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Population in 1821, 4123; in 1831, 4784. [Down.] DOWNS or DUNES, are little hillocks of sand formed along the sea-coast.

The mode of their formation is this:-the waves of the sea, in certain localities, drive upon the beach a certain quantity of fine sand, which, becoming dry during low water, is carried up still higher by the wind, till meeting with the obstruction of large stones, bushes, tufts of grass, &c., it is accumulated into little heaps: these offering still greater surface of resistance as the sand increases upon and against them, soon rise into mounds of considerable height, whose number, arrangement, and dimensions, depend naturally upon the size and distribution of the obstacles to which they owe their existence. If these obstacles are close-set, there will be little more than one range of sand hillocks, and, if very close, these will in time unite so as to form a continuous ridge. Should the arresting objects, on the contrary, be thinly scattered, and at different distances from the brink on a shelving coast, there will be several ridges of hillocks, the one behind the other.

The downs having attained a certain height, the wind has no longer the power to increase their elevation, and they are then urged forward upon the land.

The way in which this is effected is easily conceived. On
the windward side of the hillocks the grains of sand are
forced up to the top, whence they are swept off as they
arrive, and fall by their own weight on the opposite slope.
Thus the mass goes on invading the land, while fresh ma-
terial is constantly brought by the sea.

This progress inland depends however upon the habitual
direction of the wind and the relative direction of the coast-
line. In Gascony the sand advances eastward, and gene-
rally along the whole coast of France, from Bayonne to
Calais, the downs progress in a north-easterly direction, the
wind blowing most frequently from the south-west; whereas
from Calais to Dunkerque, the coast trending in the di-
rection of the wind, they make no progress inland, but form
a ridge or chain parallel with the coast.

The rapidity with which the sands advance is, in some
cases, most alarming. Between the mouths of the Adour
and the Garonne their progress is about sixty feet yearly;
nor is it easy to arrest their march. The town of Mimizan
is in part buried under the sands, against whose encroach-
ment it has been struggling for the last five-and-twenty
years. In Brittany also, a village near St. Pol de Leon
has been entirely covered with the sand, so as to leave no
part visible but the steeple of the church.

In the Boulonnais the advance of the downs has been almost wholly arrested since the works there executed by Cassini. The inhabitants plant a species of cyperacea (the Arundo arenaria), termed by them oya, which thrives well, and fixes the sands. This process is so much the more advantageous, as every hillock which becomes fixed is an effectual barrier against the invasion of fresh sand from

the sea.

In Gascony the peasants force the wind, in some measure, to drive back what it brought. Thus, when the wind blows in a direction contrary to that which pushes the downs upon the land, they toss the sand high into the air with shovels, and in this manner get rid of a portion of it: this portion, however, is very small, and the prevailing winds being from the south-west the sands continue to advance in spite of all their efforts.

Downs sometimes intercept the flow of water to the sea, forming stagnant pools between and behind them which give rise to an aquatic vegetation and the occasional formation of a kind of peat.

DOWNTON. [WILTSHIRE.]

and other writers consider this exception to have been introduced into the Romish church by St. Jerome. The first express mention of it is in the second council of Vaison, A. D. 529. Amongst the Christians it was always considered as a solemn profession of their belief in the Trinity. (Wheatly on the Common Prayer, Svo. Oxf. 1802, pp. 124. 132. Broughton's Dict. of all Religions, pp. 341, 342.) DRACENA, a genus of endogenous plants, of the natural family Asparages of Jussieu, now arranged as a section of Liliacea by Dr. Lindley. The genus was established by Linnæus, and named from one of its species yielding the resinous exudation, familiarly known by the name of Dragon's blood, a translation of the Arabic name dum al akhwain, met with in Avicenna and other Arabian authors. Dracaena is characterized by having an inferior six-partite perianth, of which the segments are nearly erect, and have inserted on them the six stamens, with filaments thickened towards the middle and linear anthers. The style is single, with a trifid stigma. The berry two or three-celled, with its cells one or two-seeded.

