18381 



F A K M K R S ' REGISTER. 



223 



that will be covered by a pond, thouwli very rich, 

 i« then in the state of swnnip, and totally unpro- 

 ductive, guch an uninforniod Jury, as tiie case, is 

 usually submitted to, will be very ready to decide 

 that such land is worth nothini'; and if iS3 an 

 acre is ixivon as damaires, fur the land actnallv to 

 be covered by the pond, it will be deemed a libe- 

 ral allowance. The court will rarely refuse to 

 sustain the verdict of the jury. 



Thouijh the use of the land thus covered is for- 

 ever taken from the owner, or, lor as lonij as the 

 mill-owner may choose to keep up his pond, still 

 the risht of property is not changed. This small 

 reservation of ricrht, or leeble homage to justice, 

 serves as a still further injury to the community, 

 and is not of the least value to tliose to whom the 

 right is reserved. It would be (iu* better for all par- 

 ties, if, when land was thus condemned to be co- 

 vered by a mill-pond, that the damages assessed, 

 however low and pitiful compared to the dama- 

 ges actually sustained, should have been deemed 

 the purchase-money of the land, and the absolute 

 right of property vested in the mill -owner. If 

 this were the case now, there are many mill-ponds 

 in Virginia which would be forthwith laid dry, 

 even though the mills should necessarily go down; 

 because the land covered by the ponds is now 

 known to be worth more for cidtivation than the 

 mill is for toll. Hundreds of other mills, of great- 

 er profit and value, also, in that case, would be 

 better supplied with water by canals than by their 

 present ponds, by which their value as mills would 

 be increased, to the owners and to the public, and 

 the nuisances of the ponds be equally abated. But 

 as the law now stands, if a mill, which will not 

 bring in of net rent .$50 a year, covers by its pond 

 500 acres of rich land belonging to other persons, 

 the mill-owner has no interest whatever in drain- 

 ing the pond, because its drained bottom would be- 

 long to other persons. In any case approaching 

 to this, and in which there would be a gain to all 

 the individuals concerned, by draining the pond, 

 still it is not done, and the nuisance continues long 

 after it is well known to be such, because there is 

 a contest between the several owners of the pond 

 and of the land covered by it, in regard lo their 

 respective shares of profit to be gained by empty- 

 ing the pond. Many such cases still exist in V^ir- 

 ginia ; although many of the most unprofitable 

 ponds, from proper views of economy, have been 

 drained, and either substituted by cheaper and 

 more efficient canals, or the mills put down en- 

 tirely. An old mill-pond in Dinwiddle county, 

 which covered 1200 acres of land, has been drawn 

 off, and thereby an indifferent mill exchanged 

 lor a large fertile farm. This vvould not have 

 been done, even if the mill was worthless, but for 

 the ownership of the mill, and the land covered 

 by the pond, falling into the same hands. There 

 is a mill-pond now kept up in Prince George 

 county, which is supposed to cover nearly 400 

 acres of land ; and there are many others not 

 much smaller, on different branches of swamps in 

 lower Virginia. The larger the pond, in general, 

 the greater proportion of bottom is left dry in au- 

 tumn, and the more disease is therefore produced ; 

 and though the draining of such large ponds 

 would be so much the more an object of gain, 

 there is the less chance for its being done, because 

 of the separate ownerships and interes's. 



Almost all the mills throughout the lower part 



of Virginia, and also a large proportion of those 

 in the more hilly middle country, are worked by 

 streams which are inadequate to the daily supply 

 of the mill, and evaporation fi-om the pond, even 

 if the grindinir is not necessarily sus|)eiided or di- 

 minishe<l at any time. To guard against the tem- 

 |iorary liiilure in dry weather, the lldl "head" of 

 the pond, (or the level of water for which damages 

 were assessed, and to which the water may law- 

 fully be raised,) is much higher than the lowest 

 level that will work the mill. The land covered 

 is also usually very nearly level, so that to raise 

 the water 10 or 15 feet at the dam, will often back 

 the water fi'om one to two miles up the low- 

 n^rounds. If the variation between a lull head ol' 

 water, and the lowest level, be 5 feet perpendicu- 

 lar, it will often cause the uncovering of many 

 acres of the bottom of the pond to the hot sun, 

 and thereby furnish a most fruitful source of mala- 

 ria in every such case. Rich alluvial mud, as 

 this always is, thus exposed, in hot weather can- 

 not be otherwise than very injurious to health ; 

 and there is not a pond-mill in Virginia, with a 

 variable head, which has not more or less of the 

 pond every summer thus converted to a li-uilful 

 seed-bed and nursery of disease. 



Besides this, there is the not rare occurrence of 

 the pond being entirely drawn off in summer, by 

 the breaking of the dam, and suffered so to remain 

 tor weeks or months, before being again repair- 

 ed and filled. In this case, a double quantity of 

 bottom is exposed to putreliiction, and fitted lor 

 the discharge of unhealthy miasma. 



At all times, in ponds supplied by streams as 

 feeble as most of those used for mills in Virginia, 

 the water approaches to a stagnant state; and 

 therefore, of itself is a producer of malaria. In 

 dry seasons, when unusually low, the putridity of 

 the water ofsuch ponds is perceptible to the sense 

 of smell ; and it must be then far from harmless. 



Another, and in certain situations, the greatest 

 evil of mill-ponds, remains to be stated. The 

 others above-mentioned are the effects of the scar- 

 city of the supply of water ; this is from the ex- 

 cess, which is found in all streams, at some times, 

 even though the most deficient at others. 



To guard as much as possible against the ex- 

 pected scarcity of water, the mill-owner aims to 

 hold, when rains increase the usual supply, as 

 "lull a head" as he has a right to maintain. 

 When this supply is exceeded, as it frequently is, 

 and greatly, if the dam is not actually broken, and 

 the whole emptied, in one prodigious flood, at least 

 the flood-gates are opened widely, and a discharge 

 made ten-fold greater than would have occurred, 

 during equal lime, if the stream had not been ob- 

 structed by a dam, and had discharged as regular- 

 ly as the supply was increased. It will be evi- 

 dent, on considering these circumstances, that wa- 

 ter from a mill-pond, whether discharged by 

 flood-gates, or otherwise, must be far more varia- 

 ble in'height, and in extent of inundation on the 

 land below, than the natural stream, unobstructed 

 by art; and still more than the stream opened and 

 improved, and its course facilitated by art. An 

 ordinary natural stream, which might have a ve- 

 ry uniform discharge in dry weather, and would 

 rarely overflow its banks in wet, if dammed across 

 for a mill, would often have its bed, below the 

 dam, left almost dry; and at rare and irregular 

 times, would be converted to a tremendous flood. 



