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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



be avoiJtd under a central drainage commissiou. Then, in wl.at 

 position were they with regard to the minor streams, those 

 streams which, as regarded uuder-drainage, were more im- 

 portant even than the main streams ? It was a positive f--ct, as 

 Mr. Clarke had stated, that they could not in any way deepen 

 or straiten a stream. He had been in that room when much 

 discussion had taken place on the subject of deep draiua^^e; 

 and he could tell them, from experience, that there was greater 

 force in the impediments which Nature had imposed than 

 in all the arguments which he had heard against deep- 

 dtainage in that Club. What was their position in this re- 

 spect? The improvement made in the law by Lord 

 Lincoln's Act extended merely to the clearing out of exist- 

 ing shallow and tortuous streams. To avail themselves 

 even of that slight improvement, they were obliged to go 

 before justices. A man must appear against his near 

 neighbour before two other neighbours, the justices; and 

 the result was that there were not half-a-dczen cases, he 

 believed, in which proceedings had been taken under 

 Lord Lincoln's Act It was a common belief that the pre- 

 sent companies had no power to deejjen and improve outfalls. 

 Acting as he did for oue company, and knowing what was 

 contained in their Act, he would assert that, practically, 

 they had no power at all. Their powers were such as 

 necessitated an appeal to a jury or to arbitration, as in 

 railway compensations ; and this involved an expense and 

 difficulties which amounted to a positive prohibition of pro- 

 ceedings. Sofarfiom the companies having the powers which 

 they were supposed to possess, he would repeat that, owing to 

 the impediments placed in their way, their nominal powers 

 were of no utility. He might advert to the fact that there 

 existed throughout Lombardy, where water was used with 

 great care and [aid for with great willingness, a power of car- 

 rying water through au intervening property, from the source 

 whence it was obtained to an estate where it was considered 

 desirable to use it. It appeared to him a disgrace to the 

 intelligence of this country that there should not be power 

 here to conduct water from a property where it was inju- 

 rious to another where it was wanted, and to deepen and 

 straighten existing outfalls. He had been accused of never 

 coming to that room except when he wanted to speak on 

 his special subjects ; but, for his own part, he thought it 

 was a great compliment to the Society, to imply that the 

 members only spoke on subjects on which they were 

 informed ( Hear, hear). What he had said was said with 

 earnestness ; and he trusted that it would assist in 

 throwing light on the tubject. 



Mr. R. HoL.Miis (Arundel, Sussex) said the subject under 

 discussion was one in which he had taken great interest for 

 many years. He had the honour to be cleik to a commis- 

 sion of sewers which had jurisdiction over nearly !J,000 

 acres of land ; and his experience convinced him that there 

 ought to be a geneial commissioo, having powers similar to 

 those which were entrusted to the Commission of Sewers. 

 The district to which he alluded embraced a very large area 

 in Sussex, including a tidal harbour; and the improve- 

 ments eifected of late years were such, that almost the wiiole 

 of the sluices bad been lowered something like four to five 

 feet. Great benefit had been derived from what had been 

 done, and sewers rates to carry out the improvements had 

 been in most cases cheerfully paid, even to the amount of 

 20s., 4O3., and GOs. an acre. The jurisdiction of the 

 commissioners extended generally to lands which were 

 liable to flood-water. They wanted power to drain land 

 which was dammed back by mill-streams, catia's, and 

 other liite impediments. A paltry little mill, which was 

 rented, perhaps, at only £50 a year, caused the water to 

 flow back on two or three hundred acres of land ; and in 

 such cases, the obtaining a fall of three or four feet would 

 he an immense benefit. He entirely concurred with Mr, 

 Clarke as to the necessity for extending arterial drainage. 



Mr. Alderman Mechi (Tiplree) rose priucipslly to thank Mr. 

