THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



445 



the Southern Counties. Hence it is rather desirable that 

 any competitor basing his estimate on the prices and sizes of 

 bricks, stone-work, roofing, and condition herein laid down, 

 should append a supplemental paper to contain an estimate 

 according to the prices of his own localitj', and any sugges- 

 tions or hints as to cottage arrangements and building he 

 may consider worthy of remark, or any improvement in the 

 conditions herein laid down— such as substitution of rubble 

 walling for foundations, comparative advantages of wood, or 

 stone, or tile flooring, &c. More elevations than one may, 

 if thought fit, accompanj' each plan, the one being plain, 

 inexpensive, and in accordance with limitation as to cost, 

 the other as ornamental and expensive as the competitor 

 may please. 



21. — It is worthy of consideration whether slate and cement 

 are not on the whole preferable to gas-tar, &c., as a layer to 

 put on the walls, above soil level, to prevent damp. It 

 is thought that gas-tar may smell unpleasantly for some 

 long time after, especially when the adjoining room gets 

 warm. 



22. — In considering the desirability of wood floors on 

 ground-floor rooms, it must be remembered that they take a 

 great deal of keeping clean, and labourers cannot generally 



afford the cost, wear and tear of carpets. Good tiles are 

 warmer than stone. 



23.— In any cottage-plan competition, cheapness of con- 

 struction should be one principal quality taken into consi- 

 detation in awarding the prizes, which it perhaps might be 

 desirable to withhold from plans that are not at least 5 per 

 cent, cheaper than the maximum cost fixed. 



24.— Competitors will find many points of merit in the 

 Yorkshire Agricultural Society's Prize Plans of 1859. 

 They are, however, capable of being much improved, and 

 reduced somewhat in cost. No doubt such a result will 

 follow the competition for the new Yorkshire prizes just 

 now offered, being three prizes of £25 each, and one of £10, 

 with £5 for second. These plans are to be sent in before 

 the 15th November, and it is believed that some_ cottages on 

 the prize plans will be actually built in or near the Show- 

 yard of the Royal Agricultural Society at Leeds, where the 

 meeting of July, loGl, will be held. 



A printed copy of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's 

 Conditions, as sent out to applicants, ia appended. It will 

 be seen they also offer two prizes, of £50 and £25, for the 

 best plans of farm-buildings ; the £50 prize being for a 500 

 acres farm, and the £25 prize for a 200 acres farm. 



ON REMOVING FLOODS OF WATER FROM LOW-LYING LAND. 



Sib, — There is no lack, in your valuable columns, of 

 scientific dissertations on all subjects relating to the culti- 

 vation of the soil. Still, I think a common-sense view of 

 one or two essenlials may not be out of jsl^ce. I select 

 the treatment of water as the subject of this letter, and as 

 I shall want no elaborate illustrations, I shall dash at the 

 standing water, and see if some means cannot be devised 

 to make it move. I would not touch upon drainage, for 

 these small arteries have been over and over again laid 

 open by abler hands ; but when I see miles of fine meadow- 

 land flooded as I have seen it all over the country this 

 wet season, I cannot help thinking that some people 

 might noiv listen to common sense, that would at other 

 times have turned away. 



The fall, the force, and the friction are all to be taken 

 into account, in removing floods of water from low-lying 

 land. When a millowner has erected a weir across a river, 

 and has made the ground-plan of it a segment of a circle, 

 or in other words, has built an arch against the current, 

 he has just made a quarrying machine ready to dig a hole 

 of any depth just at the centre point where the segment 

 dates from, for there assuredly all the rays \vill converge, 

 and according to the force or fall so will the digging 

 power be ; whereas, had the weir been at right angles to 

 the stream, the force would have been very differently ap- 

 plied, and instead of digging one hole at the centre as 

 above stated, it would have hurried on and spent itself in 

 going rapidly towards the sea, J might mention examples 

 of water being made to torment itself, as at the sea-wall at 

 Exmouth for example, where the wall is made to receive 

 the wave and curl it so as to fall back upon the succeeding 

 wave and destroy its force. I mention this to show the 

 immense importance of direct lines and smooth surfaces 

 in conveying quickly heavy columns of water. Every one 

 must have observed that when accurate levels have been 

 laid down for irrigation, the water scarcely seemed to move, 

 although the section across the meadow showed a fall of 

 some 20 feet, yet when t'.ie water Wu;; conducted in zig- 



zags longitudinally, it could scarcely fall at all. I was gomg 

 to mention here the road over the Alps, as an instance 

 in point, of lengthening the inclined plane to lessen the 

 resistance of getting up hill ; but this is far removed from 

 the text, which is the common-sense view, and not the 

 principle of engineering skill. 



Wlien the farmer's horse, an old roadster, has to get 

 home with a heavy load up a rough incline (for far- 

 mer's ways are frequently far from plain) before him, Ihe 

 sagacious beast betakes liim to the zig-zag, and accomplishes 

 by sagacity what he could hardly have done by strength. 

 Now, if on the contrary we wanted to get water, or indeed 

 any other weigh'.y body, gently down hill, surely the system 

 pursued by the farmer's horse would suit us ; but we just 

 happen to be differently situated, or, in common parlance, 

 " the saddle is on the other horse," for although the sea is 

 for the most part lower than the dry land, still the fall is 

 sometimes so very little that we cannot afford to lose an 

 inch by any mismanagement of our outlets. In the Tiyiies 

 of yesterday there is an account of a railway in Turkey 

 made through 2-5 miles of meadow, swamp, or by whatever 

 name a carse occasionally flooded by a river to some 6 or 

 8 feet deep can be called. Well, the engineers embanked, 

 or in other words confined the river to its proper channel, 

 and the carse is carrying a railway, and is rendered dry 

 firm land. Some years ago I had to do with a troublesome 

 stream, which in stormy weather rose in spates, overflow- 

 ing its banks, and taking haycocks, or indeed anything 

 that was moveable, downwards ; but its crowning act was 

 with the assistance of some loose spars to upheave a fine 

 stone-arched bridge and cut off tlie services of a main 

 road. This double evil had to be cured, and prevented 

 from occurring again as far as possible ; and as this pre- 

 vention clause has lasted now about 25 years or more, I 

 may safely say that the system of diroct lines in water- 

 courses and smooth channels has had at least one fair trial, 

 and with signal success. 



A beauiitul mill-lead hul been made from the bed of the 



