The cow-pox is a disease wholly unknown to farmers, both in Cheshire, and in Lancashire; so that disappointment could not arise from the animals having undergone that disease: and in Cheshire, a large dairy-county, the men are employed indiscriminately in cleaning the horses, and in milking the cows.'

The event of these experiments is certainly unfavourable to Dr. Jenner's hypothesis.

ART. VIII. An Account of the most approved Mode of Draining Land, according to the System practised by Mr. Joseph Elkington, late of Princethorp in the County of Warwick: with an Appendix, containing Hints for the farther Improvement of Bogs and other Marshy Ground, after draining; together with Observations on hollow and surface Draining in general. The whole illustrated by explanatory Engravings. Drawn up for Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and internal Improvement. By John Johnstone, Land Surveyor. 4to. pp. 183. 11. 1s. Boards. Edinburgh printed: sold by Nicol in London. 1797.

THE

HE subject of this publication is of great importance: it has excited, and will continue to excite, the attention of intelligent country-gentlemen; who, by their spirited and welldirected exertions to drain those parts of their estates which were wet and boggy, will improve their rentals, and increase the productiveness and salubrity of the country. Till of late, the art of land-draining, in order to discharge cultivated or cultivatable land of its superfluous water, had not been well understood: but two gentlemen, nearly about the same time, and nearly in the same way, made a discovery which threw considerable light on the subject, and has since served to point out the proper practice. Dr. Anderson, in a late work intitled "A Practical Treatise on Draining Bogs and Swampy Grounds," (of which we gave an account in our Review for September last, vol. xxvII. p. 46.) deems himself the first discoverer : but it appears that the idea which is the basis of the improved mode of draining land suggested itself to Dr. Anderson, as he himself tells us, in the year 1764; and by the treatise under review, it is shewn that Mr. Elkington* was led to the prac tical adoption of it, by an accidental discovery in the year 1763.

Having, in the article above cited, extracted what Dr. Anderson advanced in asserting his claim to priority of discovery, we consider ourselves impelled by justice to exhibit what is here stated as to the origin of the discovery made by Mr. Elking ton, and the means that first led him to the knowlege of the arts

* Originally a farmer in the county of Warwick,

REV. FEB. 1799.

especially as Mr. Johnstone assures us that its veracity may be, depended on':

In the year 1763, Mr. Elkington was left by his father the possession of a farm called Princethorp, in the parish of Stretton upon Dunsinore, and county of Warwick. The soil of this farm was very poor, and in many places so extremely wet, that it had been the cause of rotting several hundred sheep, which was the first means that determined him, if possible, to drain it, which he began to do in 1764. The field in which he began was of a wet clay soil, rendered almost a swamp, (and, indeed, in some places, a shaking bog,) by the springs issuing from a bank of gravel and sand adjoining it, and overflowing the surface of the clay in the manner described in the annexed plan, which is a true representation of it. In order to drain this field, he cut a trench about four or five feet deep, a little below the upper side of the bog, or where the wetness began to make its appearance; and after proceeding with it so far in this direction, and at this depth, he found it did not reach the main body of subjacent water, from whence the evil proceeded. On discovering this, Mr. Elkington was at a loss how to proceed. At this time, while he was considering what was next to be done, one of his serv ants accidentally came to the field where the drain was making, with an iron crow or bar, which the farmers in that country use in making holes for fixing their sheep hurdles. Mr. Elkington having a suspicion that his drain was not deep enough, and a desire to know what kind of strata lay under the bottom of it, took the iron bar from the servant, and after having forced it down about four feet below the bottom of the trench, on pulling it out, to his astonish nient, a great quantity of water burst up through the hole he had thús made, and ran down the drain. This, at once, led him to the knowlege of wetness being often produced by water confined farther below the surface of the ground, than it was possible for the usual depth of drains to reach, and induced him to think of applying an auger, as a proper instrument in such cases. Thus did the discovery originate from chance, the parent of many other useful arts! In this manner, he not only accomplished the drainage of this field which soon rendered it completely sound, but likewise all the other wet ground on his farm.