The species of Dracæna are now about 30 in number, and found in the warm parts of the Old World, and in many of both Asiatic and African islands, whence they extend southwards to the Cape of Good Hope and New Holland, and northwards into China, and to the eastern parts of India, as the districts of Silhet and Chittagong. Species are also found in Socotra, and the Canary and Cape Verd Islands, as well as at Sierra Leone. From this distribution it is evident that the species require artificial heat for their cultivation in England. They are found to thrive in a light loam, and may be grown from cuttings sunk in a bark bed. The species of Dracaena are evergreens, either of a shrubby or arboreous nature; and having long, slender, often columnar stems, they emulate palms in habit. Their trunks are marked with the cicatrices of fallen leaves; the centre is soft and cellular, having externally a circle of stringy fibres. The leaves are simple, usually crowded together towards the end of the branches, or terminal like the inflorescence: whence we might suppose that the name terminalis had been applied to some of the species, if Rumphius had not stated that it was in consequence of their being planted along the boundaries of fields. The structure of the stem and leaves is particularly interesting, as the fossil genera Clathraria and Sternbergia have been assimilated to Dracæna, the former by M. Adolphe Brongniart, and the latter by Dr. Lindley; and as Rumphius compares the leaves of a Dracaena with those of Galanga, it is as probable that the fossil leaves called Cannophyllites may be those of a plant allied to Dracaena, as that they belong to one of the Canneæ.

Of the several species of Dracena which have been described by botanists, there are few which are of much importance either for their useful or ornamental properties. Among them, however, may be mentioned D. terminalis, a species rather extensively diffused. The root is said by Rumphius to be employed as a demulcent in cases of diarrhea, and the plant as a signal of truth and of peace in the Eastern archipelago. In the Islands of the Pacific Ocean a sweetish juice is expressed from its roots, and afterwards reduced by evaporation to a sugar, of which specimens were brought to Paris by Captain D'Urville from the island of Tahiti. (Otaheite.) The root is there called Ti or Tii, and thence no doubt corrupted into Tea-root by the English and Americans. M. Gaudichaud mentions that in the Sandwich Islands generally an intoxicating drink is prepared from this root, to which the name Ava is often applied, as well as to that made with the roots of Piper methysticum.

DOXO'LOGY, a form of giving glory to God, from the Latin doxologia, and that from the Greek doxa (dóža), Dracæna Draco is the best known species, not only from glory, and logos (Móyoç), a word or saying. The doxology in its producing Dragon's blood, but also from one specimen the concluding paragraph of the Lord's Prayer, Thine is having so frequently been described or noticed in the works the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,' is left out of of visitors to the Canary Islands. The erect trunk of the many of the antient copies of St. Matthew's Gospel, though Dragon-tree is usually from 8 to 12 feet high, and divided it appears in others; St. Luke omits it entirely. The above into numerous short branches, which terminate in authenticity of this form of praise, as a paragraph of the tufts of spreading sword-shaped leaves, pointed at the ex prayer, has been a difficult subject of dispute. It does not tremity. The most celebrated specimen of this tree grows appear in the Vulgate, but it seems to be established by the near the town of Orotava, in the Island of Teneriffe, and Greek MSS. and the Eastern versions. Doxology is also was found by Humboldt in 1799 to be about 45 feet in cirused for the short hymn, Gloria Patri, which we use in our cumference. Sir G. Staunton had previously stated it to be church service at the end of every psalm, of "every part of 14 feet in diameter at the height of 10 feet; anders and the hundred and nineteenth psalm, and of every hymn gave even larger dimensions. It annually bears flowers and except Te Deum, which is a doxology of itself. Durand fruit; and though continuing thus to grow, does not appear

