432 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Nn. 1 



In all niounuiiiious dislriuts of this island, the 

 haiiii;h lands arc peculiarly liable to the ravaijes of 

 tioods. They have evidenlly been lljrtned by 

 stroni^ currents, and the ailuvi;d depositcs of water 

 in a slate oi" extreme agitafioii. They are gener- 

 ally composed ol' soil, grttvel. sand, and stones. of 

 considerable size. In ihany iur^tances, these sub- 

 stances are deposiied [)relty rc<j,'u!arly, accordinir 

 to their several specitii; gravifies. 



The surface, however, is olten covered with 

 -earthy matter, dei)0;-jiredby the overfiovvi-nij'pr wa- 

 ter since their Ibrniation, the soil in many instances 

 being very deep and of the most Viduable descrip- 

 tion. 



Through these valleys the rivers arc (bimd to 

 flow in devious courses. In some instances ' they 

 are confined in deep channels, whose banks they 

 -seldom overflow; but more lre(|uenily their chan- 

 nels are very shallow, little below the general siar- 

 tace of the lauds they pass through. Hence, in 

 high floods, their immediate banlis are generally 

 the victims of their rag©. 



There are instances in altriost every valley, hut 

 more especially where they are- iwuch contracted, 

 ■of the torrents rushing out of their confined chan- 

 nels into flat haughs, and ravaging several acres 

 of the best land in a single flood. 



I hope the (bllowing short treatise will be found 

 serviceable, and be the means of |)reventing those 

 3and-owners whose properties are situated on the 

 banks of rivers ii'oin allowing their most valuable 

 alluvial soil to be washed away, when, mostlikel}', 

 if a few pounds had been judiciously applied in 

 time, it would not only have saved the lands on 

 the one side of the river, but would have protected 

 those on the other side at the same time. 



To simplify the subject,, I have divided it intp 

 'three branches: first, straighteijing water-courses ; 

 'Secondly, protecting river lianks ; and, ihirtlly, em- 

 •bunking haugli and other lands. 



Straightening water- courses. 



The difficulties and expense attending the alter- 

 <ation of the course of a river, depend on the par- 

 ticular circiimstances belonging to it. 



If ttie river is the boundary line between the 

 properties of diflerent proprietors, the first step is 

 'to obtain the whole of the proprietors' consent to 

 the alteration. Secondly, it nmst be considered 

 whether the ground will admit of the proposed line 

 to be straight, or whether it will be necessary to 

 make one or more bends in it, so as to divide the 

 land equally between the different owners, without 

 being under the necessity of transferring small 

 7)ortions of land Irom the one to the other, which, 

 in genend, is very troublesome, esf)ecially where 

 the lands are entailed, in which case it oilen pre- 

 vents improvements of the greatest consequence. 

 Thirdly, in a water-course where mills occur, and 

 the fall of the water is not more than Irom (bur to 



The other instance was in straighteninsj the Lyne riv- 

 er, immediately below the village of West Linton. A 

 laboring man was both engineer and contractor for the 

 worlc, which was executed according to his plan, with 

 stone walls built on each side of the new cut, and 

 banks raised half-way up the walls, to prevent the wa- 

 ter at high floods from finding its way through them in- 

 to the haughs; but, alas I the first ilood swept nearly 

 the whole before it, for the dimensions of the new cut 

 •were only hall" of what it ought to have been. 



six liiet ill a mile, the dams that are erected across 

 it for supplying tlie mills with water arej in many 

 instances, of the greatest injury to tlie improve- 

 ment ol' the adjacent lands. This is the case with 

 many of the water-courses in this countiy ; there 

 are even cases where the nulls have not only a 

 dam for ihrowino' the water into the mill-lead, but 

 have other dams larther up the river, for collecting 

 water in drouirhty seasons in the bed of the river, 

 so that the miller can let it down to the mill at his 

 pleasure. These dams are more injurious to the 

 Gd-untrv than.iaeople are in genera! aware of. In 

 many instances, they completely prevent all drain- 

 ing of the surrounding lands.* I know cases 

 where the proprietors are so blind to their own in- 

 terest, that, Ibrthe sake of a paltry mill, only worth 

 from £40 to JCGO per annum, they allow land to 

 be. destroyed that Would yield ten times the 

 amount of that sum yearly. 



It is certainly the interest of every land-owner to 

 make the most of his properly, in such a way as 

 he may find most suitable to his circumstances. 

 Therelbre, in cases wher^ a mill-dam cannot be 

 avoided, and it is necessary to straighten and deeji- 

 en the water-course as a preparative to other im- 

 provements, the engineer lias only one choice, and 

 that is, to Ibrm an embankment on each side of 

 the river, as fiir up as the water is thrown back, 

 and high enough to i'ree the site of improvement 

 l>om being overflowed at the highest floods; and 

 by means of back drains, and, in some .cases, an 

 a()ueduct laid under the bed of the river to com- 

 municate with- the drains, the whole of the land 

 (although lying under the level of the water in the 

 null-lead) might be drained, by carrying the out- 

 le't drain into the- river below the niiil-dam.t 



In such cases, it is true, the expense becomes 

 higher, but not so very dear if the site of improve- 

 ment be extensive, for the whole expense will be 

 repaid in two or three years. 



In vale ^districts, and other low huid situations, 

 the currents of rivers are generally sluggish. 

 There the cutting of the new channel is merely 

 the work of manual labor, being attended with no 

 other difficulty than what may arise from the ex- 

 pense, which will depend on the size of the river, 

 the nature of the ground to be cut through, and 

 the value of the labor in the given district. This 

 is irenerally to be ascertained with sufficient accu- 

 racy by previous calculations. 



it is to be observed, that the size of the new 

 cut depends on several circumstances ; such as the 

 extent of country" it is to drain, whether a flat or 

 mountainous district, and particulai'ly the natural 

 fall of the district the river runs through. One 

 great mistake whicli is often committed in straight- 



* F6r example, the North and South Medwins in 

 Lanarkshire. In the former of these rivers, dams of 

 both descriptions are to be found, and, in the latter, a 

 dam exists which prevents the draiiung of several hun- 

 dred acres. The ndli, with sixty acres of land, is let 

 for £60 per annum ; the mill, without the land, would 

 not let for £10 per annum. Since the publication of 

 the last edition, the South Medwin has been straighten- 

 ed and made deeper, whereby a sutficient fall for the 

 drainage of five hundred acres has been gained. 



t An operation of this kind has been executed by 

 me at Dahpiharran, the property of T. F Kennedy, 

 Esq., where the river Girvan has been straightened and 

 embanked, and the outlet drain carrried by a tunnel un- 

 der the flower garden into the river below the mill dam 



