172 FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 



Along the banks ot rivers, many low tracts of land may 

 be greatly improved, by raising them higher with the 

 sediment of the waters. In this way, much has been done 

 on the banks of the Don, the Ouse, and the Trent, in 

 Greatbritain The land which is thus to be raised has, first, 

 a dyke or bank thrown up round it, similar to that just de- 

 scribed, for the purpose of keeping out the waters ot the 

 river, except at the place where a gate is to be erected to 

 let them in. When they are to be let in, that is, when they 

 are muddy and have considerable sediment to deposit, the 

 gate is to be raised ; and, after the sediment has been de- 

 posited, they are let off again; and a new supply is t*keo 

 in at the next tide, or at the next flood, as the case 

 jiiay be. 



Mention is made, by the Compilers of * The Complete 

 Grazier,' of lands on some of the tidewaters of Greatbritain 

 having been raised two feet higher, by this method, in a 

 short time. The progress to be made in thus raising the 

 land must, however, depend on the depth to which the 

 waters cover the land, the quantity of mud or sediment they 

 contain* and to the frequency with which the land can thus 

 be flooded. 



The sediment which is thus deposited makes a very fer 

 tile soil ; but most fertile where it is the sediment of tide- 

 waters near the ocean ; as in that case the soil, thus made ? 

 must be strongly impregnated with the salt of that wa r 



Probably little or nothing could, in this way, be ffccted 

 by the tides of our rivers ; as the tides here do not gene- 

 rally rise sufficiently high, to produce a current so rapid as 

 to stir up mud for forming much sediment : But there is 

 every reason to believe, that much of our low, swampy, 

 intervale-grounds might be greatly benefited, by leting in 

 the waters of the adjacent river, during a flood, and having 

 the sediment all deposited before they were let off again. 



But this plan appears to be admirably calculated for 

 filling up the vast swamps, which abound so much on the 

 Missouri and the Mississippi. Those rivers, during high 

 xvater, contain a greater proportion of mud than perhaps 

 any other streams; and at this time the waters can readi- 

 ly be carried through the levees, into the lower back 

 grounds, after they have been properly imbanked ; and, in 

 due season, let off again, either into the bayous, where 

 these are found, or into the rivers, after the waters have 

 subsided. 



In this way, it would seem that the immense intervales, 

 which every where border on those streams, may be re- 

 deemed from the dominion of the waters ; that the same 

 sediment which serves, in the first instance, to raise the 

 lands higher^ may afterwards be used, when necessary) for 



