298 CALCAREOUS MANURES- A PPENDIX. 



of embankments of tide-marshes are to be found in previous 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 her rights ; and 

 the hopes of the improver, 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 

 territory. But there is another source which spreads disease over half the 

 state, and which is entirely of artificial formation, and of which the evil ef- 

 fects have been becoming more and more extensive, and more and more 

 virulent, from the early settlements 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 scat- 

 tered over the whole face of eastern Virginia, and of which every indivi- 

 dual case adds something to the general and enormous amount of injury to 

 health 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 regard- 

 less both of private rights and general interests, of all in our code ; and it is 

 far more objectionable than the former, inasmuch as while the one merely 

 robs individuals and destroys public wealth to an enormous amount, the 

 mill-law permits 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 many 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 com- 

 munity to a sense of the enormity of the evil, and thereby to induce the 

 commencement of measures of remedy and prevention. The universal ac- 

 quiescence in this policy of our country, and the almost universal ignorance 

 of the evils which it produces, requires strong language to enforce novel 

 views in opposition to long established opinions. But 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 building water-mills, 

 which was not restrained by insufficient regular supplies of water to fill the 

 ponds, nor by the insufficient prospect of business and of profit, even if 

 there were no failure of water. 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 failed, during the driest season of every year. In the 

 tide-water region, the mills for grinding wheat-flour, or any thing else for 

 sale abroad, are limited to the falls of the rivers. All the others, (and 

 probably there is on an average one for every square of five miles,) are 

 merely designed to grind for toll the corn used for bread in the immediate 

 neighborhood ; 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 for more than the costs of maintenance and repairs of their 

 establishment. The more worthless the mill, on account of the insufficient 

 supply of water, the more productive it necessarily is of malaria, diseases, 

 and death. It will be difficult for me to make those who are unacquainted 



• See Farmers' Register, p. 107, and 129, vol. i., and p. 41, 42, vol, v. 