The success of this experiment soon extended Mr. Elkington's Fame, in the knowledge of draining, from one part of the country to another; and after having drained several farms in his neighbourhood with equal success, he at last came to be very generally employed, has been since, and is now, in various parts of the kingdom, which shall be more particularly taken notice of in the sequel. It is, indeed, now impossible for him to execute half the employment he has in hand, or to accept the numerous offers that are every day made to him. From his long practice and experience, he is now so successful in the works which he undertakes, and also in judging of the internal strata of the carth and nature of springs, that he can, with remarkable precision, judge where to find water, and where to trace the course of springs that make no appearance on the surface of the

ground.

ground. The rules on which he acts, with regard to these disco veries, will be afterwards explained in treating of the nature of wet, ground caused by springs.

Lastly, Within these few years past, since his practice has been so widely extended, and so generally successful, he has drained in various parts of England, particularly in the midland counties, many thousand acres of land, which, from being originally of little or no value, is now as productive as any in the kingdom, capable of producing the most valuable kinds of grain, or of feeding the best and healthiest species of stock.

Some have erroneously entertained an idea that Mr. Elkington's sole skill lies in applying the auger for the tapping of springs, without attaching any merit to his method of conducting the drains. The accidental circumstance above stated gave him the first notion of using an auger, and directed his attention to the practice of draining, in the course of which he has made various useful discoveries, which are, herein afterwards more fully explained. It will be sufficient here to remark, that draining, according to his principles, depends upon three points, Upon finding out the main spring, or cause of the mischief, without which nothing effectual can be done.. zd, Upon taking the level of that spring, and ascertaining its subterraneous bearings, a measure never practised by any till Mr. Elkington discovered the advantage to be derived from it; for, if the drain is cut a yard beyond the line of the spring, you can never reach the water that issues from it, and, by ascertaining that line by means of levelling, you can cut off the spring effectually, and consequently drain the land in the cheapest and most eligible manner. The manner in which this is done will be afterwards described. And, 3dly, By making use of the auger to reach or tap the spring, when the depth of the drain is not sufficient for that purpose.

In regard to the use of the auger, though there is every reason to believe Mr. Elkington was led to employ that instrument from the accidental circumstance stated above, and did not derive it from any other channel; yet there is no doubt that others have hit upon the same idea, without being indebted for it to him. It is said, that in attempting to discover mines by means of an auger, springs have been tapped, and the adjacent wet ground thereby drained, either by letting the water down, or giving it vent to the surface. The auger has also been made use of in bringing water into wells, by boring in the bottom of them, to save the expence of digging, especially in Italy, where it is probable that the practice is very ancient. But, that it has been used in draining land before Mr. Elkington made that dis covery, no one has ventured to assert.

In Dr. Nugent's Travels through Germany, printed anno 1768 (of which an extract will be found in chapter v.), there is an account of a mode of draining land, on principles in some respects of a simi lar nature, not indeed by the use of the auger, but by making pits And, in a publication by Dr. James Anderson, entitled "Essays on Agriculture and Rural Affairs," printed anno 1775, after describing mode of tapping the Doctor had adopted, by sinking small pits, he adds, "I have often imagined that the expence of digging these

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pits

pits might be saved, by boring a hole through this solid stratum of clay, with a wimble made on purpose; but as I have never experienced this, I cannot say whether it would answer the desired end exactly."

Mr. Elkington, however, made use of the auger prior to the date of these publications, or to any hint he could possibly derive from any publication in the English language, though it is probable that, in so far as regarded tapping of springs for avells, the use of the auger was well known in some parts of Italy. Buffon states, "That, in the city of Modena, and four miles und, whatever part is dug, when we reach the depth of sixty-three feet, and bore five feet deeper with an auger, the water springs out with such force, that the well is filled in a very short space of time. This water flows continually, and neither diminishes nor increases by the rain or drought." Mentioning the different strata that are met with to this depth, he adds, "These successive beds of fenny or marshy earth and chalk, are always found in the same order wherever we dig; and very often the auger meets with large trunks of trees, which it bores through, but which give great trouble to the workmen; bones, coals, flint, and pieces of iron, are also found. Ramazzini, who relates these facts, &c." Buffon's Nat. Hist.

