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its moorish surface-soil and carboniferous subsoil, has one-third of its produce injured by stagnant water; one-half of Middlesex, although situate under the shadow of the Metropolis, yields, for the want of draining and liming to reduce its stubborn soil, only hay for cattle. The extensive breadth of land which stretches from Seven Oaks Weald to Reigate on the one side, and to Tunbridge Wells on the other, is, on account of its heavy labour expenditure, from neglected drainage, scarcely worth cultivating; while in every county—especially in Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Essex, Suffolk, Worcester, York, and Lancashire—there are extensive tracts of stagnant-water-poisoned land.
As drainage is the basis of all agricultural improvements, so there are usually associated with undrained estates the cognate evils of bad tillage, inefficient manuring, small fields, irregular fences—which not only occupy one-fifth of the total area, but also harbour vermin, shade crops, and extract nourishment from the surrounding soil—inferior road accommodation, dilapidated buildings, and, in short, land whose resources are not half developed.
The fact of there being such an extensive undrained area might go far to strengthen the opinion that the results of drainage have proved inadequate to the outlay, or that landowners have formidable difficulties to overcome in the draining of their estates.
With respect to the first averment, outlay on efficient drainage has proved to be not only the most secure, but
