works will be seen; and the propriety well understood of giving all imaginable encouragement and facility to their execution.

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Early in the days of republican France, decrees were issued for draining marshes: I do not ask what progress has been made? but I would demand, if any drainages equal to this have been executed in that kingdom during a century? From Bourdeaux to Bayonne, in one of the finest climates in Europe, nearly all is marsh. What Frenchman has been so actuated by the blessings of republican security, as to lay out one Louis on that or any other marsh or bog?

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Undertakings of this kind prove the reliance of the people on the secure possession of what their industry creates; and an Englishman must examine his native land with a cold heart, who does not pray for the continuance of a system of legislation which has tended so powerfully to adorn, improve, and cultivate the country, and to diffuse prosperity and happiness through the whole of society."

MR. JOSEPH ELKINGTON'S

Method of Draining Land,

APPROVED OF, AND RECOMMENDED BY THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

SEVERAL gentlemen have favoured the public with Treatises on the subject of draining land; but Mr. Elkington's Method appears to be now almost universally adopted. Mr. Elkington was a Warwickshire farmer, and practised the art of draining land with unexampled success. The publication of this art was represented to the Board of Agriculture to be one of the greatest means of promoting the improvement of this County that could be suggested. In consequence of this, the House of Commons, on the 10th of June, 1795, voted an Address, "That His Majesty would be graciously pleased to give

(PART VI.) directions for issuing to Mr. Joseph Elkington, as an inducement to discover his Mode of Draining, such sum as his Majesty, in his wisdom, shall think proper, not exceeding the sum of 1000l. sterling."

Mr. Elkington's health being extremely precarious, there was a risk that the public might lose the benefit of the knowledge he had acquired, by the experience of above thirty years, in a species of improvement, which, in these kingdoms, ought to be considered as the basis of every other. To prevent so unfortunate a circumstance, the Board resolved to send Mr. John Johnstone, to visit, in company with Mr. Elkington, the principal Drainages he was then executing; and to take Drawings and Sections of the same.

The result of that journey was drawn up by Mr. Johnstone; and has been published under the title of "An Account of the Mode of Draining Land, according to the System practised by Mr. Joseph Elkington." This Work has been well received by the public; and has already been of great service in promoting agricultural improvements. It not only points out the best mode of draining bogs and marshes; but also treats very extensively of the most approved methods of making under-drains; hence it will be found of infinite service to every person who is troubled with springy grounds.

The following extracts from some of the Agricultural Reports of those counties in England, where Mr. Elkington executed the most remarkable Drainages, will serve to shew the superiority of his method over every other.

County of Warwick, by Mr. John Wedge.

"Draining is, without doubt, the first step towards the im provement of all wet land. It has been practised with much success in this county for several years; but more particularly so, since Mr. Elkington, a farmer of this district, introduced a method of draining boggy lands, by making deep drains, and boring at the bottom or sides of them, through the different under-strata,

so as to tap the springs, and thereby, in many instances, cure large tracts of land with very few drains."

County of Leicester, by Mr. John Monk.

"The most capital improvements have been made under the direction of a Mr. Elkington, who is supposed to be the first in that line in the world. After forming the drain, by beginning at, the fall, and working upwards, he makes use of a borer to find the spring, with which he generally succeeds, which has a wonderful effect in draining the land."

County of Worcester, by Mr. W. J. Pomeroy.

"In speaking of under-drains, it may be thought right to mention, that various experiments have been made at Ewell-Grange, the seat of the Earl of Plymouth, and in that neighbourhood; but that by boring after Mr. Elkington's method, deserves to be most particularly noticed."

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County of Derby, by Mr. Thomas Brown.

Every other method seems to bend to that practised by Mr. Elkington, whose practice is becoming every day more extensive, and seems to me the most effectual of all others, for carrying off subterraneous waters. He lays a stone drain from three to six feet below the surface, in such a direction as to cut the source of the spring, and with such a declivity as to scour itself. Wherever he finds the source of the spring below the level of his drain, he bores, and with such judgment, that, to a stranger, his auger seems possessed of the virtue of that rod with which Moses struck the rock; for the water immediately gushes out, and perhaps lays land that before was too wet to carry a sheep, sufficiently dry to carry the heaviest ox. This method is certainly effectual against springs."

Some readers may perhaps think that I have expatiated too much on the excellency of Mr. Elkington's mode of Draining; but I am of opinion that this Science, which tends so powerfully to promote the general welfare, cannot be too much recommended.

PART VII.

CONIC SECTIONS AND THEIR SOLIDS.

DEFINITIONS.

1. CONIC SECTIONS are plane figures formed by cutting a cone.

According to the different positions of the cutting plane, there will arise five different figures or sections. 2. If the cutting plane pass through the vertex of the cone, and any part of the base, the section will be a triangle.

3. If a cone be cut into two parts, by a plane parallel to the base, the section will be a circle.

4. If a cone be cut by a plane passing through its two slant sides, in an oblique direction, the section will be an ellipse, or ellipsis.

5. If a cone be cut by a plane, which is parallel to either of its slant sides, the section will be a parabola.

6. If a cone be cut into two parts, by a plane, which, if continued, would meet the opposite cone, the section is called a hyperbola,

Note. All the figures that can possibly be formed by cutting a cone, are mentioned in the preceding definitions; and are five in number, viz, a triangle, a circle, an ellipse, a parabola, and an hyperbola; but the three last only, are usually denominated CONIC SECTIONS.

7. The vertex of a conic section, is that point where the cutting plane meets the opposite sides of the cone, as at A and B; hence the ellipse and the hyperbola have, each of them, two vertices; but the parabola has only one vertex.

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