1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



80? 



til the main drain A E C was passed through it. 

 Several attempts had been made to drain it by the 

 ditch s e, but on account of the depth of it, (about 

 six feet,) the little fall to the old channel, and the 

 back-water of the old channel in freshets, which 

 constantly tilled it up, &c, they proved ineffectual 

 till this main gat, if I may so call it, was passed 

 through this stomach of the low grounds, where 

 all the sand, mud, wood and water collected, and 

 cleared it of its foul contents. 



Eleventh — it should not be discarded from the 

 list of advantages that such a ditch, answers \ vr\ 

 well the purposes of a fence. My standing pas- 

 ture is in a good measure enclosed by the main 

 drain and margin ditch: nor should a plenty of 

 clear fresh water for the stock in it, furnished so 

 conveniently by the new channel, be thought un- 

 worthy of consideration. 



Twelfth — how advantageously such a system 

 of draining and reclaiming could be connected 

 with irrigation, is obvious from a single glance at 

 the figure. An inundation of the whole plat of 

 ground, bounded by the margin ditch and main 

 carrier, is completely practicable, with little labor 

 and expense. 



The particular advantages here enumerated, de- 

 rived to the plat of land exhibited in the figure, 

 when properly drained and reclaimed from the in- 

 jurious consequences of inundation, are not con- 

 lined: they are such as would result from a gener- 

 al adopt ion <of a similar method, and may be held 

 out as some inducement of a farther prosecution 

 of a branch of husbandry, of which little hitherto 

 has been done, and perhaps less known, than any 

 other operation of farming. The increasing scar- 

 city with many, of good land; the exhaustion of 

 the highlands; an acquisition of rich and produc- 

 tive land by draining and reclaiming; an exemp- 

 tion in a good degree from the pernicious effects 

 of droughts, so common in this country, by culti- 

 vating moist land; a connection of draining with 

 a well regulated system of irrigation; an improve- 

 ment of the country in point of health; a connec- 

 tion of draining with a system of enclosing; the 

 permanency of fences on water courses, secured 

 by straightening channels; and finally the abate- 

 ment of freshets, so universally destructive to 

 crops, and an abridgement of the time they would 

 remain upon the land, and the preclusion of a 

 great deal of anxiety to the farmer, are induce- 

 ments that ought to render this subject more gen- 

 erally popular. The obstacles to such underta- 

 kings, have been already mentioned in some pre- 

 vious numbers of the Farmers' Register.* To 

 these, some addition might be made of some of 

 those that have stood in the way of success, after 

 the work had been undertaken. 



First — these are an ignorance of some of the 

 most common properties of water, and the laws 

 which govern its motion. 



Secondly — want of judgement in executing the 

 work, is another obstacle, by producing ill success 

 and discouragement. This is manifested fre- 

 quently, (besides in various other ways) in taking 

 a stream out of a very crooked channel, along the 

 foot of the hill, and running it in one equally as 



'See communications On Draining, Nos. 7 and 12. 

 Vol. I. 



crooked, along the margin of the opposite hill, for 

 the sake of a lower place, and getting the land 

 more in a body. It is evident that nothing is gain- 

 ed in this instance by the diversion of the stream, 

 it being in a situation precisely similar to the one 

 in which it was at first, and the land still subject 

 to excess of water, on account of its width, for the 

 want of a main drain passing through the middle. 

 Sometimes an attempt is made to confine a stream 

 by a shallow ditch, in this situation, and a high 

 dyke, in a narrow passage, between the dyke and 

 the hill. The consequence of this is, the water 

 when a freshet occurs, on account of the narrow- 

 ness of the passage, the hydrostatic pressure of 

 ihe water (which is as we have already seen, as 

 powerful laterally, as in any other direction,) and 

 the crookedness of the channel, the water bursts 

 through the dyke, over the land, and makes a 

 joke of the vain and injudicious attempts of the 

 drainer to confine it. Besides, the water here 

 running nearly on the surface of the ground, (the. 

 hill and the dyke answering in the place of banks) 

 it makes all the land adjoining the dyke, too wet 

 lor cultivation; and the channel after awhile, on 

 account of the deficiency of "fall," will fill up with 

 mud, and render the stream still more liable to 

 overflow. Water is a dangerous element to trifle 

 with, where you run counter to all its laws and 

 properties — (as in this case,) but concur with 

 these, and it is easily managed. When the flood- 

 gates are hoisted, and the freshets are high, if you 

 then attempt to confine it in a shal!ow,levcl, crook- 

 ed, and confined channel, "it will laugh at your 

 calamity, and mock when your fear cometh," and 

 the desolation of your crop, like a whirlwind. 

 The ditch should be cut through the middle (if 

 practicable,) of the land, for the sake of the fall, 

 straightness of the channel, its depth, and higher 

 banks, and to act as a main drain. 



Thirdly — meeting with rock, is another obstruc- 

 tion; on the account of which, numberless under- 

 takings have been abandoned, alter much labor 

 and expense. To avoid these, (which are apt to 

 be met with, in hills and rising ground in the flat 

 land) the stream should not be conducted too 

 much out of its general straight course, which is 

 the case when it is taken through ground much 

 higher than the bed of the old channel, or is cut 

 into the hill-side, when it meets with knolls, or 

 little plats of rising ground. As they are gener- 

 ally of short extent, the new channel should not 

 be curved to avoid them. In the ditch under con- 

 sideration, mentioned above, there were several 

 places of this description; but as they were small, 

 and the rocks were detached, they offered no ob- 

 struction, except in one place, where the canal ap- 

 proached very near the foot of the hill, at the pond 

 S, where the rocks which projected out of the hill, 

 (which formed one bank of the ditch there) and 

 run partly across the bed, were a little stratified; 

 but they were easily removed, and the current has 

 a sufficient passage. 



Fourthly — the fear of losing too much land by 

 the washing and caving of the ditch, is with ma- 

 ny, an obstacle to ditching on a large scale. But 

 it must be recollected that where we lose land in 

 one place, it is counterbalanced by gaining it in 

 another; for every foot washed away by the new 

 channel, one is added on to the old, by the depo- 

 sitions of freshets, besides enabling you to till 

 nearer the water, and the general acquisition of 



