FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 355 



ing out of the niaiiy mouths of tlie Tihiue. The area of water was greater 

 than the area of hiiul. This river, from its source in tlio glaciers of Kheiu- 

 wald, Hows tlirough gorges of mountaius, snow-capped most of the year, along 

 the hills of Germany, conveying the waters of a basin of G5,000 square miles, 

 and is therefore subject to freshets and floods. As it brings down much of the 

 soil of the ricii region through whicli it meanders, it elevates its bed by con- 

 tinuous deposit. Its flow must therefore be restrained by raising its banks 

 and by making permanent levees along its sides. As many of the canals 

 empty into the Rhine, in order to have outlet to the sea, they must be higher 

 than the river, to have flow. The superfluous water that falls upon the coun- 

 try must be raised high enough to be poured into these grand arteries, and thus 

 be taken off. The superfluous water is very large in amount, for the reason 

 that the rainfall in Holland is much more than ordinary. During the year just 

 past there were in Holland only 135 days without rain. 



The outflow of the water to the sea is always arrested for a time, when 

 strong winds prevail from the west. For so long as the current of the Rhine, 

 at its mouths, is driven backward, the outward flow is of course stopped, and 

 the canals arc full. 



The sea is kept back both by natural and artificial embankments. Upon 

 that portion of the coast where the surface is sandy the winds pile the sand up 

 sufficiently to form an absolute barrier to the inroads of the sea. "Where the 

 soil of the coast is mucky or alluvial, long artificial mounds of sufficient 

 breadth and height have to be constructed. These are repeated at intervals, 

 so that if the first gives way, the second may withstand the forces beating 

 against it. 



For the purposes of drainage, the interior lands are divided into districts, 

 and put under the care of a board whose duty it is to see that everything nec- 

 essary is attended to at the proper time. A light tax is assessed upon the land 

 in each district, in proportion to the labor that may be expended upon it, in 

 order to meet expenses. This vast enterprise and the maintaining of the system 

 by which it is made a success, has been accomplished by a large expenditure of 

 money and labor. The same population could have acquired in the United. 

 States territory enough to have made a state twice the size of Holland for half 

 the money. Harlem lake, near Amsterdam, that a few years ago covered 

 56,000 acres, has been thrown into the sea, and the same area is now dotted 

 with villages and cultivated in farms, that yield profitable returns, the land 

 selling readily, and for nearly enough to pay the entire expenditure. And the 

 time is not far distant when the Zuydcr-Zee, or South Sea, will in the same way 

 be converted into arable land. The drainage of the cultivated land is nearly 

 altogether by open ditches. The rainfall soon finds its way into these and 

 lifted to the main canals by wind mills. When the land is very low it is 

 plowed in ridges so as to give quicker transit for the water. 



The Netherlands, or low lands bordering on the Saginaw river, are almost 

 the exact counterpart in appearance, of the Netherlands near tlie mouths of 

 the Rhine. When they are intersected by ditches, and covered with rich green 

 pastures with fat cattle grazing upon them, the one will scarcely b3 told from 

 tlie other. 



As to their recuperation by drainage, and convertion into tillable lands, the 

 problem is as simple as anything can be. Any portion of them, whether it be 

 40, 80, IGO acres or a section, when surrounded by ditches, which by some 

 means are kept dry, are redeemed. Tiie earth taken from the ditches, should 



