Protecting River Sides. 



By D. SYM SCOTT, Forester, BallixacourtE, TirrERARY. 



Oenehally speaking, the forester who aspires to the position of estate 

 manager, finds himself looked upon by his employer as a sort of semi- 

 factotum, able to direct and execute on proper economic principles 

 all the affairs of the landed estate. Therefore protecting banks of rivers 

 from being washed away by flood is a subject, if not actually arbori- 

 cultural, endowed wnth certain collateral ties which bring it within 

 the acknowledged limits of consanguinity, and as there are few foresters 

 but have to undertake operations of this nature at one time or another, 

 our remarks are all the more appropriate. At the outset, before pre- 

 scribing the cure it is necessary to understand the disease, or in other 

 words to ascertain correctly the point from which danger is to be ap- 

 prehended. 



Kapid-running streams are frequently the cause of much laud being 

 destroyed. Flowing, as they do, with an impetus almost irresistible, 

 they carry with them large quantities of shingle, which if deposited on 

 meadows or low-lying fields, renders them permanently sterile. 

 The principal causes of inundations are freshets and thunderstorms. 

 Kow the danger of streams bursting their banks is increased or 

 decreased according to circumstances, such as loose open subsoil, 

 obstructions, or quick bends. Water, having the power of eftlux or 

 reflux, occasionally cuts out new channels, thereby entirely changin.g 

 the course ol the stream. Low-lying holms or haughs are liable to 

 be washed away through the want of a little attention being bestowed 

 in time to the gradual encroachment of the water. When the force 

 of the current is dashed against a sudden bend where the subsoil 

 constitutes a gravelly bed, its action is to undermine the bank, when 

 the surface having nothing to rest on naturally gives way, and in such 

 large areas as to materially interfere with the size of the meadow. 

 In this case a bulwark of stones and brushwood plo.ced a little above 

 the probable breach, in a position to divert the force of the current 

 past it, will, if properly formed, operate with powerful effect. Stones 

 and fagots dropped with no particular care into the river soon become 

 consolidated with sand and gravel, making a simple yet substantial 

 breakwater, which can be speedily erected in all shallow waters. In 

 deep water — that is, four or more feet deep — the work of repairing banks 



