602 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
gressed steadily to the present day, and we find that after a struggle lasting many 
centuries the energy and perseverance of man have wrested a kingdom from the sea. 
Wtiters on the subject of the early condition of Holland tell us that the country was 
covered with lakes, varying in size, which have been drained and converted into 
fruitful farms. The most important operation lately and successfully completed is 
the draining of the Haarlem Lake, which covered an area of about 45,000 acres. A 
een a of this work was given in the report of the Department of Agriculture for 
1866. ; 
Extensive tracts on the western coast of England, called the Fen country, have been 
embanked and drained, and added to the cultivable land in that section. As many as 
680,000 acres of fen have been reclaimed, and the works rival those of Holland in 
extent. The Encyclopedia Britannica says: 
“This fen country has for centuries been the scene of drainage operations on a 
stupendous scale. The whole surface of the great basin of the fens is lower than the 
sea, the level varying from four to sixteen feet below high-water mark in the German 
Ocean. The difficulty in draining this flat tract is increased from the circumstance 
that the ground is highest near the shore and falls inward toward the foot of the 
slope. . These inland and lower grounds consist of a spongy peat, which has a natural 
tendency to retain water. The rivers and streams which flow from the higher inlands 
discharge upon these level grounds, and originally found their way into the broad 
and shallow estuary of the wash, obstructed in all directions by bars and sand-banks. 
These upland waters, being now caught at their point of entrance on the fens, are 
confined within strong artificial banks, and so guided straight seaward, and are thus 
restrained from flooding the low grounds, and by their concentration and momentum 
assist in scouring out the silt from the narrow channel to which they are confined. 
The tidal waters are at the same time fenced out by sea-banks which are provided at 
certain intervals with sluice-doors by which the waters escape at ebb tide. When 
this does not provide such a drainage as to admit of cultivation, the water is lifted 
mechanically by wind or steam mills into the main aqueducts. 
# #* * * x 
“Yn the district called Marsh, in Norfolk, extending between the Ouse and the New, 
in that called South Holland, in Lincolnshire, stretching between'the New and Welland, 
northward of Spalding, and also northeast of Boston, there are considerable tracts of 
marine clay soil. In Marshland this is chiefly arable land, producing large erops ef 
wheat and beans, but in Lincolnshire it forms exceedingly fine grazing land. This 
tract lies within the old Roman embankment by which the district was first defended 
from the ocean. Outside this barrier are the proper marsh lands, which have been 
reclaimed in portions at successive periods, and are still intersected in all directions 
by ranges of banks. The extraordinary feature in this tract is that the surface outside 
the Roman bank is three or four feet higher than on the inside, and the level of each 
new inclosure is more elevated than the previous one. The land rises step by step as 
the coast is approached, so that the most recently reclaimed land is often twelve and 
sometimes eighteen feet higher than the lowest fen land in the interior, the drainage 
np which must, nevertheless, be conveyed through these more elevated marshes to 
© sea. 
These extensive works are represented by many hundreds of miles of river embank- 
ments, and the sea-coast line embanked exceeds one hundred and thirty in length. 
This fen land, once, like that of Holland, a wild marshy tract, impassable to man or 
beast, is now a fertile farm, rich in agricultural products, and inhabited by a healthy 
and wealthy population. 
Another instance of successful reclamation is to be found in England: the Bedford 
Level, called after the Earl of Bedford, who in the year 1634 expended over £100,000 
to reclaim these lands, and whose son completed the work at an additional cost of — 
#%300,000. These lands have since that time been kept perfectly free of water by means 
of windmills and other pumping engines. 
Extensive drainage operations have been carried on in many parts of Europe, par- 
ticularly in France and Italy. The celebrated Pontine marshes, near Rome, are men- 
tioned by early historians as a source of great danger to the public health, and several 
unsuccessful attempts were made to reclaim them. The popes at different periods re- 
newed these efforts, and their success, though partial, proved that the drainage could 
be effected with sufficient capital. 
In Ireland immense tracts of peat-bog have been drained and converted into arable 
land. The bog of Allen is an extensive area of peaty soil, extending into several coun- 
ties, and covering many thousand acres. In the southern part of Ireland, along the 
rivers and shores of the main estuaries, large areas of alluvial deposits have been 
inclosed by embankments, and a rich soil made available for cultivation. 
The cotton lands in the valley of the Mississippi are exceedingly fertile when prop- 
erly protected by levees from the periodical overtlow of the river. The construction 
and maintenance of these levees are often the subject of discussion in Congress, and it 
would seem proper that the nation’s representatives should interest themselves in what 
