THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



RIVER OUTFALLS AND DRAINAGE, 



BY A LINCOLNSHIRE FABMER. 



I am very pleased to learn that a movement is to be 

 made this winter to interest and influence the Legislature 

 upon the question of " Arterial Drainage," or rather 

 the improvement of our river outfalls, and the removal 

 of obstructions to the free course of our river waters. 

 I have long felt a great interest in this question, as one of 

 the great wants of the age. It is marvellous that amidst 

 the immense improvements of all kinds now proceeding 

 in modern agriculture — and amongst the most important 

 is that of drainage — the state of our rivers and outfalls 

 has been for the most part over-looked and neglected, 

 or at least passed by as too weighty and onerous to be 

 undertaken, owing to the many conflicting and powerful 

 interests to be encountered. We have mill-owners, 

 canal companies, corporative rights, navigations, irri- 

 gations, the owners of meadoic lands (said to be bene- 

 fited by flooding), proprietors, dreading Boards of 

 Commissioners ; and taxation, and the various other 

 interests to contend with. These can never be brought 

 into unison so as to combine for one great purpose, 

 or to adopt any sound substantial scheme, by which 

 the whole country may be enormously benefitted, but 

 are still each contending for some petty advantage of 

 their own. 



I met the other day with an occupier of a farm bor- 

 dered by the river Nene. His statement of returns 

 from land reclaimed from its influence was astonishing. 

 The crops heavy and productive almost beyond credence, 

 and yet everything is annually sold off. Corn, mustard, 

 hay, straw, mangolds, potatoes, turnips, carrots, cab- 

 bages — all are sold off", and nothing is brought in return 

 to replenish the soil. This is owing, as he said, to the 

 great depth of the most fertile and richest loam imagin- 

 able. In fact this occupier (and he was the propri'etor 

 too) deems such extraordinary land inexhaustible under 

 cleanly management and with proper rotation of crops. 



Now this is the kind of land by which more or less all 

 our rivers are bounded, and that if they were well dramed, 

 would yield enormously. The meadow crops certainly 

 are good when they can be well got. The winter's 

 flood no doubt does essential service, but how frequently 

 is the crop lost from the summer's flooding ! Suppose 

 these lands to be made safe lands by efficient draining, 

 can the hay crop compare with the succession of crops 

 named above ? And carrying the idea into all tributary 

 brooks and streams, and the lands by which they are 

 bounded, see what losses ensue from imperfect drainage 

 along their course— aye, quite enough to interfere most 

 wofully with good practical farming and grazing, and 

 that, even at considerable elevations above the course 

 of our rivers. Take the simple fact, for instance, 

 that the sources of all our rivers are invariably at a 

 much higher elevation than the outfalls ; then, that the 

 waters are further held up by numeroua milUstreams, 



bridges, locks, and weirs — who can wonder at injuries 

 sustained, up the higher parts of a country, from the bad 

 state of our rivers ? And who would not come forward 

 and aid in their improvement? When young, I was de- 

 sirous of establishing ideas in my own mind which might 

 lead to a consistency of conduct. I used very frequently 

 to repeat the old distich— 



" We habits gather by unseen degrees, 

 As brooks lun rivers, rivers run to seas." 



So it now is, in fact. The ill habits of our brooks, in dam- 

 ming up the waters that ought to flow freely from our 

 underdrains, is, by their incapacity to empty the ditches, 

 the first obstruction. Then, from the brooks into the 

 streams is another hindrance ; from the streams to the 

 I'ivers is the nest ; and often on these smaller streams 

 there is obstruction by mill-dams — and so from the rivers 

 to the seas. These rivers are, as 1 have said, always being 

 stopped, in every convenient spot, by a mill-dam, 

 staunch, lock, or weir. The little river Nene, according 

 to Mr. J. A. Clarke's " Report on Arterial Drainage," 

 has no less than fifty-one mill-dams and staunches 

 along a course of sixty-three miles — the distance of its 

 tortuous course from Northampton to Peterboro' — and 

 having a fall of 226 feet between the two towns. With 

 what rapidity would its waters escape were these 

 done away with, and the river straightened where 

 practicable ! Many sudden bends do not extend beyond 

 a few hundred yards. 



As respects the advantage of efficient outfalls to our 

 rivers, let any incredulous individuals pay a visit to the 

 estuary of the Wash. There they will see two splendid 

 outfalls — one being the embouchui-e of the Ouse, the 

 other of the Nene, emptying their waters so satisfac- 

 torily, that almost the whole of the great level of the 

 fens is now under efficient natural drainage. The 

 Welland and the Witham have also greatly improved 

 outfalls ; but a few artificial aids to drainage still exist 

 in the districts drained by these rivers. Some years 

 ago it was a novel and interesting sight, when travelling 

 over the fens, to behold hundreds of windmills, in a 

 brisk breeze, driving out the waters by enormous water 

 wheels, from the lesser into the main drains, and thence 

 to the rivers. Now scarcely one is to be found in the 

 whole level. And why ? Because the rivers have been 

 straightened and deepened and provided with wide and 

 straight outfalls into the sea. The great disadvantage 

 in effecting these improvements was owing to the 

 amazing expense of obtaining Acts of Parliament. The 

 whole level being divided into districts, every one had 

 to secure its own Act of Parliament. The opposition 

 in these various districts was often frivolous, but it in- 

 curred immense costs, and much bickering and iliwill 

 amongst neighbours. How much better would it bare 