much increased in size, in consequence of some of its branches being constantly blown down, as in the storm of July 1819, when it lost a great part of its top. The great size of this enormous vegetable is mentioned in many of the older authors; indeed as early as the time of Bethencourt, or in 1402, it is described as large and as hollow as it is now; whence, from the slowness of growth of Dracenas, has been inferred the great antiquity of a tree which four centuries have so little changed. Humboldt, indeed, remarks that there can be no doubt of the Dracaena of Orotava being with the Baobab (Adansonia digitata) one of the oldest inhabitants of our planet, and as tradition relates that it was revered by the Guanches, he considers it as singular that it should have been cultivated from the most distant ages in the Canaries, in Madeira, and Porto Santo, although it comes originally from India. This fact he adduces as contradicting the assertion of those who represent the Guanches as a race of men completely isolated from the other races of either Asia or Africa. To this it may be replied, that we know too little of the Botany of the interior of Africa to be able to draw from it any inferences; while the Dragon-tree on the other hand is not known to exist further to the eastward than the island of Socotra."

DRACHM, or DRAM, a small measure of weight, the etymology of which is to be found in the Greek drachma (payun). The drachm of our pound troy is stated to be nearly the same as the Attic drachma, or the Roman denarius (under the earlier emperors).

There are two drachms or drams remaining in our system of weights; the first is the sixteenth part of the ounce, which is the sixteenth part of the pound avoirdupois of 7000 grains: this is now totally out of use, as no species of goods which are weighed by the avoirdupois weight are of such value as to make the sixteenth part of an ounce worth consideration. In the national standard, the troy pound of 5760 grains, there is no dram; but this weight occurs in that particular division of the troy pound which is used by apothecaries, in which the dram is the eighth part of the ounce, which is the twelfth part of the pound of 5760 grains. This is the real remnant of the Roman division: the denarius (which, according to Pliny, was the Attic drachma of his time) was, however, the seventh part of the ounce. The drachma or dram is used in England, France, Holland, Prussia, and in some parts of the Levant.

DRACHMA, from the Greek drachme (opáxun), a silver coin. It was the chief coin in use among the Athenians, and probably other Greeks also. The didrachm or two drachms, the tridrachm or three drachms, and the tetradrachm or four drachms, were its multiples. The last was the largest form of Greek silver. The average weight of five drachmæ in the British Museum is 60.92 grains; and the average weight of three tetradrachmæ in the British Museum is 260.56 grains. The Attic drachma has been supposed to have been the same among the Greeks with the denarius among the Romans: others have disputed this; but both may be reconciled by the consideration that the number of drachmæ, as well as of denarii, which went to the ounce might have been subject to occasional variations.

brought forward his code of laws in this year, and that he was then an old man. Aristotle says (Polit. ii. at the end), that Draco adapted his laws to the existing constitution, and that they contained nothing peculiar beyond the severity of their penalties. The slightest theft was punished capitally, as well as the most atrocious murder; and Demades remarked of his laws, that they were written with blood, and not with ink. (Plutareh, Solon, exvii.) Draco, however, deserves credit as the first who introduced written laws at Athens, and it is probable that he improved the criminal courts by his transfer of cases of bloodshed from the archon to the ephetæ (Jul. Pollux, viii. 124, 125), since before his time the archons had a right of settling all cases arbitrarily, and without appeal, a right which they enjoyed in other cases till Solon's time. (Bekker's Anecdota, p. 449, 1. 23.) It appears that there were some offences which he did not punish with death; for instance, loss of the civil rights was the punishment for an attempt to alter one of his laws. (Demosth. c. Aristocr., p. 714, Bekk.) Draco was archon (Pausan. ix. 36, § 8), and consequently an eupatrid: it is not therefore to be supposed that his object was to favour the lower orders, though his code seems to have tended to abridge the power of the nobles. He died in the island of Ægina. On the legislation of Draco in general, see Wachsmuth, Hellenische Alterthumskunde, ii. 1, p. 239, and following.

