666 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



The President : Have you directed yoiu' attention to tlie preserva- 

 tion of banks where they are nearly undermined by the -waterSj like 

 the river banks in Holland ? 



Mr. Grantham : I have never had any experience of that descrip- 

 tion of banks. In some instances, where I have had to deal with land 

 floods, and where the landowners wished it, I have introduced culverts 

 which would let in flood water when they wished to inundate the 

 land. The sluices were self-acting, and occasionally there were land 

 sluices, too. The sluices were, however, very numerous. 



Mr. Lawrence said there could be no doubt the Wash was a fruitful 

 school for engineering of the description connected with the reclama- 

 tion of land, and experience of the most useful character had been 

 acquired there. Sir J. Eennie, Mr. Fowler, and some of the other 

 eminent engineers had attempted too much there, when they endeavoured 

 to grapple with the ocean at once. They struck a line across the 

 estuary of the Wash, and in one instance they spent 14,000/. in making 

 a fragment of an embankment which was washed away with a single 

 tide. The quiet processes which were now being followed to reclaim 

 the land were very instructive, and they would probably lead even- 

 tually to the saving of that immense tract of land which once had the 

 designation of Victoria County. This could only be done by degrees, 

 and by following the operations of nature slowly. He did not believe 

 in some of the great works that had been undertaken of building large 

 sea v/alls, and grappling suddenly with a tidal ocean with 26 feet rise 

 and fall. In a sea-girt island like oiu-s, such wonders could not be 

 expected. We must proceed as it were terrace by terrace. The 

 expenditure of hundreds of thousands of poimds in the "Wash, proved 

 how great were the mistakes made in the reclamation of lands. The 

 drainage of the Fens was one of the greatest works in the country. 

 The work undertaken by the Norfolk Estuary Company was not sur- 

 passed by any work in Holland for the drainage of high land lying 

 behind the sea ; but their shares at the i^resent time were only worth 

 a few shillings, and hundreds had been bought at half-a-crown each. 

 The general question of land inclosure closely concerned the Society 

 and its supporters, because all agricultural topics were strictly econo- 

 mical questions. Equally important was the question of the President 

 as to the undermining of banks by the water ; the only thing to do 

 was to give a good foreshore. Of course, if the occupiers of land 

 chose to go to more expense they could stone the front of the bank and 

 make an effectual barrier against the sea, as they did in Holland. 



Mr. Hawkshaw said it was impossible to lay down general principles 

 regarding slopes, because so much depended upon material. The sand 

 of the sea-shore made its own slope, and that was six or seven to one. 

 This proved an effectual barrier against waves if it was long enough. 

 He could give one piece of information respecting slopes in works of 

 great magnitude. In Holyhead it was found that stone thrown into 

 the sea in deep water gradually assumed three kinds of slopes. At 

 about 5 feet below the water it was six to one ; deeper down it was 

 three to one ; and very deep down it was one-and-a-half to one, show- 

 ing that everything depended upon the force of the water and waves 



