726 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



the central and great body of water is from 8 to 

 14 feet in depth. The heiiriit of the surface is re- 

 duced from 1 to 3 leet by the summor drought ; 

 and the greatest reduction known, below iiigh wa- 

 ter, was 4 feet perpendicular. 



No. 5. 

 The general plan of drainage, os executed. 



Somerset Place, Nov. 23. 



About 1770, Josiah Collins, the oldest of that 

 name, together with two other persons formed a 

 copartnership under the name of the "Lake Com- 

 pany." They took up nearly all the surrounding 

 ewamp land, by laying their own patents, or buy- 

 ing the small patents of other persons, in cases 

 where the land had been previously thus appro- 

 priated. The only tract which is not embraced 

 in this extensive property, (which was more than 

 80,000 acres,) is the farm of Mr. Ebenezer Petti- 

 grew, lying on the lake next to Somerset Place. 

 The interest of the two other members of the co- 

 partnership was afterwards bought out by the elder 

 Collins (the grandfather of the present occupant,) 

 and the property has been divided among his de- 

 scendants. Somerset Place, the individual and dis- 

 tinct property of Josiah Collins esq. is 3000 acres, 

 extendinn; from the lake on both sides of the great 

 canal into the lower and still wild swamp land in 

 the rear. A small part only of this has been im- 

 proved ; and the actual drainage and cultivation 

 extends on the lake side over several hundred acres 

 of the share of another member of his lamily. 

 But the whole tillage and management is as one 

 farm, and by Mr. Collins ; and therefore it is not 

 of his separate property, but of the cultivated land 

 that will be spoken of as his farm. This expla- 

 nation is perhaps uncalled for; but it is made to 

 avoid even the appearance of mistake or erroneous 

 Btatement on this head. 



The great work of draining on this and the ad- 

 joining and similarly situated estate (Mr. Petti- 

 grew's,) and the great value thereby created, are 

 matters of general notoriety ; and long since 1 had 

 heard of the work through verbal report, and, as 

 I now find, very incorrect report. It had been 

 supposed by me, from such accounts, that the object 

 and effect of the great canal was to lower the le- 

 vel of the water of the lake very considerably, and 

 thus to leave higher the swamp land around. 

 This is indeed the general plan proposed by the 

 report of the former ensjineer of the stale, Mr. 

 Shaw, for draining the public swamp lands around 

 other lakes, and which plan, it is said, is now in 

 the course of execution, by digginsj a canal to 

 draw off the waters of Lake Pungo.' This sup- 

 position was entirely wrong Whatever miijhi 

 have been the opinions anil secondary objects of 

 the first proprietors, (the Lake Company,) the 

 great and primary purposes of their main canal, 

 (as are its main effects,) were, first, to provide a 

 good navigable outlet from the lands designed to 

 be drained, without which the future products 

 would be valueless, because they could not possi- 

 bly be sent to market ; secondly, to bring into ex- 

 tensive use, for propelling machinery, a water 

 power of any desirable amount : and thirdly, that 

 the qanal should serve as the final and general 



receiver of all the water collected by the numerous 

 smaller drains, which are made to draw from every 

 acre of the estate. But it is obvious that this last 

 important and indispensable o|)eration, of being 

 the general receiver of the drained water, could 

 not have been eliecled, except by the surface of 

 the water in the great canal being lower than all 

 the swamp land to be drained on its borders, and 

 than all the smaller drains leading to the canal. 

 But to have the water of the canal thus lower, (as 

 it now is,) can only be done by commandinir, reg- 

 ulating, and limitino:, the, rate of supply from the 

 lakes. For if sufieied to flow unrestrained, though 

 the highest part of the canal is but 20 fiiet wide 

 and 4H3et deep, the flood which would [)ass through 

 would cover permanently and deeply nearly all the 

 area of swamp designed to be drained. The usual 

 height of the lake water has not been lowered but 

 very slightly by the vast and continual draught 

 made by the canal ; and the land-holders, so far 

 from desiring to lower it very considerably, would 

 wish by all means to avoid that result. Even if 

 drainage were the sole object, and to be attained 

 without regard to expense — and if, with that view, 

 the canal had been made twice as deep as this and 

 three times as wide — though such a channel might 

 have discharged ten times as much water, it would 

 have been insuflicient always to keep down the level 

 of the waters to the reduced and usual heiiiht ; and 

 it; by its actual operation, the canal had left free from 

 water, and dry enou<fh li^r tillage, a narrow border 

 of some of the liighest land, it would also, by 

 throwing an enoimous, variable, and therefore to- 

 tally uncontrollable flood, cover ten times as much 

 land lying on a lower level, but equally capable of 

 being drained by proper measures. 'I'he impro- 

 priety and danger and enormous expensiveness of 

 this mode of drainage will be evident to any un- 

 prejudiced and careful observer. 



It has been already stated that the central parts 

 of the great swamp region are the hifjhest parts ; 

 and much higher than the lands, whether swampy 

 or firm, that lie nearer to the outlets of the swamp 

 waters by streams and rivers. This and other 

 lakes are in the central parts of the great swamp, 

 and their waters are sometimes as high as the high- 

 est parts of the adjacent swamp. Sometimes in the 

 dryest seasons the level of the water of this lake 

 has been lowered 4 leet; but the usual height is ge- 

 nerally restored by the next rainy spell ; and some- 

 times with so much excess, that the overpouring 

 flood spreads over the outer swamp lands, several 

 feet deep, before it is discharged into the rivers. 

 Such are supposed to be the general liicts, as 

 merely interred however in part. But these I novv 

 leave, to state what I have examined in regard to 

 .>ir. Collins' drained lantl, of which the compara- 

 tive levels and other circumstances are known with 

 certainty. 



The water of the lake is now, (though not at 

 the highest mark,) as usually, except in dry sea- 

 sons, within a foot of the highest, and is overflow- 

 ing the lower parts of its natural brim, or margin ; 

 and would even now flovv over the highest pans of 

 the cultivated fields, but lor the low dike which 

 has been constructed along the lake side, and 

 which is One of the permanent roads. From this 

 more elevated margin of nearly two miles in 

 length, the surface ot" the land, (now all dry,) is 

 naturally an inclined plane, with a very uniform 

 rate of depression to the side of the estate most 