DRACO (the dragon), one of the old constellations, restantly stated by the older writers as being placed between ferred by Higinus to the fable of the Hesperides. It is conUrsa Major and Ursa Minor, which hardly suits the present position of the constellation, since its principal stars are all contained between Ursa Minor, Cepheus, Cygnus, and Hercules. The two stars in the head (3 and y, the latter celebrated as passing very near the zenith of the south of England, and as being the one used in the discovery of aberration [BRADLEY],) are nearly in the line joining a Cygni (Deneb) and Arcturus; while seven or eight smaller stars wind round Ursa Minor in such a manner as to render the name of the constellation not unappropriate. The extreme star (A) is very nearly between the pole star and its pointers. [URSA MAJOR.] The principal stars are as follows:

(Pitisci Lexicon Antiq. Gr. et Rom., v. Denarius; Pinkerton's Essay on Medals, vol. i., § 6; Kelly's Universal Cambist, 4to., Lond., 1821, vol. i, 3, 4. 9. 30. 34, &c.; vol. ii. 256.)

British Muscum. Actual size. Silver. Weight, 61 grains.

DRACI'NA, the name given by Melandri to the colouring tained, according to Melandri, by macerating dragon's blood DRACONIN, the dracina above mentioned, may be obmatter of dragon's blood, and which he supposed to be a in water acidulated with sulphuric acid: this becomes of a vegetable alkali; but Berzelius and Herberger are of opi-yellow colour, but does not act upon the draconin, which is nion that it does not possess alkaline properties: the last-of a fine red colour and very fusible: it may be worked bementioned chemist, indeed, calls this colouring matter tween the fingers, and drawn into threads. It melts at about draconin, and he considers it to possess rather sub-acid properties than such as denote alkalinity.

DRACO, an Athenian legislator, who flourished about the 39th Olympiad., 621 B.C. Suidas tells us that he

130°: on solidifying it becomes of a crimson colour, and readily in alcohol, and the solution, which is of a fine red, when triturated gives a cinnabar red colour. It dissolves becomes yellow on the addition of an acid; but on the ad

This year, and that h Polit. ii. at the en existing constitut liar beyond the theft was pas smurder; and y were written Solon, exvii) D ho introduced that he imp cases of blad ollux, viii. 124A right of setti a right wh e. (Bekker's

there were leath; for insta ent for an a . Aristocr,p 36, § 8), and re to be orders, thought the power d . On the legi h, Hellenisde

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dition of an alkali the red colour is restored. It does not | Daudin first extricated from confusion come from the East
appear to have been analyzed.
Indies.

DRAGOMANS, or DROGOMANS (from the Turkish
Trukéman); the interpreters attached to the European con-
sulates and embassies in the Levant are so called. At Con-
stantinople they are the chief, and in most cases the sole
medium of communication between Christian ambassadors,
who are ignorant of the Turkish language, and the Ottoman
Porte. They are men born in the country, and are chiefly de-
scended from old Genoese or Venetian settlers. Their local
interests and sympathies have often interfered with their
duties; and though there have been honourable exceptions,
they are not distinguished as a body for honour and integrity.
The French, as early as the time of Louis XIV., saw the
propriety of employing native subjects in this capacity, and
instituted a small body of young men, technically called
Jeunes de langue, who were sent to the country to learn the
language and acquaint themselves with its laws and customs.
But this good plan has not been sufficiently supported.
The dragomans and their families enjoy the protection of
the nations whom they serve, and are exempted from
Turkish law.

DRAGON. DRACO'NIDE, a family of Saurians, dis-
tinguished from their congeners in having their six first false
ribs, instead of hooping the abdomen, extending in a nearly
straight line, and sustaining a production of the skin which
forms a kind of wing comparable to that of the bats, but
independent of the four feet. This wing sustains the ani-
mal like a parachute when it leaps from branch to branch,
but does not possess the faculty of beating the air, and so
raising the reptile into flight like a bird. All the species
are small, covered entirely with small imbricated scales, of
which those of the tail and limbs are carinated. The
tongue is fleshy, but slightly extensile, and slightly jagged
(echancrée). Under the throat is a long pointed production
(fanon), sustained by the hind part (queue) of the os hyoides,
and at the sides are two other smaller ones, sustained by the
horns of the same bone. The tail is long. The thighs have
no pores. On the nape is a small dentilation. In each
jaw are four small incisors, and on each side a long and
pointed canine, and twelve triangular and trilobated molars.
Cuvier, whose description this is, says that the dragons
have the scales and the gular appendage of the Iguanas,
with the head and teeth of the Stellionida.

