1838J 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



227 



The three first-named roeans of remedy would 

 eacli re(iuire ihc action of the legislature, to ena- 

 ble them to Lie used to any exteni. 



The necessity lor a general plan being author- 

 ized by law ibr inducing and conipcliing combined 

 operations to drain swamps on long and sluggisli 

 streams, though merely Ibr agricultural improve- 

 ment and prolit, is already evident to most intelli- 

 gent hirmers; and perhaps nothing is now want- 

 ing to procure such legislation, but the proper ex- 

 ertion ofsome of the individuals who are most in- 

 terested on the subject.* 



The giving iree vent to land-floods, also, by 

 wide and straight canals, and preventing them, 

 by dikes, ll'om overflowing the salt-marshes, 

 though a kind of work requiring public money, as 

 well as legal authority, still may be hoped for, 

 when the necessity of the measure shall have been 

 made evident. 



But tiiere is no such prospect of success as to 

 the most important reform needed, in the putting 

 down of all fever- breeding mill-ponds ; and he 

 who will venture to advocate this general mea- 

 sure, will be regarded by most of those whom he 

 aims to serve, as more an enemy than friend to 

 their interests, and more deservnig to be treated 

 as a lunatic, than to be respected as a judicious 

 advocate lor valuable public improvements. It is 

 not in the vain hope of now enforcing ray views 

 by extended argument, but to offer explanations, 

 and thereby prevent misconstruction, on some par- 

 ticular points, that some further remarks will now 

 be ofl'ered. 



Even if the public mind had been prepared for 

 a fiill legal relbrmation of the police of mill-ponds, 

 and for the laying dry all such as are nuisances to 

 health, there would be no accompanying necessi- 

 ty for injuring the private interests of mill-owners, 

 nor of causing material loss or inconvenience to 

 the customers of the mills. In the first place, in 

 justice to the vested rights of the millers, (how- 

 ever unjust to others, and injurious to the public 

 may have been the original creation of their rights.) 

 1 would advocate full compensation being made 

 for every sacrifice of value in their ponds, which 

 should be required and compelled for the general 

 benefit. But not more than full compensation for 

 all value thus destroyed should be granted ; and 

 many of the ftjver-breeding ponds have really no 

 pecuniary value to their owners or to the public ; 

 and most others may, to greater advantage, be 

 supplied with water by canals, instead of by ponds. 

 Even if one-third of all the mills should be thus 

 put down entirely, these would be such as now 

 always fail in dry seasons; and the more perma- 

 nent and regular supplies of water, which all the 

 remaining mills would receive from the canals 

 substituted for ponds, would render them able to 

 furnish the whole country with meal, with regu- 

 larity, certainty, and in abundance, and therefore 

 more suitably and conveniently to the consumers, 

 than all the mills, good and bad, now in opera- 

 tion. By an important innovation in the law in 

 regard to mills, (enacted March 2d, 1826,) every 

 owner of a mill is authorized to cut a canal through 

 the lands of other persons, if required by the nature 

 of the locality, so as to substitute the pond by a ca- 

 nal. Before this amendment of the old law. no 

 mill-owner could effect any such improvement, 



* ^ee Far. Reg vol. I., pp. 232, 3S6, 518, 783, 731. 



unless in the rare case of his own land extending 

 under the whole course of the desn-ed canal. The 

 privileges ollcred [)y this new provision have alrea- 

 dy been availed of in many cases, in Charlotte, 

 and the neighboring counties, and to great advan- 

 tage in regard to health as well as to increased 

 power to the mills, and great value gained in the 

 rich drained bottoms of the ponds being put under 

 cultivation. Slow as such lessons are usually 

 learned, and slow as new agricultural improve- 

 ments are brought into extended use, this highly 

 beneficial and profitable improvement, cannot fiiil 

 to be adopted generally in the course of time.* 

 The main obstacle to the early and general substi- 

 tution of canals for ponds, wherever the change 

 is practicable, is the absurd legal distribution'of 

 rights in tlie mill-ponds and the land which they 

 cover, as stated on a |ireceding page (223) ; one 

 person being ve.sted with the perpetual right to 

 keep the land overflowed and worthless, while 

 others have the right of property in that land, to 

 be exercised only in the never-expected event of 

 the owner of the pond drawing it off and drain- 

 ing the rich bottom; and that for the gain of others, 

 more than himself. Now 1 would get rid of this 

 absurd conflict of rights, by vesting the full proper- 

 ty in the land covered, in every mill-owner who 

 would draw oft' the pond ; or if he did not avail of 

 the privilege offered, the land should be given up 

 to its former owners, or to any one else, who 

 would construct a canal, and thereby secure to the 

 use of the mill an equally good supply of water- 

 power. 



Each of the several remedies proposed and sta- 

 ted above, would alone furnish a fruitful subject 

 lor investigation and discussion. But more ex- 

 tended remark from this source, is as yet uncalled 

 Ibr. Other persons, having better practical infor- 

 mation, and thereby prepared to confirm or to dis- 

 prove the positions here assumed, are invited to 

 aid in the discussion. Let the truth be made 

 known, on whichever side it may be found ; and 

 should all facts and deductions presented serve to 

 show that the present system greatly needs re- 

 formation, and to awaken the public to the import- 

 ance of the object, then will be the suitable and 

 propitious time to ask attention to remedies pro- 

 posed tor the then acknowledged evils, inflicted 

 by the action or permission of the government. 

 Whenever the legislature is prepared to act deci- 

 sively on this whole question, there will be before 

 them a subject fbr the internal improvement of 

 of Virginia, far more important in beneficial re- 

 sults, than the roads and canals which have cost 

 millions of dollars to the treasury ; and yet which 

 will be cheaper, compared to the profit to be cer- 

 tainly counted on, than the most humble or con- 

 temptible job yet carried through by public expen- 

 diture and as a putdic improvement. 



But according to the existing law, any single 

 individual whoclearly sustains injury to health from 

 any particular mill-pond, has even now the legal 

 power to have that particular nuisance abated, by 

 means of suit fbr damages fbr the injury thereby 

 sustained. It has been judicially settled, that 

 such ground of suit Ibr damages is not prevented 

 by any previous assessment by the first jury, nor 

 by any lapse of time during which the mill has 



* See facts and statements on this subject at p. 231, 

 vol. v., pp. 1 to 3.; p. 579, vol, II.; p. 374, vol. IV. 



