1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



473 



For the New England Farmer, 

 DRAINAGE. 

 My Dear Brown : — In the publication of my 

 book on Farm Drainage, the chapter which I 

 send you was omitted, to make room for mat- 

 ters which were deemed essential. Still, I think 

 it will interest our readers, and have some ten- 

 dency to direct attention to the all-important 

 subject of Health, which, says Isaac Walton, is 

 the blessing next in value to a quiet conscience. 

 Henry F. French. 



INFLUENCE OF DRAINAGE ON HEALTH. 



Swampy Districts unheaUhful — Sixty millions of Acres of Swamp 

 given away by the United States Government — Clearing 

 Land of Timber maizes it dryer — Fevers anl Agues leave 

 where Land is Drained — Mr. Colman's Opinion — Facts — 

 Birkenhead Parli — Opinions of Distinguished Men — Health of 

 Stock improved by Drainage. 



Although the general proposition that drain- 

 age promotes the healthfulness of a country or 

 district will be readily admitted, yet it is believed 

 that this idea does not, by any means, make its 

 due impression upon the community. It is pro- 

 posed, therefore, briefly to consider the subject 

 in its relations to the health both of man and of 

 the domestic animals, and to cite such authori- 

 ties that a way-faring man, though not quite 

 wise or learned, shall not, if he reads the chap- 

 ter, fail to see something of its force and impor- 

 tance. 



It can hardly be expected that private individ- 

 uals, owners of small tracts of land, will embark 

 in schemes of drainage for the improvement of 

 the climate merely, or that the limited operations 

 of individuals on their own land can be pointed 

 to as evidence that drainage promotes healthful- 

 ness. 



There are, however, certain propositions gen- 

 erally received as truth. Wet, swampy districts 

 of country are usually afflicted with agues and 

 fevers, and other forms of disease, from which 

 dry regions are exempt. 



In accordance with this idea, and with a view 

 to promote the healthfulness of the country, the 

 United States government, by Acts of 1849 and 

 Sept., 1856, granted the swamp and overflowed 

 lands of the government, as a gift to the States 

 in which they lie, and it is officially estimated 

 that when these grants shall be entirely adjust- 

 ed, they will amount to sixty viillions of acres. 



Lands covered with timber are far more damp 

 than cleared lands. 



It is a well established fact that mill streams 

 and rivers have grown perceptibly less through- 

 out New England, since the wood has been cut 

 away. Streams, which formerly were sufficient 

 to drive certain mills, have failed, probably 

 through the increased evaporation, so as to have 

 become entirely inadequate to the purpose. 



Fevers and agues seem to leave an old State, 



and to pursue the pioneers into new settlements. 

 Indeed, it is not, perhaps, assuming too much to 

 say, that generally in proportion as, by the cut- 

 ting away of timber, or by other changes, such 

 as the clearing up of swamps, the climate of a 

 country or district is rendered more free of 

 dampness by evaporation, in the same propor- 

 tion its healthfulness is increased. 



Mr. Colman, of Massachusetts, a careful ob- 

 server, both at home and abroad, of the efi'ects 

 of drainage, says, 



"There are considerations connected with the 

 subject, which are not to be measured by a pecu- 

 niary standard, but whose importance cannot be 

 over-estimated. I mean, for example, such as 

 refer to the health of the country. The fogs and 

 dampness arising from wet and undrained lands, 

 are a prolific source of ill health and sickness. 



"Tracts of land which are liable to fevers and 

 agues and consumptions, by a complete drainage 

 have become salubrious, and are now upon aii 

 average standard of longevity with other parts 

 of the country." 



An English Board of Sanitary Commissioners 

 states the matter as follows : 



"1. Excess of moisture, even on lands not ev- 

 idently wet, is a cause of fogs and damps. 



"2. Dampness serves as the medium of con- 

 veyance for any decomposing matter that may 

 be evolved, and adds to the injurious effects of 

 such matter in the air ; — in other words, the ex- 

 cess of moisture may be said to increase or ag- 

 gravate atmospheric impurity. 



"The evaporation of the surplus moisture low- 

 ers temperature, produces chills, and creates or 

 aggravates the sudden and injurious changes or 

 fluctuations of temperature, by which health is 

 injured." 



"Where there is a large accumulation of sur- 

 plus moisture, having animal or vegetable mat- 

 ter in suspension or solution, the injury to the 

 public health is so direct and considerable as to 

 amount to a nuisance requiring authoritative in- 

 tervention. The evils thus arising, which are 

 found in the greatest intensity in low-lying town 

 districts, in valleys near rivers, or on sites below 

 high water mark, have been exemplified in the 

 General Sanitary Report, and also in the Second 

 Report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Commis- 

 sioners. The inhabitants of drier districts are 

 often afflicted with marsh diseases from the ill- 

 drained lowlands ; thus, after the prevalence of 

 easterly winds over the Essex and Kent marshes, 

 cases of marsh fever and ague are found scat- 

 tered throughout the whole extent of the me- 

 tropolis." 



In the same report, under the head of "The 

 Drainage of Parks and Suburban Lands," we 

 find a notice of the drainage of the park near 

 Liverpool, which, in 1857,when seen by the writer, 

 presented the appearance of dry and healthful 

 pleasure-grounds. This account should instruct 

 Americans, because the Park at Birkenhead is 

 one of the first beautiful landscapes that meets 



