connected with Mines. 433 



the summer of 1865, and tlie place has been a deposit for refuse 

 from the mines for the last four years. At the commencement 

 the work proceeded in a stripe down one side to the lower end, 

 then included all to be taken in, and came gradually up to the 

 place whence the start was made. We worked and cropped this 

 newly-made land every year up to the workmen, but as a good 

 part of a clay subsoil was intermixed with the soil, we did not 

 raise large crops at first. Tares suited best to begin with ; 

 turnips in 1864 were a failure, but wheat in 1865 was a crop 

 considerably above the average in the district. 



The cost of such an improvement as I have tried to describe 

 is about the average purchase value of really good arable land. 

 Independent of the tipping of the waggons the expense will be little 

 short of 100/. per imperial acre, and may in some instances exceed 

 that sum. Work of this description is for the most part let to a 

 contractor by the piece, at bd. or 6f/. per cubic yard for breaking 

 up the natural surface and wheeling it on to the top of the 

 deposit. It is without doubt one of the most expensive improve- 

 ments, but a deposit is got for a large quantity of refuse from the 

 mines and other works, and comparatively worthless land is 

 permanently improved, requiring no drainage, whereas when 

 the large heaps of rubbish are laid down upon the surface the 

 land is for the most part permanently lost. It would be well, 

 not only for the owners of land, but for the public, were such a 

 plan as the above more generally followed. The area of our 

 British soil covered by accumulations of refuse, especially in 

 mining districts, is by no means small. 



On the Lambton estate, where mining operations are carried 

 on by the proprietor to a great extent, a great many portions of 

 waste land, old waggonways included, have been permanently 

 improved in the manner which I have here described. These 

 improved portions have in some instances added to the available 

 acreage of the farm, and in others they have afforded building 

 sites for workmen's houses as well as garden plots. 



Within the last three years upwards of 200 houses of a supe- 

 rior description have been erected for the workmen, the greater 

 part of them upon portions of lands comparatively waste, unoccu- 

 pied and unproductive, but otherwise unobjectionable as build- 

 ing sites. 



Damage from pit-falls is generally repaired by draining the 

 land anew ; but such peculiarities sometimes present them- 

 selves that this does not meet the exigencies of the case. One 

 instance came lately under my observation where the course of 

 a brook was damaged by a pit-fall ; the land had fallen so con- 

 siderably to the lower side of the brook as to induce it to leave 

 its former track and flow over some good tillage land. The 



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