e system seems to have been invented by Mr.
Joshua Trimmer, a distinguished geologist of England, who, about 1854,
produced a paper, which was published in the journal of the Royal
Agricultural Society, on the "Keythorpe System." He states that his own
theory was based entirely on his knowledge of the geological structure
of the earth, which will be presently given in his own language, and
that he afterwards ascertained that Lord Berners, who had no special
theory to vindicate, had, by the "tentative process," or in plain
English, by trying experiments, hit upon substantially the same system,
and found it to work admirably.

Most people in the United States have no idea of what it is to be
patronized by a lord. In England, it is thought by many to be the thing
needful to the chance, even, of success of any new theory, and
accordingly, Mr. Trimmer, without hesitation, availed himself of the
privilege of being patronized by Lord Berners; and the latter, before he
was aware of how much the agricultural world was indebted to him for his
valuable discoveries, suddenly found himself at the head of the
"Keythorpe System of Drainage."

His lordship was probably as much surprised to ascertain that he had
been working out a new system, as some man of whom we have heard, was,
to learn that he had been speaking _prose_ all his life! At the call of
the public, however, his lordship at once gave to the world the facts in
his possession, making no claim to any great discovery, and leaving Mr.
Trimmer to defend the new system as best he might. The latter, in one of
his pamphlets published in defence of the Keythorpe system, states its
claims as follows:

"The peculiarities of the Keythorpe system of draining consist in
this--that the parallel drains are not equidistant, and that they
cross the line of the greatest descent. The usual depth is three
and a half feet, but some are as deep as five and six feet. The
depth and width of interval are determined by digging trial-holes,
in order to ascertain not only the depth at which the bottom water
is reached, but the height to which the water rises in the holes,
and the distance at which a drain will lay the hole dry. In sinking
these holes, clay-banks are found with hollows or furrows between
them, which are filled with a more porous soil, as represented in
the annexed sectional diagram.

[Illustration: Fig. 4.

_a_ _a_