This new principle of draining, by tapping springs, or by perforating with an auger through a retentive into an absorbent or porous stratum, being ascertained, its application in theory is obvious: but it will require some judgment to direct its practice. Mr. Johnstone represents Mr. Elkington, to whom Parliament has awarded 1000, as having been peculiarly fortunate, not only in the original discovery, but in the various and extensive use which he has made of it. This work 'is an exhibition of his system drawn out into actual practice; and there are many to whom it will be very acceptable. The letter-press, assisted by the plates, will explain the drainingprocess requisite for wet soils of every description and in every situation but, without the plates, the detail would not always be very intelligible. We shall not, therefore, notice the various instances in which Mr. Elkington's principle has been applied with effect, but content ourselves with an extract explanatory of the principle itself.

Wetness in land proceeds from two causes, as different in themselves as the effects which they produce.

It proceeds either from rain water stagnant on the surface, or from the water of springs issuing over, or confined under it. On clay soils, that have no natural descent, wetness is commonly produced by the first of these causes; but, in a variety of situations, it may proceed from the latter.But,

The principles of Mr. Elkington's art are so closely connected with the nature of springs, that, without a knowledge of these, and the causes producing them, it is impossible to practise it with either

success

success or advantage; for surface draining, where the wetness pro ceeds from subjacent water, is only alleviating the effect, in place of removing the cause. It will therefore be necessary, in the first place, so far to ascertain the nature of springs, and their connection with the formation of bogs, as to enable the practical drainer more easily to comprehend the theoretical part of Mr. Elkington's system.

From its general external appearance, and by the perforations that have been made in it by quarries, wells, and other subterraneous pits, the carth is known to be composed of various strata, which, being in their nature of opposite consistence, are distinguished by the names of porous and impervious. Those strata, which, from their more open composition, are porous, and capable of receiving the rain water that falls on them, include rock, gravel, sand, and such marles as are of an absorbent quality. Clay, and a certain kind of gravel having a proportion of clay in its composition, which, by binding and cementing the small stones together, renders it equally close and tenacious as clay itself; with such rock as is of a close and compact nature, without any fissures in it, are the principal strata that most resist the reception of water, and that are capable of retaining it on their surface till exhaled by the sun, or carried off by suitable drains, and are termed impervious.

Springs therefore originate from rain water falling upon such porous and absorbent surfaces, and subsiding downwards through such, till, in its passage, it meets a body of clay or other impene trable substance, which obstructs its farther descent, and here, forming a reservoir or considerable collection of water, it is forced either to filtrate along such body, or rise to some part of the surface, where it oozes out in all those different appearances that are so frequently met with. This is evident from the immediate disappearance of the rain water, as it falls, on some parts of the ground, while it remains stagnant on others, till carried off by evaporation; and from the strength of springs being greater in wet than in dry seasons. Hence, after incessant rains, they are observed to break out in higher situations, and, as the weather becomes drier, give over running out, unless at their lowest outlets. The strength of springs also, or quantity of water which they issue, depends chiefly on the extent of high ground that receives and retains the rain, forming large reservoirs, which affords them a more regular supply. Thus bog-springs, or those that rise in valleys and low situations, are much stronger, and have a more regular discharge, than those which break out on higher ground, or on the sides of hills.

Independent of these causes, there are certainly great springs contained in the bowels of the earth; otherwise, how could the many rivers that intersect it be supplied with such vast quantities of water as they discharge, the rains falling on its surface, or the dews that descend, not being adequate for that purpose? But, as this may be considered among those arcana of nature which have not yet been sufficiently explored, and lying at too great a depth to affect the surface, it comes not within the limits of the present inquiry.

With the nature and causes of springs, that of bogs is intimately connected; for, where springs breaking out in the manner above de

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scribed,