I8r>7] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



41 



could not have withstontl the tcinptation ol" rc- 

 chiiriiiivj^ so tiiw a piece of laiiil, apparently. 



This; work has tauo'hl ine this much, which I 

 now coiumuniciitc for the benefit ol" others, that it 

 will not do to reclaim, by diliinp; alone, swamp 

 land wiiich has no liiundaiion, and so little rise 

 and (;i!l in the tide as we have on James River, 

 that heinir only three feet. (By no Ibundation, [ 

 mean swamp land lormedol" perhaps nine-tenths 

 veiretahle matter, anil the remaider alluvial 

 matter, brought down by the river many years 

 back, which alluvial matter, is little else but the 

 lightest clay or earth, which takes some time to 

 deposite from the water.) The swamps above 

 me, which have been reclaimed, at Woodson's, 

 Verina, and other places above, have a much 

 better foundation than nn'ne, and may be perma- 

 nent; because, on a good fijundation, there is no 

 daiiirer of the land sinking, but those so f;ir from 

 the tiills of the river as mine, are formed of the 

 liehfer particles or portions of the alluvial deposife, 

 and can never have much foundation, or solidity.* 

 The heavier portions, such as sand, clay, and rich 

 matter from the mountains, are deposited first, and 

 by the time the ll'eshets reach us, it has little else 

 to de[)osite, but a light and cha:!'y clay or earth, 

 which produces vegetable matter in our swamps, 

 principally fibrous roots, and makes a soil black, 

 springy, and cha'iy, which when exposed to dry, 

 as it is when reclaimed, evaporates, or rots away, 

 to little or nothing ; and therefore, must sink in a 

 ibw years so low. as to prevent you from drawing 

 off the water, without the use of pumps^ which [ 

 once thought of trying, but found it would be too 

 expensive. In addition to which, the dike, which 

 is necessarily made of the vegetable swamp mud, 

 rots and evaporates so much, that it sinks faster 

 than you can afford to raise, or repair it; for you 

 soon dig away all the ground near it, in keeping 

 up the dike. 



Where th^? alluvial deposite is formed on a clay, 

 sand, or any solid foundation, it is not only worih 

 reclaiming, but nmst he very valuable land; and 

 that should be the first thing ascertained, in re- 

 claiming swamp lands, otherwise it will be like Dr. 

 Franklin's whistle. 



I have now got ten acres clear, and a marsh, 

 instead of a swamp, whi(;h marsh afl^brds sorces 

 and wild ducks, instead of the wood the swamp 

 formerly yielded. But I am determined to have 

 the wood back again, and I have this spring set 

 out several hundred ash trees, and shall continue 

 to set out every sprm<x, until I cover the whole 

 marsh with trees, and be able to say " Richard is 

 himself again."! 



HiLi^ Carter. 



* It is not the solid " tbundation," or subsoil, 

 that makes permanent these marshes higher up the 

 river, and Mr. Carter's ten acres, so much as their 

 soil beincj intermixed with a much larger proportion of 

 real earth — sand, clay, and lime. As much vegetable 

 matter as the earthy ingredients can chemically com- 

 bine with, will be retained, under proper culture, and 

 no more. — Ed. 



t We much doubt the success of this planting. The 

 surface of the soil is now much too low for the growt'^ 

 of trees. — En. 



Vol. V— 6 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE CAUSES OF, AND 

 MEANS OF PREVENTING THE FORMATION 

 OF MALARIA, AND THE AUTUMNAL DIS- 

 EASES WHICH ARE THE EFFECTS OF IT, IN 

 VIRGINIA. 



From the commencement of the Farmers' Register, 

 and at various times throughout its course, we have 

 labored to impress on our readers the truth of several 

 novel opinions, which have an important bearing on 

 the healthiness as well as improvement of lower and 

 middle "Virginia, and thence, on the general prosperity 

 of the country, and all its inhabitants. These opin- 

 ions are — 



1. That calcareous manures applied to soils deficient 

 in that necessary ingredient, by combining with and 

 fixing the otherwise wasting vegetable matters, serve 

 to prevent 7?iaZ«n(Z, the product of their decomposition 

 and waste — and thereby either greatly lessen, or totally 

 prevent, the autumnal diseases, which are the effects 

 of malaria, and which are so general, and so distress- 

 ing, in many parts of lower and middle Virginia. 



2. That our tide-water marshes and swamps, from 

 the very nature of their composition — the vegetable 

 and putrescent ingredients of the soil — when embank- 

 ed and laid dry, will rapidly rot away, until their level 

 is reduced so low, that wetness will stop decomposi- 

 tion, at the same time that it destroys all the agricul- 

 tural value of the land. 



3. That mill-ponds on all but rapid rivers and other 

 large and constant streams, are enormous evils, through- 

 out the whole country east of the mountains, in pro- 

 ducing disease, still more than by covering much land 

 of great value for cultivation, if laid dry ; and that the 

 general substitution of canals for half stagnant ponds, 

 and the total destruction of all such ponds, would pro- 

 duce private and public benefits of incalculable value. 



It is not now designed to repeat arguments in sup- 

 port of the truths of either of these propositions — but 

 merely to announce them, and to remark generally on 

 some deductions from them, which will not need 

 proof to any readers who admit the propositions from 

 which the deductions proceed. 



Heretofore, apparently, we have had but little suc- 

 cess in making converts to these opinions ; and there- 

 fore it is so much the more gratifying to receive the 

 strong evidences of their truth presented on two of 

 these subjects, in the first article in this number, on the 

 new mill canals in Charlotte, and the report of Hill 

 Carter, Esq., of the fate of his embanked marsh. 

 This improvement was conducted throughout with so 

 much judgment, (save the grand error of attempting 

 such a work at all,) and with so much industry and 

 economy, that the result affords undeniable proof of the 

 destructible nature and transient value of all such soils. 

 We will quote our remarks and predictions in re- 

 gard to this work made years ago, while the land 

 yet bore heavy and profitable crops — and will add 

 that such predictions had been made verbally to Mr. 

 Carter, even before he had commenced his embank- 

 ment. 



" The diked tide awamp of Shirley is so beautiful a 



