THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



35 



land, but gaia fall, and consequently velocity. Some- 

 times a river may be divided into two channels, one at 

 each side of the valley, instead of only one in the mid- 

 dle. Owing to the continuous deposit of mud during 

 floods, the land is generally highest contiguous to the 

 river, and lowest at a considerable distance from it, the 

 difference often exceeding several feet. Under such 

 circumstances the channel of the river might remain 

 open, in cases where it subdivides properties. 



With regard to fi!ling-up the old channels of rivers : 

 it has often occurred to us, while employed on one oc- 

 casion in straightening, deepening, and embanking a 

 large river, that it would be more profitable to land- 

 owners to leave them open and convert them into ponds 

 for the rearing and fattening of fish, and into beds for 

 the growth of willows and osiers for basket-makers, &c. 

 We have here two branches of farming — both very 

 popular at present — and we have every reason to believe 

 that in many cases they are capable of being made very 

 profitable sources of rent to land-owners, and invest- 

 ments for tenants' capital. As to appearances, the 

 most unsightly kind of a river could easily be made an 

 ornament to the county ; but into details of this kind 

 we cannot go at present. This view of the subject 

 claims a careful consideration of land-owners and 

 engineers, and we have said enough to draw their at. 

 tention to it. The ugly nooks and bends of rivers now 

 forming whirlpools, damming back the water, and flood- 

 ing our valleys, can be easily set apart and profitably 

 converted to the above purposes — each pond economi- 

 cally for its own kind of fish ; and every spot not 

 adapted for piscatorial farming could supply — some the 

 demand of this basket-maker, others the wants of that, 

 and so on, economizing land and increasing the pro- 

 ductive resources of the country in two most important 

 branches. 



With regard to the miller : after the removal of the 

 mill-dam and water-wheel, steam-power could in many 

 cases be profitably applied to keep his mill-stones 

 going so as to supply his customers ; and where this 

 cannot advantageously be done, one of two other alter- 

 natives may be adopted — either a new steam-mill in a 

 more fitting locality, or sell the business. Under this 

 head, we do not think that land -owners and millers 

 ought to experience much difficulty in meeting each 

 other's interests, so as both to be gainers, in the long 

 run. At present, both are manifestly sustaining very 

 heavy losses ; and as it is equally evident that a general 

 advantage would be gained by the contemplated change, 

 why should not a reciprocity of interests be experienced? 



As to present losses, many we have met with appear 

 insensible of the deleterious nature of the climate and 

 produce of some of our river valleys to the health of 

 man and beast. The inhabitants of those low-lying, 

 badly-drained districts, with their neighbours adjoining 

 who live on their produce, enjoy a comparative degree 

 of health, and therefore are unwilling to believe the 

 place of their nativity so unhealthy as they really are, or 

 the produce of the land inferior as to quality, especially 

 dairy produce and butcher-meat, which they sometimes 

 affirm to be superior — the best In the market. But in 



this the inhabitants are very far astray in their conclu- 

 sion. This evidently arises from their not attending to 

 all the facts of the case experienced. 



In all those wet, marshy districts inimical to ani- 

 mal health. Nature makes a wise provision by the 

 growth of certain medicinal plants, which the cattle, 

 when browsing on the coarse herbage, are instinctively 

 led to eat. This not only keeps down disease from 

 playing the sad havoc it would otherwise do among 

 cattle, but it exercises a singularly beneficial influence 

 upon the health of the people, who consume the milk 

 of the cows fed on such plants, and also butcher'-meat 

 from fat stock. It is long since Galen gave medical 

 plants to cows in order to physic his patients with their 

 milk — and this is just how the inhabitants of those dis- 

 tricts are doctored and preserved in the health they 

 enjoy, although they may be unconscious of it. The 

 monks, when they first came to this country, were bet- 

 ter acquainted with Galen's philosophy ; for, on finding 

 that they could not keep their health in our low, wet, 

 and misty climate, they went to the marshes of Kent and 

 Essex, and watched the cattle in order to ascertain the 

 particular medicinal plants that they instinctively were 

 led to eat, and doctored themselves accordingly. But 

 medicated food of this kind not only loses its value be- 

 yond those districts, but is injurious in others — hence 

 its objectionable character, and low value intrinsically 

 in the market. 



With regard to pecuniary advantages arising from a 

 more perfect state of river drainage, there cannot be a 

 doubt but the balance would be greatly in favour of 

 both landowner and tenant. The project involves the 

 investment of a large amount of capital not merely in 

 drainage, but in the improvement and cultivation of the 

 lands afterwards ; so that, as in all other agricultural 

 projects, the amount of profit will depend upon the 

 judgment with which this capital is invested. 



Engineer. 



EFFECTS OF COLD.— The influence of cold upon 

 animal life lias been studied chiefly (as, for example, in 

 reference to the plienomena of hyheniation) at sudi degrees 

 of temperature only as are insufficient to fteeze the tissues. 

 In cases of actual freezing, attention seems for the most 

 part to have been directed to the organism as a whole, with 

 a view of determining the question whether an animal 

 apparently frozen to death could be revived. The olden 

 writers often allude to the revival of frozen insects as a 

 familiar fact. Rudolpbi states tliat frozen filarire are brought 

 to life upon thawing. Franklin found frozen fishes revive 

 on thawing ; yet John Hunter never succeeded in restoring 

 the animals he had frozen. One element of uncertainty in 

 such experiments (in those on vertebrate animals at least) 

 is the difficulty of making sure that the heart itself is frozen, 

 without interfering with tlie expected result. In the esperi. 

 ments of a later observer, Dusncril, it seems clear that the 

 liearts of the frogs he froze and i-ecovered were not frozen, 

 though the intestines were.— Dr. FokUi-. in Tranmciions of 

 he n<i>/al Sociftif, hial. Number. 



