diately after rains.

Mr. Josiah Parkes recommends drains to be laid

"_At a minimum depth of four feet_, designed with the two-fold
object of not only freeing the active soil from stagnant and
injurious water, but of converting the water falling on the
surface into an agent for fertilizing; no drainage being deemed
efficient that did not both remove the water falling on the
surface, and 'keep down the subterranean water at a depth
exceeding the power of capillary attraction to elevate it near the
surface.'"

Alderman Mechi says:

"Ask nineteen farmers out of twenty, who hold strong clay land,
and they will tell you it is of no use placing deep four-foot
drains in such soils--the water cannot get in; a horse's foot-hole
(without an opening under it) will hold water like a basin; and so
on. Well, five minutes after, you tell the same farmers you
propose digging a cellar, well bricked, six or eight feet deep;
what is their remark? 'Oh! it's of no use your making an
underground cellar in our soil, you _can't keep the water_ OUT!'
Was there ever such an illustration of prejudice as this? What is
a drain pipe but a small cellar full of air? Then, again, common
sense tells us, you can't keep a light fluid under a heavy one.
You might as well try to keep a cork under water, as to try and
keep air under water. 'Oh! but then our soil isn't porous.' If
not, how can it hold water so readily? I am led to these
observations by the strong controversy I am having with some Essex
folks, who protest that I am mad, or foolish, for placing 1-inch
pipes, at four-foot depth, in strong clays. It is in vain I refer
to the numerous proofs of my soundness, brought forward by Mr.
Parkes, engineer to the Royal Agricultural Society, and confirmed
by Mr. Pusey. They still dispute it. It is in vain I tell them _I
cannot keep the rainwater out of_ socketed pipes, twelve feet
deep, that convey a spring to my farm yard. Let us try and
convince this large class of doubters; for it is of _national_
importance. Four feet of good porous clay would afford a far
better meal to some strong bean, or other tap roots, than the
usual six inches; and a saving of $4 to $5 per acre, in drainage,
is no trifle.

"The shallow, or non-drainers, assume that tenacious subsoils are
impervious or non-absorbent. This