Skeleton of Dragon,

Geographical Distribution.-The known species which

Draco fimbriatus.

DRAGON'S BLOOD. [CALAMUS.]
DRAGOON. [CAVALRY.]

partment of Var. It is on the river Pis, or Nartuli, or
DRAGUIGNAN, a town in France, capital of the de-
Artuby, which falls into the Argens, 416 miles in a straight
line south-south-east of Paris, or 552 miles by the road
through Lyon, Valence, Avignon, Aix, and Brignolles; in
43° 32' N. lat., and 6° 30' E. long.

reason, that Draguignan is on the site of the Forum VocoIt has been supposed by some, but without sufficient nii of the Romans: it is however a place of considerable antiquity, having been mentioned in the titles of the earliest counts of Provence. Little historical interest is attached to it. Before the Revolution there were many religious houses here: the Reformed Dominicans, Augustinian Canons, Cordeliers, Minims, and Capuchins had convents; that of the Dominicans was very handsome; and there were nunneries for Ursulines and the nuns of the Visitation. The priests of the Christian doctrine had the direction of a college, and there was a tolerably well-built hospital. The bishop of Frejus had a palace here. The town is situated in a fertile plain surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills covered with vines and olive-trees. It is tolerably well built, and not badly laid out: it is adorned with numerous and copious fountains and many rows of trees. There is a clock-tower built upon a precipitous limestone rock, which crowns a small eminence, and rises as high as the roofs of the houses. The population in 1832 was 9070 for the town, or 9804 for the whole commune: the inhabitants manufacture coarse woollen cloths, leather, stockings, silks, waxcandles, and earthenware: there are many oil-mills. The environs produce excellent fruit and wines: gypsum is abundant, and there are stone quarries in which large blocks of stone are quarried. There are a library, a cabinet of medals, a museum of natural history, containing chiefly the minerals of the department, a botanic garden, a high school, an agricultural society, and several prisons and foundling hospitals; the foundlings are chiefly illegitimate children. The arrondissement, which is extensive, had in 1832 a population of 86,709.

DRAIN. [SEWER.]

DRAINING. As a certain quantity of moisture is essential to vegetation, so an excess of it is highly detrimental. In the removal of this excess consists the art of draining. Water may render land unproductive by covering it entirely or partially, forming lakes or bogs; or there may be an excess of moisture diffused through the soil and stagnating in it, by which the fibres of the roots of all plants which are not aquatic are injured, if not destroyed.

From these different causes of infertility arise three

Suppose A A a porous substance through which the pervious to water. The water which comes through AA water filtrates readily; BB a stratum of loam or clay imwill run along the surface of BB towards SS, where it will spring to the surface and form a lake or bog between S and S. Suppose another gravelly or pervious stratum under the last, as CCC bending as here represented, and filled with water running into it from a higher level; it is evident that this stratum will be saturated with water up to the dotted line E F F, which is the level of the point in the lower rock, or impervious stratum D D, where the water can run over it. If the stratum BB has any crevices in it below the dotted line, the water will rise through these to the surface and form springs rising from the bottom of the lake or bog: and if B B were bored through and a pipe inserted rising up to the dotted line, as co, the water would rise, and stand at o. If there were no springs at SS the space below the dotted line might still be filled with water rising from the stratum CCC. But if the boring took place at G the water would not rise, but on the contrary, there were any on the surface, it would be carried down to the porous stratum E CC, and run off. Thus in one situa tion boring will bring water, and in another it will take it off. This principle being well understood will greatly faci litate all draining of springs. Wherever water springs there must be a pervious and an impervious stratum to cause it, and the water either runs over the impervious surface or rises through the crevices in it. When the line of the springs is found, as at S S, the obvious remedy is to cut a channel with a sufficient declivity to take off the water in a direction across this line, and sunk through the porous soil at the surface into the lower impervious earth. The place for this channel is where the porous soil is the shallowest above the breaking out, so as to require the least depth of drain;

there is a sang of letting it re raised so mue. Soften necessary course; and t without beng

