432 TJie Improvement of Waste Lands ' 



There are four apartments in each house, besides a pantry, back- 

 yard, and other conveniences, and the situation of these dwellings 

 is dry, open, and healthy. The remaining portion of the former 

 brickyard is soiled over with road-scrapings and other accumu- 

 lations of soil, and set apart as gardens for a few of the men. 

 This particular case is stated, as it came more directly under my 

 notice than many other similar improvements which have been, 

 and are being, made on the same estate. 



When the old brickyards and other excavated portions are 

 filled up with the refuse from the mines, a place of deposit has 

 to be elsewhere selected, and sometimes a low and wet piece of 

 land, difficult to drain for the want of a proper outfall, is fixed 

 upon. The land is either naturally of little value, or, as is fre- 

 quently the case, rendered so by a pit-fall. The first operation 

 is to lay a branch line of railway off the main line to the place 

 selected, and thereafter to cut out a bed for the emptying of 

 the first waggons. The surface is broken and taken off to a 

 depth of about 2^ feet, and in the first instance laid to an 

 off side. The tipping or emptying of waggons commences, 

 and, as in embankments or moundings in a railway, they 

 advance over the deposit as it reaches the desired height. So 

 soon as the place first cut for deposit is about to be filled up, a 

 fresh portion of the natural surface is again broken, but it is 

 now wheeled up on to the top of the rubbish heap, which is 

 gradually covered over as it advances to a depth about equal 

 to what is excavated. About 2i feet may by some be considered 

 a deeper soil than is necessary, but I think not, when the deep- 

 growing habits of some of our cultivated plants and the general 

 deep cultivation now practised by steam-power and otherwise 

 are considered. It is folly to do a work of such importance 

 imperfectly at first, for unless we take off sufficient earth to make 

 a good depth of soil before we deposit our rubbish heap, the oppor- 

 tunity is irrecoverably lost. The depth of the rubbish deposit 

 itself is regulated by the adjoining land, and the formation of 

 any unnatural knoll is avoided. In the centre or more hollow 

 part the depth may be 12 feet or more, while around the edges 

 or borders it may be only 2 or 3 feet, running out to nothing, so 

 as to be in keeping with the other portion of the field, although 

 at first it is better to keep it slightly elevated to allow something 

 for consolidation. A drain can be put in at the lower end 

 of the rubbish deposit, or of the natural declivity of the ground, 

 which will carry off" the water should it rise in the rubbish heap 

 so as to sour or injure the rest of the field. 



I have had to do with a portion of land of about six acres 

 which was improved in this way on the Lambton estate, the 

 property of the Earl of Durham. The work was finished during 



