garded as the means of freeing the
land from springs, oozes, and under-water, and it was applied only to
lands palpably wet, and producing rushes and other aquatic plants."

He then proceeds to give the principles of Elkington, Smith, Parkes, and
other modern writers, of which we shall speak more at large.

The work published in England, not far from Captain Bligh's time, under
the title "A Complete Body of Husbandry," undertakes to give directions
for all sorts of farming processes. A Second Edition, in four octavo
volumes, of which we have a copy, was published in 1758. It professes to
treat of "Draining in General," and then of the draining of boggy land
and of fens, but gives no intimation that any other lands require
drainage.

Directions are given for filling drains with "rough stones," to be
covered with refuse wood, and over that, some of the earth that was
thrown out in digging. "By this means," says the writer, "a passage will
be left free for all the water the springs yield, and there will be none
of these great openings upon the surface."

He thus describes a method practiced in Oxfordshire of draining with
bushes:

"Let the trenches be cut deeper than otherwise, suppose three foot
deep, and two foot over. As soon as they are made, let the bottoms
of them be covered with fresh-cut blackthorn bushes. Upon these,
throw in a quantity of large refuse stones; over these let there be
another covering of straw, and upon this, some of the earth, so as
to make the surface level with the rest. These trenches will always
keep open."

No mention whatever is made in this elaborate treatise of tiles of any
kind, which affords very strong evidence that they were not in use for
drainage at that time. In a note, however, to Stephen's "Draining and
Irrigation," we find the following statement and opinion:

"In draining the park at Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire, about three
years ago, some drains, made with tiles, were found eight feet
below the surface of the ground. The tiles were similar to what are
now used, and in as good a state of preservation as when first
laid, although they must have remained there above one hundred
years."

ELKINGTON'S SYSTEM OF DRAINAGE.

It appears, that, in 1795, the British Parliament, at the request of the
Board of Agriculture, voted to Joseph Elkington a reward of L1000, for
his valuable discoveries in the drainage of la