t they drayn away that under-moysture,
fylth, and venom as aforesaid, that maintains them; and then
believe me, or deny Scripture, which I hope thou doust not, as
Bildad said unto Job, "Can the rush grow without mire, or the flagg
without water?" Job viii. 12. That interrogation plainly showes
that the rush cannot grow, the water being taken from the root; for
it is not the moystnesse upon the surface of the land, for then
every shower should increase the rush, but it is that which lieth
at the root, which, drayned away at the bottom, leaves it naked and
barren of relief.'

"The author frequently returns to this charge, explaining over and
over again the necessity of removing what we call bottom-water, and
which he well designates as 'filth and venom.'

"In the course of my operations as a drainer, I have met with, or
heard of, so many instances of swamp-drainage, executed precisely
according to the plans of this author, and sometimes in a superior
manner--the conduits being formed of walling stone, at a period
long antecedent to the memory of the living--that I am disposed to
consider the practice of deep drainage to have originated with
Captain Bligh, and to have been preserved by imitators in various
parts of the country; since a book, which passed through three
editions in the time of the Commonwealth, must necessarily have had
an extensive circulation, and enjoyed a high renown. Several
complimentary autograph verses, written by some imitators and
admirers of the ingenious Bligh, are bound up with the volume. I
find also, not unfrequently, very ancient deep drains in arable
fields, and some of them still in good condition; and in a case or
two, I have met with several ancient drains six feet deep, placed
parallel with each other, but at so great a distance asunder, as
not to have commanded a perfect drainage of the intermediate space.
The author from whom I have so largely quoted, is the earliest
known to me, who has had the sagacity to distinguish between the
transient effect of rain, and the constant action of stagnant
bottom-water in maintaining land in a wet condition."

Dr. Shier, editor of "Davy's Agricultural Chemistry," says, "The history
of drainage in Britain may be briefly told. Till the time of Smith, of
Deanston, draining was generally re