1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



159 



of the most valuable grass seeds. The mangers 

 and cribs should be daily cleaned out and fre- 

 quentlj' washed. "What is the use of being so 

 very particular ? I never washed my cattle's 

 manger," said Solomon Shiftless. Very well, 

 Solomon, your cows probably have as keen an ap- 

 petite for their fodder as you would have if your 

 wife gave you the same plate unwashed for a 

 month from which to take your meals. — Rural In- 

 telligencer. 



For the New England Farmer. 



IiEGISIiATIO]Sr--LA.lSrD DRAINAQB 

 COMPANIES. 



BY H. F. FRENCH, EXETER, N. H. 



Under this Act, (namely, the Rye and Derwent 

 Drainage Act,) it became necessary for the Com- 

 missioners to estimate the comparative cost of 

 steam and water power, in order to carry out 

 their idea of giving to the mill-owners a steam- 

 power equivalent to their water-power. 



"As the greater part of the water-power was 

 employed on corn and flour-mills, upon those the 

 calculations were chiefly based. It was generally 

 admitted to be very near the truth that to turn 

 a pair of flour-mill-stones properly, requires a 

 power equal to that of two and a half horses, or 

 on an average twenty horses' power to turn and 

 •work a mill of eight pairs of stones," and "that 

 the total cost of a twenty-horse steam-engine, 

 "with all its appliances, would be 1000^., or 50Z. 

 per horse-power." 



Calculations for the maintenance of the steam- 

 power are also given, but this depends so much 

 on local circumstances that English estimates 

 would be of little value. 



The arrangements in this case, with the mill- 

 owners, were made by contract and not by force 

 of any arbitrary power, and the success of the 

 enterprise, in the drainage of the lands, the pre- 

 vention of damage by floods especially in hay 

 and harvest time, and in the improvement of the 

 health of vegetation as well as of man and ani- 

 mals, is said to be strikingly manifest. 



This Act provides for a "water-bailiS"," whose 

 duty it is to inspect the rivers, streams, water- 

 courses, &c., and enforce the due maintenance of 

 the banks and the uninterrupted discharge of the 

 waters at all times. 



Compulsory Outfalls. — It often happens, espe- 

 cially in New England, where farms are small 

 and the country is broken, that an owner of val- 

 uable lands overcharged with water, perhaps a 

 swamp or low meadow, or perhaps a field of up- 

 land lying nearly level, desires to drain his tract, 

 but cannot find sufficient fall, without going upon 

 the land of owners below. These adjacent own- 

 ers may not appreciate the advantages of drain- 

 age, or their lands may not require it, or what 

 is not unusual, they may, from various motives. 



good and evil, refuse to allow their land to be 

 meddled with. 



Now, without desiring to be understood as 

 speaking judicially, we know of no authority of 

 law, by which a land-owner may enter upon the 

 territory of his neighbor for the purpose of drain- 

 ing his own land, and perhaps no such power 

 should ever be conferred. All owners upon 

 streams, great and small, have, however, the 

 right to the natural flow of the water both above 

 and below. Their neighbors below cannot ob- 

 struct a stream so as to flow back the water on 

 to or into the land above, and where artificial 

 water-courses, as ditches and drains, have long 

 been opened, the presumption would be that all 

 persons benefited by them have the right to have 

 them kept open. 



Parliament is held to be omnipotent, and in 

 the Act of 1847, known as Lord Lincoln's Act, 

 its power is well illustrated, as is also the deter- 

 mination of the British nation that no trifling 

 impediments shall hinder the progress of the 

 great work of draining lands for agriculture. 

 The Act, in efl'ect, authorizes any person inter- 

 ested in draining his lands, to clear a passage 

 through all obstructions, wherever it would be 

 worth the expense of works and compensation. 



Another provision of this Act authorizes pro- 

 prietors or occupiers of land, injured through 

 neglect of others, to maintain the banks, scour 

 and cleanse the channels of existing drains, 

 streams or water-courses, forming boundaries of 

 such lands, or leading to the outfall, to enter af- 

 ter one month's notice and neglect, and "execute 

 all necessary works for maintaining or repairing 

 such banks, or cleansing or scouring such chan- 

 nels." The Act also provides that the neglectful 

 neighbor shall contribute his share of the expense 

 of such repairs and labor. 



It should be observed that this provision only 

 applies to existing water-courses and ditches, and 

 not to the opening, or the widening or straight- 

 ening or deepening of new ones. Its remedies 

 are similar to those in most of the States for 

 neglect of adjacent owners to repair the division 

 fences. 



It is not the province of the author to decide 

 what may properly be done within the authority 

 of diff'erent States, in aid of public or private 

 drainage enterprises. The State Legislatures 

 are not, like Parliament, omnipotent. They are 

 limited by their written constitutions. Perhaps 

 no better criterion of power with respect to com- 

 pelling contribution by persons benefited, to the 

 cost of drainage, and of interfering with individ- 

 ual rights for public or private advantage, can 

 be found than the exercise of power in the cases 

 of fences and of flowage. 



If we may lawfully compel a person to fence 