 Clarke for the very truthful and able paper which lie had read. His 

 owaopinionicu ihiasuhject werrexpresie 1 very fully inauy ycara 

 ago. He believed they could hardly over-eatitutte the damage 

 which was done by the heading back of water. He had heard 

 millers say that so iustantaueoua was the check caused by 

 Bhuttiiis; oir a mill, that if tuo millj were a mile or a mile and 

 a half from each other, they could tell immediately «liat was 

 happening at the upper mill cr the lower mill, as the case 

 might be. He quite concurred in the opinion that the loss 



which was occasioned by these impediraeuts was not at all 

 counterbalanced by the advantage which the Uiillera rcctived; 

 and to buy them off, by some such means as had been sug- 

 g. sted, would in his opinion be a great benefit to the country, 

 lu former times the law threw its mantle of protection over 

 the millers, and very naturally, because the country had only 

 wind acd water to prepare ita daily bread ; but the introduc- 

 tion of steam had so cheapened the cost of grinding, that lie had 

 heard a miller declare that he could grind 100 qrs.of corn with 

 Ha. 6d. worth of coal. He admitted, however, that vested inter- 

 ests must not be sacrificed (Hear, hear>. That the courts ff law 

 had .-.Honed considerable latitude to millers no oue could deny. 

 He had met with cases in which when the wood-work was 

 worn out, it was replaced with wood raised au inch higher, 

 and afterwards with another inch under the same pretext, 

 and thus very valuable lands had been injured, and the law 

 did not afford any remedy. He knew one instance in which 

 a miller wo dd not allow the occupier of a meadow to put a 

 pipe under a small stream, though the effect would have'been 

 to render that meadow four times as valuable as it was. L°8t 

 the water should be interfered with, tae miller would not allow 

 a pipe to be placed in the bed of the river. They were all 

 now aware that water would penetrate through iif avy clays. 

 A few years ago it was generally believed by the farmers of 

 this country that in the case of purely aluminous clays it was 

 no use makiug drains, as water would not go through them. 

 He wts happy to find, however, that that opinion was gra- 

 dually dying out. It had takea fifteen jears to convert some 

 persons, notwithstanding all the evidence which he placed 

 before thein (laughter) ; but they at length appeared to be con- 

 vinced. The fact that only one-sixteenth of the land which had 

 required draining had been actually drained showed that there 

 was still a large amount of prejudice to be removed ; but he 

 was very glad to find that the minds of agriculturists were 

 getting more and more eulightened on the subject. 



Mr. R. Baker (Writtle) said his own farm was bounded 

 by a river for the greater part of a mile ; and when he first 

 took the farm, in harmony with the principle of Solomon's de- 

 claration that all rivers ran into the eea, his ditches ran into 

 the river. But from time to time the encioachments of the 

 river had been such, that the water was for the whole extent 

 oue or two feet, aud in many places several feet, above the level 

 of the farm ; aud the result was, that he had been obliged to 

 cut another channel parallel to t.ie river, and intercepting the 

 water. Of course it was open to him to resort to a court of 

 law ; but this would perhaps have been ruinous, and he there- 

 fore submitted to the incouvenience to which he was subjected. 

 Looking at the question in a general point of view, he must 

 say it was one that deeply concerned the nation at large. They 

 ell knew how expensive it was to obtain an Act of Parliament 

 to carry out any particular sclieme ; but if there were a gene- 

 ral Act, that obstacle to improvement would be removed. All 

 inclosurea were formerly effected under the authority of sepa- 

 rate statutes; but there was now a general Act applicable to 

 all case?, aud the expense attending inclosures was very greatly 

 diminished. lu principle he could see no difference between 

 inclosures and drainage ; the graud object to be secured, in a 

 national point of view, being the production of the greatest 

 amount of corn that could be obtained from the laud. He 

 hoped that before the new reform bills changed the character 

 of our legislation, aud while farmers still exercised some influ- 

 ence over a large pfoportion of the Members of Parliament, 

 efforts would be made to secure a remedy for the evil in ques- 

 tion, and that a short general bill would if possible be obtained 

 during the present session. That this was a very irapcrtaut 

 question in a densely populated country like ours, no 

 oue could doubt who calmly reflected on the matter. As was 

 observed by Mr. Mechi, what was once a necessity of the coun- 

 try for the grinding of corn bad ceased to be so. Steam was 

 now found to be a cheaper motive power than water. The 

 same remark applied to windmills. Windmills were not inju- 

 rious, like water, to the surrounding neighbourhood ; but not 

 being so cheap as steam they were all disappearing, and probably 

 no more windmills v.ould he erected. He hoped to live long 

 enough to be able to say that no more water-mills would be 

 built; but the vested interests connected with water-mills, 

 ciiuals, and waterworks were so considerable, that a large 

 amount would be required to purchase them. Common sense 

 of coumc required tliat the minor iuterest should be sacrificed 

 to the major, aud that tho production of food for the country 

 should have precedence over every other object. 



