AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 297 



You frequently find districts below high water mark, where there is no 

 outfall ; in fact there are millions of acres in New Jersey, within a short 

 distance of this city, that might be drained by steam power for a very small 

 sum per acre. For example : a single pumping engine, in England, made 

 by Harvey, upon the expansive principle, working twenty-four hours per 

 day, seven days per week, mean power ninety-five horses, raised four mil- 

 lion, one hundred and seven thousand, eight hundred and twenty-five gal- 

 lons of water per diem. With regard to the Jersey meadows, there is a 

 want of natural outfall, and the ditches are alternately filled and emptied 

 as the tide flows and ebbs. 



Were I to attempt to drain these immense areas of valuable land, all of 

 which are destined, at no distant day, to be reclaimed, I would prevent 

 the river water from oozing through the soil as it now does, by digging a 

 wide ditch, parallel to the river, of a depth greater than the proposed 

 drainage, and fill it completely with rammed clay incorporated with gravel, 

 which forms a composition not apt to crack or contract, as much as clay 

 would alone. 



After having progressed so far, I would next secure an outfall, by con- 

 veying the water to the river, at low tide, by drains having sluice boxes so 

 arranged as entirely to exclude the entrance of the river water at flood tide ; 

 and if the supply of water from the land proved greater than could be 

 gotten rid of thus, I would collect it in deep reservoirs and eject it by 

 mechanical force, or steam. Setting aside the mooted question as to the 

 depth at which water ought to be retained, I do not so much object to 

 depths greater than three feet, as I do to greater distances in all soils, as 

 I have universally found, from long experience, that wherever distances 

 more than twenty-four or thirty feet, in compact soils, have been adopted, 

 there has not been, uniformly, a perfectly dry condition of soil, particu- 

 larly after recent rain. If you would have quick drainage and complete 

 aeration of your land, incur the expense of stone, and place your drains 

 twenty feet apart. 



Same subjects ordered to be continued. 



The Club then adjourned. 



H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



March 14, 1859. 



Present — Messrs, E. L, Pell, Kev. Dr. Adarason, of the Cape of Good 

 Hope ; Solon Robinson, Fowler, Bruce, Witt, Lawton, Chilson, Provoost, 

 Fuller, Doughty, Haines, Veeder, Wright, jr., Van Houghton, Darling, 

 Dr. Holton, Hon J. G. Bergen, Wm. B. Leonard, John W. Chambers, 

 Manning, Daniel C. Robinson, Mrs. Fowler, Mrs. Roberts, and nine other 

 ladies, Hon. R. S. Livingston, Godwin, Alex. S. Rowley, Prof. Nash, and 

 others — 83 members. 



Robert L. Pell, in the chair. Henry Meigs, Secretary, 



The Secretary read a translation by him from 



