CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 39] 



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 time, if the stream had not been obstructed by a dam, and had dis- 

 charged as regularly as the supply was increased. It \yill be evident, on 

 considering these circumstances, tliat water from a mill-pond, whether 

 discharged by flood-gntes, or otherwise, must be far more variable 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 im- 

 proved and its course facilitated by art. An ordinary natural stream, which 

 might have a very uniform discharge in dry weather, and would rarely over- 

 flow 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, which would sweep over hundreds of 

 acres more than the floods of the natural stream could have reached. 

 Besides the immense damage caused to cultivated land by these floods, (and 

 which kind of damage is rarely estimated or thought of by juries when 

 mills are established above,) there are numerous hollows made, and filled 

 with water, which, on the retreat of the flood, (as hasty as its inroad,) re- 

 main so many stagnant pools until made dry by evaporation. The whole 

 land, thus covered, is saturated with vi^ater ; and, from the nature of the rich 

 alluvial soil, is throughout, as it dries, made a producer of malaria. 



But the worst part of this evil, by far, is when these artificial floods of 

 fresh-waters pass over salt-marshes — which happens in all the country in 

 which the fresh and salt waters meet; and this combination of causes I con- 

 sider the most efficient producer of disease in that part of the country, and 

 the thing which ought most especially to be guarded against. According to 

 the views before presented, the passage of fresh water over salt-marshes, no 

 matter to what extent, is one of the most sure producers of malaria, and of 

 a particularly malignant kind. The mill-ponds, alone, form other and far 

 more extensive, if weaker sources of the poison ; and by the union of the 

 two, the mill-ponds exert all their usual bad influence above the dams, and 

 spread ten-fold more pestilential effects below, by inundating the wide salt- 

 marshes, which by natural streams would scarcely have been affected. 



On Nansemond river there are lands already rich, and having inexhausti- 

 ble supplies of the best marl, which have been sold at $10 the acre. There 

 are hundreds of estates in the same belt of country which cannot be sold 

 for as much as the cost and present value of the buildings. And this other- 

 wise fine countr}'', so accursed by disease, owes its condition principally to 

 the mill streams which flow into the salt tide-waters, and which are so nume- 

 rous, and their sources so interlocked, that there is no spot safe, by remote- 

 ness of position, from these combined effects of mill-ponds and salt-marshes. 

 It is therefore sufficiently evident why that otherwise finest part of the 

 state, for agricultural improvement and profit, should stand among the low- 

 est in both these respects. Yet this part of Virginia might be rendered both 

 healthful and fruitful, and the delightful region which God has permitted it to 

 be made, if man would accept and avail of his bounties by merely using 

 half the expense for improving which has been lavished to inflict pestilence 

 and poverty on the country. 



These statements and expressions of opinion will be unpalatable, if not 

 offensive; and perhaps may subject the writer to the charge of being will- 

 ing to injure the residents of the region for whose relief in this respect he 

 is most anxious, and of the facility and cheapness of obtaining relief, by the 

 use of proper means, he feels most confident. If the exposure and probing 

 of the ulcer be never so painful, let it be remembered that it is done solely 

 for the purpose of seeking for, and applying, a sure remedy. 



38 



