, it was resolved to negotiate on the basis of converting actual waterpower into steam-power, and to compensate for the extra cost of maintaining the latter as compared with water-power. Of the 109-horse power, available by means of water, it was found that only 70-horse power was actually used, and that with the drawback of the loss of several weeks' work from back water and occasionally from drought. The basis of the calculation now became the first cost of erecting the steam-engines required, and the expense of maintenance above that of the ordinary water-power employed. The total cost of establishing and maintaining the requisite amount of horse-power was found in this way to be £16,382 5s.; of which the cost of the engines was £3,500 at £50 per horse-power, and the annual expenses for coal, engine-man, and wear and tear of machinery £669 2s. 3d., amounting at 20 years' purchase to £13,382 5s. In the above calculation the consumption of coal was estimated at 10 lbs.per horse-power per hour, working 12 hours daily for 311 days. Coal was valued at 7s. per ton; engineer's wages were charged at 21s. per week; and wear and tear of engine, tallow, hemp, and oil, taken at £1 per horse-power. For the mill property and compensation to the owners for loss and damage in the removal and rebuilding £3,367 was awarded, making the entire cost of the improvement £20,250.

There were claims for the removal of the locks of the Yeddingham Navigation, for the destruction of two fisheries, and for damages to the tenants of the mills for loss of time and derangement of business. The funds at the disposal of the commissioners being inadequate to this, Lord Fitzwilliam, the owner of the property, took the whole upon himself, simply to facilitate the operations of the commissioners, although he was not interested in the drainage to any considerable extent, in consequence of the greater part of his own estate having a complete system of drainage effected at his own cost, with an outfall below the mills which were removed.

The total expense of the improvement was, as we have said, £20,250, exclusive of salaries to the staff, expenses of the act, and of the survey. More might have been effected with a larger expenditure. For this sum,1 floods have not been wholly prevented; but the highest inundations now run off in two or three days, instead of the whole basin of the vale being converted, as heretofore, into a lake during a great part of the winter; and Mr. Henderson is convinced that one flood before these alterations effected greater damage to crops and tilth, if fairly valued in money, than the whole sum expended under the act.

The drainage of Sir Thomas Hesketh's property in Martin Mere, by steam-power, described by Mr. White, is of more interest to the owners and occupiers of Plumstead Marshes, because it is the kind of improvement adapted to their own case. limits will not permit us to go into details, but the following are the general results.

Our

The capital expended in making catchwater drains to carry off the upland water, cutting watercourses to carry the drainage water to the engine, and putting up the engine, was £3,425. The annual expenses for coal, wages, wear and tear of engine, keeping up embankments, and interest on capital, is estimated at £452. For this sum, 1,000 acres were drained; but 300 of them were on more elevated ground, and are therefore considered not to have been increased much by the operation. The annual value of the remaining 800 acres, before being drained, was £529-after drainage £1278; leaving a net annual profit of £297, besides interest on the capital expended.

In this calculation, the coals consumed by the engine are valued at a little above 5s. per ton. In the case of the Plumstead Marshes, the coal would cost five times as much, and the present value of the land is much greater; but on the other hand, the improved value from its contiguity to markets, and from capability of being converted into garden ground, would be much more in proportion. Supposing only a quantity of land drained there, equal to that drained in Martin Mere, viz., 800 acres, the difference in the price of coal would increase the annual expense by about 5s. an acre; but the drainage of some thousands of acres could be effected at a cheaper rate than that of eight hundred.