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but the solid stratum must be reached, or the draining | ried in new channels, may be usefully employed in irri-
will be imperfect. It is by attending to all these cir- gating the land which it rendered barren before; not only
cumstances that Elkington acquired his celebrity in drain-removing the cause of barrenness, but adding positive fer-
ing, and that he has been considered as the father of the tility. In this case the lower grounds must have numerous
system. It is however of much earlier invention, and is drains in it, in order that the water let on to irrigate it
too obvious not to have struck any one who seriously con- may not stagnate upon it, but run off after it has answered
sidered the subject. In the practical application of the its purpose.
principle great ingenuity and skill may be displayed, and
the desired effect may be produced more or less completely,
and at a greater or less expense. The advice of a scientific
and practical drainer is always well worth the cost at which
it may be obtained.

When there is a great variation in the soil, and it is dif-
ficult to find any main line of springs, it is best to proceed
experimentally by making pits a few feet deep, or by boring
in various parts where water appears, observing the level at
which the water stands in these pits or bores, as well as the
nature of the soil taken out. Thus it will generally be easy
to ascertain whence the water arises, and how it may be let off.
When there is a mound of light soil over a more impervious
stratum, the springs will break out all round the edge of
the mound; a drain laid round the base will take off all the
water which arises from this cause, and the lower part of
the land will be effectually laid dry. So likewise where
there is a hollow or depression of which the bottom is clay
with sand in the upper part, a drain laid along the edge of
the hollow and carried round it will prevent the water run-
ning down into it, and forming a marsh at the bottom.

When the drains cannot be carried to a sufficient depth
to take the water out of the porous stratum saturated with it,
it is often useful to bore numerous holes with an auger
in the bottom of the drain through the stiffer soil, and, ac-
cording to the principle explained in the diagram, the wa-
ter will either rise through these bores into the drains and
be carried off, and the natural springs will be dried up, or
it will sink down through them as at G, in the section,
if it lies above. This method is often advantageous in
the draining of peat mosses, which generally lie on clay
or stiff loam, with a layer of gravel between the loam and
the peat, the whole lying in a basin or hollow, and often
on a declivity. The peat, though it retains water, is not
pervious, and drains may be cut into it which will hold
water. When the drains are four or five feet deep and
the peat is much deeper, holes are bored down to the clay
below, and the water is pressed up through these holes, by
the weight of the whole body of peat, into the drains, by
which it is carried off. The bottom of the drains is some-
times choked with loose sand, which flows up with the water,
and they require to be cleared repeatedly; but this soon
ceases after the first rush is past, and the water rises
slowly and regularly. The surface of the peat being dried,
dressed with lime, and consolidated with earth and gravel,
soon becomes productive. If the soil, whatever be its na-
ture, can be drained to a certain depth, it is of no consequence
what water may be lodged below it. It is only when it rises so
as to stagnate about the roots of plants that it is hurtful.
Land may be drained so much as to be deteriorated, as expe-

rience has shown.

