40 



F A R JM E R S ' REGISTER. 



[No. 1. 



my? Viscount Vilain earnestly recommends the es- 

 tablishment of similar workshops throughout the 

 whole country. Were he able to effect Jiis be- 

 nevolent object, he would obtain one of the 

 most important and most beneficial results ever 

 effected in a civilized nation ; and Belgium would 

 present the phenomenon of a whole population 

 purged, as it were, of idleness and paurierism. 

 Whilst upon the subject, it may be observed, ac- 

 cording to official statistical documents, published 

 by order of the minister of the interior, that the 

 total irross amount of the revenue of hospitals, 

 charitable establishments, and of I he divers sums 

 expended upon the poor, amounted, in 1S33, to 

 to 11,647,000 francs, or about 285 irancs per indi- 

 vidual. The number of the poor in the provin- 

 cial workhouses has been reduced Iron) 3454 in 

 1827, to 2662 in 1S33, a remai^kable diminution, 

 seeing that the population has increased in an in- 

 verse ratio, havins: auijmenled from 3,800,000 in 

 1827, to 4,061,000 in 1833. The same document 

 states, that the total number of persons receiving 

 instruction at tlie various colleges, schools, and 

 places of education ot all denominatioijs, amount- 

 ed altogetlier to 353,342 in 1828, whereas in 1833 

 the number of children attending the 5229 prima- 

 ry schosis alone exceeded 370,000. If the pro- 

 gress of education had been great, the dimniution 

 of immortality is not less striking, lor one finds the 

 number of Ibundlinfrs (^eiifans trouves) to have 

 amounted to 11,023 hi 1823, whilst in 1833 they 

 did not exceed 7997. This is not a place to devel- 

 ope subjects of this kind, but the above examples 

 will suffice to show, that Belgium is making con- 

 siderable progress in those branches of administra- 

 tion and genera! morality which are the most essen- 

 tial to the well-being of a nation. It must not be 

 omitted to state, that the tables in question irive the 

 population to the 1st of January 1835 at 4,165,953 

 souls ; the superficies of the soil at 3.420,570 hec- 

 tares (each 2| acres,) of which 381,470 hectares, or 

 about one-tenth, are uncultivated, not including 

 more than 100,000 hectares, or l-34tli, of roads 

 and canals. In France, the cultivated land, out 

 of a superficies of 52,570,000 hectares, amounts to 

 9,000,000, or one-sixth ; and the roads, canals, 

 streets, &c. to 1,216,746, or one-fitth ; both of 

 which show a remarkable balance in favor ol" Bel- 

 gium. 



THE PROGRESS OF SINKING ANB LOSS IN THE 

 EMBANKED MARSH OF SHIRLEY. 



To the Editor of the Farnieis' Register. 



Shirhy, April 6th, 1837. 



1 have long intended to communicate the result 

 of the reclaimed swamp land at Shirley, an ac- 

 count of which [ have already given, up to the 

 end oft he year 1832; and although now rather out of 

 date, I leel somewhat bound to do so, to warn oth- 

 ers who miiiht wish to undertake a similar work; 

 particularly, as up to the end of the year 1832, the 

 time last reported, the experiment appeared a suc- 

 cessful one. I will now continue the history of 

 the reclaimed land, and by way of making it more 

 intelligible, I will recapitulate in a concise form, the 

 matter reported in the third number of vol. 1st 

 of the Farmers' Register, [page 129 to 131,J to 

 which I refer your readers. 



In the year 1825, I had 85 acres of swamp land 

 reclaimed at Shirley, by throwinffup a dike anund. 

 it of one thousand seven hundred yards in length, 

 at the cost of one dollar and twenty-five cents per 

 running yard. Includino; truid<s lo let off, and ex- 

 clude the tide w^ater, the whole cost of diking was 

 82,200. The products were as Ibllows: 



Years. JDbls. of Corn. Sales. Price per barrel. 



^8723 



Cost of reclaiminrr, inciudini); interest for 7 years, 

 i^3123. left a balan.ce of 85,600, un to the end of 

 1832. ' 



In the year 1833, the crop ofcorn made 450 barrels, 

 and sold at -33 12^, amounted to !* 1,406 

 Previous balance, 5,000 



Total cleared, 



7,006t 



After makins the crop of 18.33, I (bund that the 

 reclaimed land had sunk so low, and the repairs 

 to the dike every winter were so laborious, that I 

 had, with very great reluctance, to abandon the 

 greater |)art of the reclaimed land ; but as it had 

 been a hobby with me for so long a time, I deter- 

 mined to try to save a portion of the land, by run- 

 ning a new dike, and cutting off 20 acres of the' 

 highest part of the field nearest to the hiirh land. 

 With mv own hands, in the winters of 1833, '34, 

 and 1834, '35, I made a dike of 800 yards in 

 length, 400 yards each winter, reclaiming, as I 

 thought, permanently, the twenty acres nearest 

 the high land. But the crops made on the twenty 

 acres since, prove that I took in too much low 

 land, and I have, this past winter, been obliged to 

 run a new dike, cutting oft" ten acres of the high- 

 est and dryest part of the swamp land, and I think, 

 I may now say, that the ten acres are permanent- 

 ly reclaimed, as it is nearly as high as some of the 

 adjoining low ground, which has been cultivated 

 for hundreds of years, and the foundation is pre- 

 cisely similar. 



Thus it will be seen that I have only ten acres 

 out of the eighty-five, left; just what you pre- 

 dicted, when I first reclaifued the swamp. I do 

 not regret it, now it is done and over, as it has 

 paid very well for itself, and it was an experiment, 

 which sooner or later, I should have made, for I 



* Including some cotton. 



f It will be seen that IVIr. Carter, in this statement, 

 does not estimate the cost of his own farm labor in 

 cultivating the land, nor in repairing the oltl, and con- 

 structing new dikes. No such estimate could possibly 

 have been made, approaching correctness. But still 

 there is no doubt of his being correct in the opinion, 

 that the whole operation left liim a considerable clear 

 gain. But such gain was owing to his excellent man- 

 agement — and we doubt whether any thing but loss has 

 been foiuid in any like work, on similar ground. — Ed. 



