FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 353 



aud only rtiising the bank throe feet high we left it to be finislied by piling and 

 cribbing for a distance of about seventy-five feet. 



The substance taken from the bayou is similar to tiio middle strata of soil 

 heretofore described, and I think will prove valuable as a fertilizer. After 

 completing our embankment we procured a twelve-horse power steam engine 

 aud two of Kumsey's rotary section pumps, one with a discharge ))ipe of six 

 inches and tlic otiier four inches, the two calculated to disciuirge four thou- 

 sand gallons per minute. We commenced pumping about tiie fifteenth of 

 September and run our pumps night and day for six weeks in clearing the water 

 from the surface of our land, and settling it in the ditch, six feet below the 

 surface of the river. That tested the suflicience of our bank to hold back the 

 water; we found no leakage through any part of it. After pumping out tiie 

 water, as above stated, we commenced a series of ditches through our land all 

 running to the main ditch. From the northwest to the southeast corner we 

 made a ditch four feet wide at the surface, two feet deep and one and a half 

 feet wide at the bottom. This ditch runs nearly parallel with our northeast 

 line, into which all the Avater coming from the east will flow. From the main 

 or dredge ditch on the west, to the one above mentioned, at an interval of 

 each forty rods, is a ditch three feet wide at the surface and one and one-half 

 feet deep, and one aud one-half feet wide on the bottom, making of small 

 •ditches six miles. Upon ditching on the lower portion of our land we found 

 it porous, and like a sponge filled with water, but after a few days of drainage 

 through the small ditches it settled and became so firm that a horse could be 

 driven over it without difficulty, and with a small additional outlay for small 

 ditches, we think our drainage sufficient for all practical purposes. No doubt 

 but under-drainage would be beneficial and may be adopted hereafter but there 

 is less necessity for it here than there is for it on much of the uplands. It 

 will be readily seen that the ditch and embankment make an effectual fence 

 for all purposes as far as they go. In addition to the above it will require three 

 miles of fence on the east and northeast to enclose our seven hundred and 

 sixty-acre tract. We have built one comfortable farmhouse on the land, 

 which is all the building yet erected, except an engine house. And as I have 

 been requested to give a detailed account of the character and cost of our im- 

 provements, — I suppose for the reason that others who are inclined to under- 

 take a like enterprise may profit by our experience, — I will state that all our 

 expenditure, including the cost of dredging and ditching, the cost of the engine 

 and pump, and the pumping that has been done, also of the house and the 

 estimated cost of a gate and sluice between the ditch and creek, and for com- 

 pleting our embankment, and enclosing the whole with a fence, amounts to a 

 trifle over seven dollars per acre for the seven hundred and sixty acres enclosed 

 and drained. 



In setting our pumps we were obliged to raise the discharge pipes so high, in 

 order to keep the belts out of water, that we used about double the power in 

 emptying our ditch than was absolutely necessary. "We expect to improve our 

 pumping apparatus so as to clear our ditch the second time in half the time 

 aud at half the expense before required. We first intended to have made a 

 ditch and embankment on the east line of our tract to prevent the water from 

 flowing on from the timbered land ; but on examining our surroundings we find 

 a heavy ditch passing on our north line, which prevents any flow of water from 

 that direction, and in less than a mile on the east there is another heavy ditch 

 being constructed, which will carry all the water that would flow from that 

 •direction south of our embankment; so by pumping the water that falls on a 