The third branch in the art of draining is the removal of water from impervious soils which lie flat, or in hollows, where the water from rain, snow, or dews, which cannot sink into the soil on account of its impervious nature, and which cannot be carried off by evaporation, runs along the surface and stagnates in every depression. This is by far the most expensive operation, in consequence of the number of drains required to lay the surface dry, and the necessity of filling them with porous substances, through which the surface water can penetrate. It requires much skill and practice to lay out the drains so as to produce the greatest effect at the least expense. There is often a layer of light earth immediately over a substratum of clay, and after continued rains this soil becomes filled with water, like a sponge, and no healthy vegetation can take place. In this case numerous drains must be made in the subsoil, and over the draining tiles or bushes, which may be laid at the bottom of the drains, loose gravel or broken stones must be laid in to within a foot of the surface, so that the plough shall not reach them. The water will gradually sink into these drains, and be carried off, and the loose wet soil will become firm and dry. In no case is the advantage of draining more immediately apparent.

It is very seldom that a field is absolutely level; the first thing therefore to be ascertained is the greatest inclination and its direction. For this purpose there is an instrument essential to a drainer, with which an accurately horizontal line can be ascertained, by means of a plummet or a spirit level. A sufficient fall may thus be found or artificially made in the drains to carry off the water. The next object is to arrange drains so that each shall collect as much of the water in the soil as possible. Large drains, except as main drains, are inadmissible, since it is by the surface that the water is to come in, and two small drains will collect more than a larger and deeper. The depth should be such only that the plough may not reach it, if the land is arable, or the feet of cattle tread it in, if it be in pasture. All the drains which are to collect the water should lie as nearly at right angles to the inclination of the surface as is consistent with a sufficient fall in the drains to make them run. One foot is sufficient fall for a drain 300 feet in length, provided the drains be not more than 20 feet apart. The main drains, by being laid obliquely across the fall of the ground, will help to take off a part of the surface water. It is evident that the drains can seldom be in a straight line, unless the ground be perfectly even. They should, however, never have sudden turns, but be bent gradually where the direction is changed. The flatter the surface and the stiffer the soil, the greater number of drains will be required. It is a common practice with drainers to run a main drain directly down the slope, however rapid, and to carry smaller drains into this alternately on the right and left, which they call herring-bone fashion. But this can only be approved of where the ground is nearly level, and where there is very little fall for the main drain. A considerable fall is to be avoided as much as possible; and every drain should lie obliquely to the natural run of the water. It generally happens that, besides surface water, there are also some land springs arising from a variation in the soil; these should be carefully ascertained, and the drains should be so laid as to cut them off.

When a single large and deep drain will produce the desired effect, it is much better than when there are several smaller, as large drains are more easily kept open, and last longer than smaller; but this is only the case in tapping main springs, for if the water is diffused through the surrounding soil, numerous small drains are more effective: but as soon as there is a sufficient body of water collected, the smaller drains should run into larger, and these into main drains, which should all, as far as is practicable, unite in one principal outlet, by which means there will be less chance of their being choked up. When the water springs In draining clay land, where there is only a layer of a into a drain from below, it is best to fill up that part of few inches of looser soil over a solid clay which the plough the drain which lies above the stones or other materials never stirs, the drains need not be deeper than two feet in which form the channel with solid earth well pressed in, the solid clay, nor wider than they can be made without and made impervious to within a few inches of the bottom the sides falling in. The common draining tile, which is a of the furrows in ploughed land, or the sod in pastures; flat tile bent in the form of half a cylinder, and which can because the water running along the surface is apt to carry be made at a very cheap rate with the patent machine, is loose earth with it, and choke the drains. When the water the best for extensive surface draining. In solid clay it comes in by the side of the drains, loose stones or gravel, or requires no flat tile under it, it is merely an arch to carry any porous material, should be laid in them to the line the loose stones or earth with which the drain is filled up. where the water comes in, and a little above it, over which the earth may be rammed in tight so as to allow the horses to walk over the drain without sinking in.

It sometimes happens, that the water collected from springs which caused marshes and bogs below, by being car

P. C., No. 546.

Loose round stones or pebbles are the best where they car,
be procured; and in default of them, bushes, heath, porous
may be laid immediately over the tiles, and the most porous
earth that can be got must be used to fill the drains up; tad
stiff clay which was dug out must be taken away or spread

VOL. IX.-R