rom being originally of little or no value, soon
became as useful as any in the kingdom, by producing the most
valuable kinds of grain and feeding the best and healthiest species
of stock.

"Many have erroneously entertained an idea that Elkington's skill
lay solely 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 profession and
practice of draining, in the course of which he made various useful
discoveries, as will be afterwards explained. With regard to the
use of the auger, though there is every reason to believe that he
was led to employ that instrument from the circumstance already
stated, and did not derive it from any other source of
intelligence, yet there is no doubt that others might have hit upon
the same idea without being indebted for it to him. It has
happened, that, in attempts to discover mines by boring, springs
have been tapped, and ground thereby drained, either by letting the
water down, or by giving it vent to the surface; and that the auger
has been likewise used in bringing up water in wells, to save the
expense of deeper digging; but that it had been _used in draining
land, before Mr. Elkington made that discovery, no one has ventured
to assert_."

Begging pardon of the shade of John Johnstone for the liberty, we will
copy from Mr. Gisborne, as being more clearly expressed, a summary
explanation of Elkington's system, as Mr. Gisborne has deduced it from
Johnstone's report, with two simple and excellent plans:

"A slight modification of Johnstone's best and simplest plan, with
a few sentences of explanation, will sufficiently elucidate
Elkington's mystery, and will comprehend the case of all simple
superficial springs. Perhaps in Agricultural Britain, no formation
is more common than moderate elevations of pervious material, such
as chalk, gravel, and imperfect stone or rock of various kinds,
resting upon more horizontal beds of clay, or other material less
pervious than themselves, and at their inferior edge overlapped by
it. For this overlap geological reasons are given, into which we
cannot now enter. In order to make our explanation simple, we use