"When so experienced a drainer as Mr. Johnston expresses an opinion that some soils cannot be drained, it is important we should know what the soil is which cannot be drained. He uses the word _stiff blue_ clay, as descriptive of the soil which cannot be drained. * * * "I had taken a specimen of what I thought to be _stiff blue clay_. That clay, when wet, as taken out, would hold water about as well as iron: yet, from experiments I have made, I am confident that such clay soil can be drained, and at much less expense than a hard-pan soil. Water will pass through such clay, and the clay become dry; and after it becomes once dry, water will, I am convinced, readily pass down through such stiff blue clay. The specimen was taken about three feet below the surface, and on a level with a brook which runs through this clay soil. I filled a one hundred-pound nail-keg with clay taken from the same place. It was so wet, that by shaking, it came to a level, and water rose to the top of the clay. I had made holes in the bottom of the keg, and set it up on blocks. After twenty-four hours I came almost to the conclusion Mr. Johnston did, that water would not pass through this clay. This trial was during the hot, dry weather last Summer. After some ten or twelve days the clay appeared to be dry. I then made a basin-like excavation in the top of the clay, and put water in, and the water disappeared rather slowly. I filled the basin with water frequently, and the oftener I filled it, the more readily it passed off. I left it for more than a week, when we had a heavy shower. After the shower I examined the keg, and not a drop of water was to be seen. I then took a chisel and cut a hole six inches down. I took out a piece like the one I dried in the house, and laid that up till it was perfectly dry. There was a plain difference between the appearance of the two pieces. The texture, I should say, was quite different. That through which the water had passed, after it had been dried, was more open and porous. It did not possess so much of the blue cast. In less than one hour after the rain fell, the clay taken six inches from the top of the keg would crumble by rubbing in the hand."