THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



409 



with branches of frees, in the manner of a basket. The 

 space between the row of stakes and the bank is filled with 

 the largest stones that can be found, amonp; which the wa- 

 ter passes and deposits a sediment, which in time fills the 

 crevices, and the mass becomes a solid laj-er. The wicker- 

 work, having the tail of the branches in the direction of the 

 current, directs the water very quickly and smoothly along 

 the wattled fence, and the wall bcinj; open to the passage of 

 the water through it, no solid resistance is opposed fo the 

 current, but rather a break-water, which directs but does 

 not obstruct the course. Small rivulets, that are only 

 periodical streams of anj- size, are fenced in this way by up- 

 right walls of wicker-work, backed with stones; and larger 

 brooks are guarded with a sloped wall as has been described. 

 This slope ia well formed with strong stakes driven into the 

 ground, the vacancies being filled with stones from the 

 shingly bed of the stream, and the top covered with long 

 branches of trees, with the tails pointing along the current, 

 and fastened to the stakes by the natural hooks of the 

 branches, or by ligaments, or by cross beams nailed to the 

 stakes. Heavy stones being laid on the top will add much 

 to the soliditj' of the structure. In course of time the pro- 



per grasses will grow and form a matted turf, along which 

 the floods of water will rush with much ease and tranquillity. 

 Very good walls are formed in this way : the materials are 

 generally ready, the performance requires little skill, and 

 the expense is not great. 



The principles of embanking are lew and very simple, 

 and admit an easy application. Water should run in a 

 course as strait as can be obtained, and have a wide chan- 

 nel rather than a narrow bed. The bendings of rivers are 

 guarded by barriers of piles and stones, and the impetuous 

 currents of mountain-streams are diverted into a mid chan- 

 nel by jetties of stone masonry, against which the water 

 rushes at a sharp angle of divergence. The rising of tides 

 and floods into deep formations of water are averted from 

 doing harm by means of earthen mounds covered with grassy 

 turf, on which the waters roll, but against which they do 

 not impinge, and press with the weight of their depth 

 This last principle constitutes the chief remembrance of em- 

 banking. The difficulties of execution will be proportionate 

 with the circumstances of the locality, in position, mate- 

 rials, and labour, 



FRENCH AGRICULTURE, 

 THE POLICY OF NAPOLEON III. 



It has been the custom to regard the Emperor Na- 

 poleon as an inscrutable statesman, who, commenced 

 with a fixed design, or sei'ies of designs before him, 

 from which he has never swerved, and to the accom- 

 plishment of which he advances slowly, irresistibly, 

 and triumphantly. It is, doubtless, most convenient 

 for him that men should receive this impression ; but 

 that the impression is totally fallacious, a glance only 

 is required at his course to show. He has been by 

 turns Republican, Socialist, Imperialist, a disciple of 

 every religious creed under heaven ; and although he 

 may have had a fixed idea from early life that he 

 should step to the throne of his uncle, it has been the 

 only fixed purpose of his life. No man has shown 

 such alarming vacillation, and only upon the evidence 

 of one circumstance can we grant him credit for work- 

 ing out an independent principle. By an independent 

 principle is meant a Napoleonic principle, Napoleon 

 III. existing professedly only as the political executor 

 of Napoleon I. 



*' Agriculture the soul, the basis of the empire," 

 said Napoleon I. "Agriculture the soul, the basis of 

 the empire," echoes Napoleon III. 



Some years ago Louis Napoleon, the guest of one of 

 our nobles, lay on the grass, discoursing dogmatically 

 about what he should do to reclaim the marsh districts, 

 to improve the waste lands, and to develop the agricul- 

 tural resources of France when he came to the throne ! 

 He was then an exile, living a desultory despised life 

 in England. Now he is Emperor of thirty-six millions 

 of people, and commander-in-chief of some seven 

 hundred thousand troops. The changes of life and 

 position have been rapid and startling ; and though a 

 comparison of his opinions as they were twenty years 



ago, which have been published to the world, with his 

 policy now that he is absolute in France, is not such 

 as to engender confidence, he has kept instinctively 

 true to one dictum, namely, that already quoted — 

 "Agriculture the soul, the basis of the Empire." 

 His army will not save him, but agriculture will. 

 Territorial aggrandizement will not save him, but the 

 reclamation of waste land will. The employment of 

 the people about the beautification of the capital, and 

 the interference of Government to reduce the price of 

 bread, will not save him, but an application of science 

 to the object of increased production will ; he will be 

 saved not by centralization, or that system which swells 

 the city at the expense of the country, and dwarfs the 

 whole, drawing the vitality from the rural districts to 

 concentrate it in one apoplectic executive at Paris; but 

 he may save his position by diffusing a sense of power 

 and responsibility — by sending back the gentry to 

 restore their chateaux, to live amongst the peasantry, 

 and incite them to improvemeut, similar to that which 

 Coke Earl of Leicester, and others of the like cha- 

 racter, inaugurated in England. 



But there must be security. 



We are told that not many years ago a quarter of a 

 million of persons, in one province of moderate extent 

 in India, perished of famine, entirely through the de- 

 fect existing in the means of irrigation. Within a 

 short distance of the Mahanuddy river, nearly thirteen 

 thousand habitations, with their inmates, were swept 

 away by a flood. Capital of course is not expended 

 upon the land so exposed to destructive influences, and 

 the 50,000 square-miles of country drained by the 

 Mahanuddy are well nigh uncultivated. The river 

 Godaveiy, which drains 130,000 square-miles, did 



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