222 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 4 



table and putrescent soil is made nearly dry, and 

 still more when cultivated and exposeil to be pene 

 trated by the air, decomposition proceeds under 

 the most favorable circumstances. The soil sinks 

 annually and rapidly, not so mucli by drying (as 

 commonly supposed,) as by actually roltin/j away 

 and in a ew years, it is reduced to so low a level, 

 as again necessarily to pass under the dominion 

 and shelter of the water. The more complete 

 the drainage, and the more perfect the manage- 

 ment as arable or tilled land, the more rapidly is 

 that end reached. In the progress to this end, a 

 layer of the whole soil, of from one to three feet 

 in thickness, will have passed off into the air in 

 the gaseous products of putrefaction, of which 

 enormous products, a large proportion will be ma- 

 laria, and the efi'ects produced by it on the health 

 of some of the neighboring population are gene 

 rally so evident as to leave no doubt of the source 

 of the evil. More fiill details on the effects of em- 

 bankments ol" tide-marshes are to be found in pre- 

 vious articles in this work.* 



The production of malaria by the last named 

 operation, the embanking of marshes, however, is 

 necessarily of very limited extent— and moreover 

 of very limited duration. Nature soon asserts and 

 enforces herricrhts; and the hopes of the impro- 

 ver, and the land so improved, are together over- 

 whelmed by the reinstatement of the"waters, and 

 this source of disease is thereby cut off. 



Tide-marshes, however extensive and injurious 

 in their operation on health, still are limited to a 

 comparatively small proportion of our broad terri- 

 tory. But there is another source which spreads 

 disease over half the state, and which is entirely of 

 artificial tbrmation, and of which the evil effects 

 have been becoming more and more extensive, 

 and more and more virulent, from the early settle- 

 ments of the country to this time. This wide- 

 spread and generally operating source of disease 

 and death is furnished by the numerous mill- 

 ponds, of variable height of surface, which are 

 now scattered over the Whole face of eastern Vir- 

 ginia, and of which every individual case adds 

 something to the general and enormous amount 

 of injury to healih and to life. 



The law of Virginia in regard to the erection 

 of mill-ponds, with perhaps the exception of the 

 fence-law, is one of the most stupid, and most re- 

 gardless both of private rights and general inter- 

 terests, of all in our code { and it is far more ob- 

 jectionable than the former, inasmuch as while 

 the one merely robs private and destroys public 

 wealth to an enormous amount, the mill-law per- 

 mits and encourages also the destruction of health 

 and of life throughout the whole land. It is true, 

 unfortunately, that this opinion is not entertained 

 by but lew persons: and that even with those 

 who admit that all such mill-ponds are injurious 

 to some extent, their estimate of the amount of 

 evil is much below mine. It is my object, to 

 awaken the community to a sense of the enormi- 

 ty of the evil, and thereby to induce the com- 

 mencement of measures of remedy and preven- 

 tion. The universal acquiescence in this policy 

 of our country, and the almost universal iorno- 

 rance of the evils which it produces, requires strontr 

 language to enfijrce novel views in opposition to 



♦ See Farmers' Register, p. 107, and 129, Vol, I. and 

 p. 41, 42, Vol. V. 



long established opinions. JBut it is confidently be- 

 lieved that my denunciations will be justified by 

 reason and by facts, and by the magnitude of the 

 existing evils. 



There has long prevailed in Virginia a mania 

 for buildinfr water-mills, which was not restrained 

 by insufficient regidar supplies of water to fill the 

 ponds, nor by the insufficient prospect of business 

 and of profit, even if there were no failure of wa- 

 ter. In consequence, there have been not only 

 erected mills on every stream barely sufficient to 

 keep a common corn-mill in operation, but also 

 on as many others where the water-power was 

 either insufficient, or totally fiiiled, during the 

 driest season of every year. In the tide-water 

 region, the mills for grinding wheat-flour, or any 

 thinfj; else tor sale abroad, are limited to the falls 

 of the large rivers. All the others, (and probably 

 there is on average one for every square of five 

 miles,) are merely designed to grind for toll the 

 corn used for bread in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood; and, considered merely in regard to money- 

 cost and profit, it is most likely that half the mills 

 in the country do not get enough toll-corn to pay 

 lor more that the costs of maintenance and repairs 

 of their establishment. The more worthless the 

 mill, on account of the insufficient supply of wa- 

 ter, the more productive it necessarily is of mala- 

 ria, diseases, and death. It will be difficult for me 

 to make those who are unacquainted with our 

 country believe that hundreds of mills have been 

 built, and that most of them are still kept up, and 

 many more new ones will probably yet be added 

 to the number, which cannot yield any clear pro- 

 fit, above the entire cost, to the owners, indepen- 

 dent of cost in properly to the neighbors, and the 

 cost (whatever that may be) of health and life to 

 the country at large. Still the fact is notorious 

 throughout lower Viririnia, if it does not extend 

 through the hisrher midiile country. The only 

 reason that I can conceive for so many unprofita- 

 ble investments of this kind, is, that many resi- 

 dents of the country build mills, as many others 

 raise race-horses, more for amusement and ex- 

 citement, and to vary the monotony of their 

 lives, than for profit. But this propensity of indi- 

 viduals could not have done much mischief to the 

 country at large, but lor the encouragement ofier- 

 ed by the government. According to the law, 

 and the long-established usage under the law, 

 any man who desires to erect a mill, and for which 

 it is necessary to pond the water on some of his 

 neighbors' land, has nothing to do but to apply 

 for an order of' the county-court, by which the 

 sheriff summons a jury to meet on the spot, to 

 judge ofj and assess the damages that will be sus- 

 tained by the owners of the lands designed to be 

 covered by the pond. The jury is generally com- 

 posed principally of men as ignorant and unfit for 

 such investigations and estimates as the neighbor- 

 hood can furnish — and they decide by guess as to 

 how much land will be covered, and what damage 

 will be sustained in the loss of the use of the 

 land. There is no question entertained as to 

 whether a mill is at all required by the demand 

 of the neighbors for meal; and if the question of 

 the effect on health is even named, it is addressed 

 lo a body entirely unacquainted with, and regard- 

 less of the whole subject. In fact the question as 

 to health has rarely been considered in any such 

 cases 3 and never duly considered. If the land 



