Embanking of New Land. 



You begin with the front bank that must keep out the 

 outer or river-water. 



At the inner side of the plantation you take a strip of 80 or 

 90 feet broad over the whole length weeded, felled and cleared, 

 to lay upon it a bank 50 feet broad. In the middle of this 

 you dig over the whole length a trench, ditch, or gulley three 

 feet broad and of a proper depth; this is called the blinder- 

 trench. After this you must examine carefully whether there 

 are any stumps, blocks of wood, roots of old trees, etc. in the 

 blinder, which would endanger the embankment at any time, 

 and thus should be removed, either by chopping them away 

 or grubbing them out. Now you dig a ditch or canal 12 

 feet in breadth by five in depth, which canal must serve for 

 draining the bank and so furnish the necessary earth to raise 

 the bank and fill the blinder. The first stratum of earth to 

 the depth of one spade (12 inches) consists generally of spongy 

 ground mixed with grass roots, etc. and must be thrown away 

 as entirely worthless. 



The second stratum is good clayey earth that is dug up, 

 thrown into the blinder and well rammed down hard ; the third 

 stratum a spade deeper is treated in the same manner, and so you 

 proceed until the blinder is all rammed down hard and filled 



