1S37J 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



43 



eo well ascertained as to be removed effectually — 

 and perhaps by means much short of what would be 

 our wide sweepina; prescriptions — which would be, 

 1st — to lime and marl all the acid land, whether ara- 

 ble or not, where those manures could be cheaply ap- 

 plied ; 2nd — to embank no marshes from the tide ; 3rd 

 — to prevent (by canals and dikes) fresh water streams 

 and rain torrents from flowing over the surface of salt 

 marshes; and 4th — to cut every mill-dam on small 

 streams, and drain and cultivate the beds of the ponds. 



It is believed that in almost every case of mill-ponds 

 above the tide water region, it would be economical 

 and profitable to change the pond for a canal, even 

 without any consideration of the benefit to health — and 

 also in the majority cf cases in the lower country. But 

 if no such substitution could be made, we should still 

 advocate the total destruction and prohibition of mill- 

 ponds on all small and insuflicient streams. It would 

 be better to resort to animal power, or steam, to grind 

 all our meal, than to continue to submit to the loss of 

 wealth and of happiness, of health and of life, in so 

 many families and over so large a portion of our coun- 

 try, as is now caused by the ponds of mills so pitiful 

 as to yield scarcely any nett profit to the owneis. 

 Many neighborhoods that formerly suffered but little 

 by autumnal diseases, are now very sickly; and as 

 mill-ponds during all the time were in existence, the 

 change has not been suspected to be caused by them. 

 Yet it well may be so. The first mills were built on 

 the most abundant and constant streams, and these of 

 course did comparatively little harm to health by their 

 ponds. But as the demand for mills and their profits 

 increased, and the mania for building mills, (that has 

 operated extensively, when there was no profit to be 

 gained,) extended over our land, many mills were 

 built on small and insufficient streams, that had been 

 previously, (as they always ought to have been,) thought 

 worthless for that object. One such mill put up in a 

 neighborhood where three or four had long been stand- 

 ing, might add ten-fold to all the former production 

 of malaria, and yet not be suspected as the cause. 

 This is not all. The same ponds that were but little 

 injurious to health at one time, may gradually become 

 greatly so afterwards. If no change takes place in the 

 height of the dam, or the highest limit of the "head of 

 water," still the bottom of the pond is more and more 

 filled by an alluvial and highly putrescent deposite — the 

 water thereby becomes shallower, more speedily eva- 

 porated in warm and dry weather, more frequent and 

 larger exposures of the bottom occur, and both on that 

 account and its putrescent ingredients, decomposition 

 proceeds far more rapidly than formerly, when deeper 

 water covered a comparatively barren bottom. But 

 the surfaces of most old mill-ponds have been extended 

 by raising the limit of the legal head ; and consequent- 

 ly there has been for this reason also more evaporation, 

 exposure of a wider surface of bottom, and conse- 

 quently more decomposition of putrescent matter, and 

 destructive action of malaria. 



We are rejoiced that the act authorizing the con- 

 demnation of lands for mill canals, and offering facili- 

 ties and inducements for substituting canals for ponds, 



is getting gradually into use, and that some at least, 

 consider it as the most valuable boon granted to the ag- 

 ricultural interest by the legislature of Virginia. It 

 remained on the statute book for some years after its 

 passage, as if useless and dead, and its offered privile- 

 ges were known to very few persons ; and therefore it 

 is so much the more gratifying that its value is now 

 availed of, with the greater prospect of being extend- 

 ed because generally approved and acted on in the 

 intelligent and wealthy county of Charlotte. The ex- 

 istence of the present law was owing to the wishes of 

 some mill-owners in that county, and to the exertions 

 of her members of the House of Delegates, and (in its 

 enacted form,) to our own in the Senate, where acci- 

 dental circumstances aided our earnest efforts to pass 

 what we thought then, as now, a measure which, if made 

 proper use of, might produce benefits beyond all esti- 

 mation. We may be pardoned for boasting of this ser- 

 vice to agricultural mterests, when coupled with the 

 admission, that it was the only measure of any kind 

 that our individual support carried through during our 

 very useless participation in legislation. 



The good effects already experienced from making 

 use of the privileges offered by this law, furnish ground 

 for hopes that they may be very extensively availed of. 

 The knowledge, experience, and profit of these chan- 

 ges, will gradually serve to enlighten the community, 

 now as blind as patient, in this respect, to the enor- 

 mous and uncompensated evils inflicted by the mill- 

 ponds which are on every stream in middle and 

 lower Virginia. We earnestly invite inquiry, and the 

 collection of facts as to tlie former and pi'esent effects 

 of mill-ponds on health, and the coiumunication of such 

 facts, and their deductions, through this journal. And 

 when the mass of facts shall be found to sustain the 

 general positions we have assumed and presented in 

 the course of these remarks, we shall hope that all who 

 are convinced of their evil eflects, will join in a gener- 

 al crusade, a war of extermination, against all mill- 

 ponds, present and future — as well as against the gen- 

 eral law which authorizes their creation; which law, 

 for various reasons, besides its authorizing the spread- 

 ing of disease and death, is one of the most unjust and 

 stupid of all in our miserable agricultural or proprieto- 

 ly code. 



From tlie Maine Farmer. 

 BOUNTY UPON WHKAT RAISED IN MAINE. 



The legislature of Maine have at length arous- 

 ed themselves to action upon this subject, and 

 passed an act paying a bouniy upon wheat, which 

 must satisfy the most grasping. Slartletl by the 

 fact that we, as a staie, were paying out more 

 than four millions of dollars lor bread-stuff, and 

 knowing that the soil of the state was sufficiently 

 fertile to produce bread enough lor its inhabitants, 

 they came to the determination ofcalling upon the 

 far.Tiers to wipe away the disgrace, and to call too, 

 in such a manner that they could not resist it. 



If we mistake not the provisions of the bill, it 

 gives a bounty of two dollars to every one who 

 shall raise twenty bushels of well cleaned wheat ; 

 and for every bushel over and above thirty, six 



