Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/180

160] draw less; should, however, the ground be so exceedingly sort as scarcely to support the cattle, that inconvenience may be obviated by fixing to the horse's feet broad wooden shoes, similar to the snow shoes made use of by the inhabitants of northern climates.—The price of this useful plough, when complete, does not exceed two guineas and a half.

In October, 1797, a patent was granted to Mr., of Binley, Warwick, for his invention of an implement, or machine, for draining land, which appears to be an improvement on Mr. 's mole-plough. The only material difference which subsists between them, is Mr. 's application of a rolling cutter made of cast steel, or cast iron, in the beam of his implement, instead of the common coulter, which, in Mr. 's plough, is fastened in the usual manner, by wedges. The patentee has likewise added three cutters, which may occasionally be substituted for the rolling cutter or coulter above-mentioned. This implement requires from four to eight horses, which number may be increased, or diminished, according to the nature of the land, and the depth it is intended to be worked. But, before it is used, Mr. observes, that the land to be drained should be carefully examined, in order to ascertain the most convenient place for carrying off the water: hence the lowest end or side of the field must be selected for that purpose. The price of Mr. 's machine, we understand, is not less than ten guineas.

The last method of draining uplands, of which we shall give an account, is that practised in the county of Berks. It consists in digging a trench 2 feet deep, one foot wide at the top, and 9 inches at the bottom, with a steep descent to a ditch, extending along the bottom of the grounds, and made of a proper width and depth, to receive and carry off the water. Within these trenches is formed a channel, the sides of which are composed of hard white chalk, cut nearly into the size of bricks; the whole is covered with pieces of the same material, and the crevices filled up with the chippings. The mouth of the channel, where the water falls into the ditch, is constructed with brick or flint, as chalk will not bear the frost, to which this part of the work must necessarily be exposed. On the top of the channel is placed a thin coat of wheat-straw, brambles, or any small brush-wood. The passage for the water will be somewhat more than 3 inches. In digging trenches of this kind, the workmen lay the best earth on one side by itself, in order to replace it on the surface, when the trenches are again filled up. But, in all cases, where land lies on a declivity, care should be taken, that the drains have an easy and gentle descent; for, if they have too rapid a fall, they are apt to burst, or excavate; and, their protection below being lost, the least pressure from above will consequently destroy the work.

II. With respect to the draining of those plains or morasses, where no fall can be procured, the water may, in many situations, be collected by cutting a long horizontal ditch above the level of the morass, so as to intercept all the wall-springs; and may then be carried off in wooden troughs, or hollow bricks, above die surface; and, if any