FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. I. 



convince any one that no source oi' disease existed 

 in or about the canal or stream. 



The canal is constantly supplied with fresh run- 

 ninir water; as well as the old channel of the 

 creek, and but little stagnant water is any where 

 to be Ibund in the flat, ahhough it is not well 

 ditched. 



The canal to this mill, is upwards of two thou- 

 sand yards long, and the original cost nearly 

 81,500. For the want of sullicieiit width, and 

 sutTicient slope to the canal banks, the expense of 

 cleaning out, and recently o!' widening, has been 

 considerable. I would urge it upon all those who 

 contemplate cutting long mill races, to give suffi- 

 cient width to the canal, and good slope to the ca- 

 nal baid<s. When the stay, that turns the water 

 in the canal, is of a given height, the wider the 

 canal the more water will be drawn into it. The 

 depth of water will not be diminished in the head 

 of the canal, as long as the stream runs over the 

 stay: so that an increase of width, increases the 

 section of water that runs into the canal, and does 

 not retard its velocity, or diminish its depth. This 

 remark, of course, is not intended to apply to mill 

 races that take in the whole stream. 



Notwithstanding the tact that the former pro- 

 prietor cut the race of this mill too narrow, and 

 always suflered a large portion of the stream to 

 waste over the stay, yet, when it was first cut, he 

 considered his mill much improved. And when 

 the present proprietor has com|i!eted his improve- 

 ments now in operation, of widening his canal and 

 making permanent banks and putting in a perma- 

 nent check dam, he may calculate with great confi- 

 dence on a better mill than ever could be expected 

 from the best constructed pond dam. 



I have no correct idea of the land that was cov- 

 ered by the old pond. It might be estimated at 

 seventy or eighty acres. A part of it is owned by 

 Mr. John Marshall of this county, well diked and 

 drained, and under neat cultivation. Where there 

 has been a free use made of the spade, it is dry 

 enough for any crop. I saw a wheat crop that 

 looks well for the season (comparatively) growing 

 below the canal on Mr. Marshall's land. 



Capt. Henry A. Watkins of this county has re- 

 claimed a beautiful piece of flat land and improved 

 the water-power of his mill, by draining his pond. 

 His mill is situated on Wanlsfork, higher up the 

 stream than Maj. Gaines'. I was informed that 

 the land covered by the old pond, ehlier total!}- or 

 partially, was about one hundreil acres. A por- 

 tion of this flat is owned by A! r. John F. Edmunds, 

 and the whole extent of it, exhibits a fine specimen 

 of judicious draining. It might, however, be im- 

 proved, if some of the large cross ditches were cut 

 deeper. A pertectly essential part of cfiectual drain- 

 ing is, that a ditch be cut at the base of the canal 

 bank, co-extensive with it, and nearly parallel, 

 through its whole lenirih, to intercept the water 

 that leaks from the canal. A ditch of this sort ex- 

 ists both on Mr. E's' and Mr. W's' flat. I suppose 

 the land that has been reclaimed by draining this 

 pond, could not be purchased at less than ten thou- 

 sand dollars. Mr. Watkins has been offered more 

 than one hundred dollars per acre for a part of his 

 pond, and actually made one hundred dollars each, 

 from fiCtei^n acres, one year in tobacco, and the 

 lufrs (inil'rinr tobacco,) was not comprised in the 

 estimate, ^ir. Edmunds' diked il;(t, n^iirred to 

 ©n several ocKasions in the Registoi', is u model 



of efTectual draining and secure diking, and is em- 

 braced in the estimate of the hundred acres. * 



The causes oi' disease are so various and in- 

 scrutable, that it is impossible to say with cer- 

 tainty, what amount of benefit has been produced 

 on the health of the neighborhood, by taking down 

 Mr. Watkins' dam. Before it was drained, he had 

 been frequently importuned to tjike down his dam 

 under the general impression that the pond injured 

 the health of the neighborhood. The village at 

 Charlotte court-house, was considered very un- 

 healthy, before this improvement of Mr. Wat- 

 kins' ; owing principally to the prevalence of bil- 

 ious 1(3 vers. The court-house is about two or three 

 miles from the site of the old pond. The writer of 

 these lines does not profess to be acquainted with 

 the subject of malaria, but if it be such an agent 

 in the destruction of human life as it is represented 

 by the most eminent physicians, half of the mor- 

 tality of Virginia, might be reasonably ascribed to 

 mill ponds. The opinion too, seems to be gaining 

 ground with the medical facultj^, that the mischiefs 

 of this pestilential effluvium have not hitherto been 

 sufficiently appreciated. Incapable of apprehen- 

 sion by the senses, it often seizes its victim when 

 its influence is least suspected, and its cause un- 

 known. To form some idea of its eflecta even in 

 this climate and latitude, let a comparison be made 

 of the prevalence of intermittent fevers, when thia 

 part of the country was first settled, and at the pre- 

 sent time. Within a few years back, agues and 

 fevers regularly visited nearly every family in 

 middle Virginia, south of James river, in the 

 months of August and September. (At present^ 

 it is a rare visitant in any f-amily.) Draining and 

 ditching have doubtless produced this change. 

 But the remnant of disease amongst us — particu- 

 larly the bilious levers of our summers and fall, 

 are in a great measure to be ascribed to marsh 

 miasmata, or the effluvium that arises from stag- 

 nant water. And what better nursery for its pro- 

 duction could possibly be imairined than a large mill 

 pond on a small stream? In the hot months oiJuly, 

 August and September, when the malaria is most 

 destructive, such a pond is constantly recedin,g 

 from its ordinary height, and leaving all the rank 

 aquatic plants on its edges to rot. It is no uncom- 

 mon occurrence for hundreds of square yards of pu- 

 trid loam to become exposed by severe droughts in 

 summer, and for the whole pond to become nearly 

 or entirely stagnant. 



Motives of humanity, if not interest, should in- 

 duce the proprietors of large mill ponds to draw off 

 these " bogs of death," and substitute canals with 

 running water in their stead. It is much to be re- 

 gretted that our laws sufler such nuisances to ex- 

 ist, or that individuals, for fear of riskiuij the los^ 

 of a iew toll dishes of corn, should spread disease 

 and death through a whole neighborhood. 



Upon the score of expense, I am not able to 

 give an accurate opinion. From my present im- 

 pressions, I would say, that the cost of making and 

 keeping a dam in repair, is about the same with 

 that of cutting and keeping in repair a canal. But 



* A more particular description of the subject of this 

 valuable improvement, (the publication of which has 

 been delayed some months, waiting for an engraving 

 which has just been received,) will be found in the next 

 succeeding pages of this number.— Ed. 



