THE FA 



S' REGISTER 



Vol. V. 



MAY 1, 1837. 



No. 1, 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



GREAT IMPROVKMETS MADR IN CHARI.OTTK 

 COU>'TY, BY SUBSTITUTING CAAAI.S FOU 

 PO.\DS, TO SUPPLY WATJill POWER TO 

 MILLS. 



To the Kilitor of the [■armors" Register. 



Perliaps the most efficient aid ever renderec] by 

 the Vir>xiiiiii lei!;i.slatLire to tlie cause of aijriculture, 

 was the |)as.-!aire of tl^^act whicli affords facilitie.'^ 

 to millers lor di.-5|)eiisiair with mill ponds and suli- 

 etitutiiii^ canals in tiieir sleaii. JMany millers in 

 this county have availed themselves of the privi- 

 K'ire conilMTed by this act: and ! consider it more 

 than probable, that in the sjjace of twenty years, 

 Avhen the present ex|)erimen;s, now in operation, 

 have fully developed the advanta<::es of the canal 

 over the dam system, there will not be a pond in 

 the county of Charlotte. 



The obvious advantajres of canals over ponds 

 arc — on the score of heah h — the draining of land — 

 the increase of water fall — and the less apparent 

 ailvaiuaiie of increasing the quantity ol water in a 

 •riven time. 



No facts or artjuments are necessary to afford 

 addilional confirmation to the well-established and 

 very prevalent ojiinion, that mill ponds engender 

 sickness. But when these ponds are thoroughly 

 dramed and put under cultivation, as they are in 

 many parts of this county, the vicinity of the canal 

 becomes as healthy as any oilier situation on a run- 

 ning stream, as the exj)erinients in tliis county 

 most am])ly show. 



As regards the fill, it is generally increased by 

 giving such a length to the canal as, with a small 

 stay, to throw the back water above the extreme 

 poiot of eddy water from the pond. 



Airreeably to ray promise, Mr. Editor, I proceed 

 to give an account of the practical operation of 

 these mills that 1 have visited in this county, that 

 are supplied with water by canals that were for- 

 merly supplied by ponds. 



The first I will notice is Major William Gaines', 

 on Little Warrislbrk Creek. The stream affords 

 at his mill seat a sufficiency of water for a good 

 common country grist mill. For many years, a 

 large pond supplied this mill with water. The re- 

 peated coiDplaiiits of the neighborhood of its nn- 

 ^ healthiness, and the large quantity of valuable 

 land submerged by the pond, induced the present 

 proprietor to take down his dam and substitute a 

 canal. The canal was cut about two thousand 

 yards long, and made to take in at its mouth nearly 

 (or quite) the whole stream. Its cost I un- 

 derstand was about fitieen hundred dollars. The 

 cost was greatly increased by an unusual quantity 

 of solid rock encountered by the ditchers. The 

 land reclaimed, is about forty acres, which, if well 

 drained, would command in this county, with its 

 peculiar advanti'ges of location, the high price of 

 three or four thousand dollars. The pond vvas 

 drained in the early part of the last year, it was 

 too late, however, for the natural grass crop that 

 grew on it, to come to lull maturity ; yet with this 

 disadvantage, and the additional one of very im- 

 Vol. V— 1 



perfect draina£re, the pond produced a crop of wild 

 grass ecpial in luxuriance to the thickest set artifi- 

 cial meadow I ever saw. Although many parts 

 of the pond were covered with water, yet it vvas 

 estimated that more than a hundred stacks ol'good 

 hay might have been saved fi-om it, if the whole 

 had been cur. The value of this (juantily of hay 

 might be estimated at a thousand dollars, which 

 sum is a moderate calculation for the annual nett 

 profit of th(! Ibrty acres, if they were well drained 

 and set in grass. This canal has been so recently 

 cut, tliat the effect of draining ihe pond, on the 

 health of the neighborhood, has not been fully as- 

 certained. The proprietor, however, thiidis'that 

 he hi'.s a be;ier mill than tbrmerly. His mill, by 

 the way, is built with a reaction wheel, and until 

 the summer droughts set in, its merits cannot be 

 fiillv compared with the old mill. 



One of the greatest advantages, in my view, of a 

 long canal over a pond, is the gain in tlie quantity 

 of water. It is readily conceded, that a pond, by 

 accumulating water when the mill is idle, will lor 

 a time supply a better head of water than the ca- 

 nal; but when such accumulated water is spent, 

 the supply of water is much less from the pond 

 than would be from a canal: the reason of which 

 is, that :i very large portion of the water in all large 

 ponds, is lost by evaporation. An old miller once 

 told me, that in windy weather, the wind would 

 drive the water back, and would not permit it to 

 leed his mill as freely as in a calm day. I have no 

 doubt tiu-re was a smaller supply of waler in windy 

 weather, but the true reason was the great increase 

 of eviiporation in windy weather. When a fresh 

 is anticipated in our large rivers, high winds are 

 always considered a favorable prognostic. This 

 loss from evaporation is alwaj's greater in the dry 

 hot weather of summer, when the millers are most 

 in want of water, and it is at such times that I have 

 observed a great superiority of the water-power of 

 canals. 



It will therefore be seen, that with a pond of a 

 given extent, the smaller the stream, the greater 

 will be the [)roportional loss from evaporation. 

 So that mill seats upon small streams would be 

 more benefited by a change Irom a pond to a ca- 

 nal, than those on large ones. But perhaps the 

 very greatest advantage of a canal, is that it may- 

 be made of any length, and thus increase the fall 

 of water, and the length of the diameter of the 

 water-wheel, to any desired extent. And this in- 

 crease is made at little expense, compared with 

 the expense and loss of land caused by raising a 

 dam to a very unusual height. 



The next chtuige from a pond to a canal, that I 

 will notice, is the canal that supplies the mill of 

 Dr. Isaac Read. This mill is situated, also, on 

 VVarddlbrk, very near its junction with Little Ro- 

 anoke. The pond formerly attached to this mill, 

 was drawn off many years ago, bya former owner, 

 Mr. Allen. And it is supposed that a most deci- 

 ded benefit has been produced on the health of the 

 neighborhood. Settlements in its vicinity that were 

 formerly considered sickly, are now remarkable for 

 health. A bare view of the premieea would in fact 



