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EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



removed is of course the fresh water from rain, or the water from 

 springs, and some, doubtless, from the infiltration of the sea. 

 The work of one mill is required to keep six hundred acres suffi 

 ciently free from water. The whole amount of this poldered or 

 redeemed land in Holland is represented to exceed five millions 

 of acres an amount to be redeemed from the sea scarcely within 

 the limits of credibility. But the original erection of these dikes 

 is not the whole amount of labor which they demand a 

 demand which knows no interruption nor cessation. It is said, 

 upon competent authority, that had the original dike at Walche- 

 ren been made of solid copper, it would have cost less than it has 

 cost in its formation and repairs. 



I present here a sketch of the polder of Snaerskerke, given by 

 Radcliffe from the government survey. This polder contains 



Sketch of the Polder of Snaerskerke. 



about thirteen hundred acres, and was drained by order of Napo 

 leon. &quot; The creek, with its minor branches, by which the tide 

 overspread nearly the entire surface, is traced, to point out its 

 original state ; but that has now given way to the regular 

 divisions and arrangements marked by the parallel Iines 3 which 



