58 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



the tides. In some cases the deposit is made at successive 

 periods ; as, where the productiveness of a field has begun to 

 flag, the tide is readmitted, and a new dressing of mud is given, 

 to recruit its energies. This can only be done until the surface 

 has reached the height of the highest spring tides. 



It has been objected &quot;that there is a species of rich loam, 

 which, under the name of alluvial soil, is understood to mean 

 land which has been gained, in low situations, by the overflow 

 ing of streams from higher grounds, or, by the artificial process 

 of warping, from the turbid waters of muddy rivers, as well as 

 by slimy matter thrown up by the tides, and afterwards em 

 banked ; that this contains a large proportion of vegetable and 

 animal matter, which gives it a dark color, and produces almost 

 inexhaustible fertility : but. the quality of its products, though 

 luxuriant to the eye, is not equal in nutriment to those grown 

 on drier land.&quot; This may be so ; but it is an objection which I 

 did not hear stated among the cultivators of these lands ; nor 

 have I ever heard it from the cultivators of those beautiful lands, 

 in the United States, which lie upon some of our fine rivers, and 

 are flooded and enriched by the deposits from their annual over 

 flowings. 



The substance called warp has been found, upon analysis, to 

 contain mucilage, with a minute portion of saline matter ; a con 

 siderable quantity of calcareous and aluminous earths ; and the 

 residue, mica and sand the latter in by far the larger quantity, 

 and both in very fine particles. That is to say, it is, and is likely 

 to contain, a mixture of whatever has been brought down, by the 

 rains and rivers, from the cultivated country of the interior. 



The Delta of the Nile, and its rich banks and meadows, annu 

 ally overflowed, are composed, without doubt, of the same mate 

 rials, and their extraordinary fruitfulness is proverbial. On the 

 Mississippi, at the junction of the Ohio with this mighty father 

 of waters, there is an immense tract of land, annually overflown, 

 of the same rich description ; and when, as it may happen in the 

 progress of time, those now vast solitudes shall be teeming with 

 population, these great spaces of rich alluvion when the over 

 flowings of the river, by embankment, shall be excluded, or oc 

 casionally admitted, at pleasure will exhibit an unsurpassed 

 productiveness. 



On the smaller rivers, the Connecticut, for example, when- 



