68 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



then be taken out by the farmers for the purpose of enriching 

 their land. These &quot;catch-water drains/ as they may be called, 

 afford another singular advantage. The water received in them 

 is fresh water, and they furnish an ample supply, in their whole 

 course, for purposes for which it may be wanted. It has been 

 suggested that, in some cases, it might be used for purposes of 

 irrigation, though I saw no examples of this application of it. 

 An eminent engineer, Mr. Smith, of Deanston, has suggested 

 that &quot; it would be practicable to make use of the high land water, 

 collected in the catch-water drains, for working water-wheels, 

 either for draining the lower fens, if any existed, where natural 

 drainage was impracticable, or for other useful purposes, either 

 of agriculture or manufactures. 7 



At the sluice-way or entrance into the Ancholme, large gates 

 are erected, which open with the ebbing, and close with the 

 flooding tide, thus preventing the access of the tide, excepting at 

 pleasure, and favoring the egress of superfluous water at the 

 descent of the tide. It is deemed desirable, in these cases, that 

 water in the main drains should never rise higher than within 

 four feet of the surface of the soil. This, while it leaves an 

 ample soil for cultivation, gives an opportunity of cutting cross 

 drains into the main drain, and at right angles with it, where 

 there is any superfluous water in the soil to be drawn off. To 

 this kind of drains I have already referred, in speaking of the 

 redemption of peat lands in Lincolnshire. 



4. EMBANKMENTS AGAINST A RIVER, AND DISCHARGE OF WATER 

 TJY STEAM-ENGINES. There are cases in which a river requires 

 to be embanked out, and its overflowings upon the adjoining 

 lands prevented, by what, in a similar case at New Orleans, is 

 called a lovec. Here the great River Mississippi flows high 

 above the city ; and the city is protected from its invasion by a 

 high embankment, partly natural that is, made from the deposits 

 of the river, and partly artificial, and extending high above the 

 city, and guarded against being broken in upon with the greatest 

 care. In a similar way, a river is sometimes conducted through 

 a drained fen. the surface of which is below the river. The 

 course of the river is straightened by high embankments being 

 thrown up. The earth to form these embankments is taken 

 from the drained side of the embankment; and thus a deep 



