206 



Open and Under Draining. 



Vol. XIL 



main open ditches. Several thousand acres 

 of prime meadow now in good condition, are 

 being grazed with fat cattle for the sham- 

 bles of Wilmington, Philadelphia and New 

 York. Besides which many dairies for milk, 

 butter, and cream for the ice-cream saloons 

 of Wilmington, Philadelphia and Baltimore. 

 These meadows when thus improved, sell 

 from 20 to $200 per acre, according to qua- 

 lity and facility for reaching market. For 

 grazing purposes they are particularly well 

 adapted. I was informed by John Ball, for- 

 merly an agent of Martin Dubbs, late of 

 Philadelphia, that they fed twenty-four bul- 

 locks on only twenty-five acres on the St. 

 George's meadows, near Port Penn, which 

 cattle cost §40 and sold for i^90 when fat, 

 netting near $50 clear profit to the acre. 

 The neatest and best arranged of these 

 marsh farms that I have seen for a long time, 

 was Long Island, owned and occupied then 

 by John Barney, late of Philadelphia. It 

 was then far more beautiful and profitably cul- 

 tivated than was ever that of Blannerhassett, 

 (situated as it is at the head of the broad and 

 beautiful bay of Delaware, where in the hot- 

 test day of summer a sea breeze can always 

 be enjoyed,) in the most palmy days of its 

 proprietor. There is much other marsh yet 

 in its wild state on Appoquinnimink, Black 

 Bird, and Duck Creeks, in Newcastle, as well 

 as on the creeks in the lower counties of 

 Kent and Sussex, that might be equally well 

 improved and profitably employed. The nu- 

 merous steamboats now plying on the bay 

 and inlets, add greatly to the advantages ot 

 marsh owners, as well as to the upland 

 owner, as a quick, safe and cheap mode of 

 conveying their several products to mar 

 ket. 



In Kent and Sussex, besides some well 

 improved river marsh meadows on the creeks 

 leading up from the river, the western bor- 

 der of the State has much flat land, that has 

 been brought into profitable cultivation by 

 open ditches of great extent. This drain- 

 ing both in the interior and on the Delaware 

 front of the State, is done by chartered com 

 panies. In one of these, — (the Marsh Hope, 

 or Tappahanock, I am not sure which, com- 

 panies;) — the ditch is near twenty miles 

 long, varying in width from six to twenty 

 four feet, and from two feet at the upper part 

 to sufficient depth to vent the water. These 

 lands when once well drained, are equal in 

 fertility with the lands of the great Ameri- 

 can bottom of Illinois, the Eldorado of the 

 West, and are as well adapted to the growth 

 of corn, rye, grass, &c. I was shown a field 

 near the village of Vernon, a few weeks 

 since, which my informant, Mr. Thorp, told 



me had been in corn for more than twenty 

 years in succession without being manured, 

 and was then supposed by some to yield fifty 

 bushels of corn to the acre. His Excellency 

 Gov. Thorp informed me, that he had ga- 

 thered ninety-six bushels of corn from an 

 acre of his meadows, which is pretty much 

 the same quality as many of those reclaimed 

 flat lands. The draining of these lands adds 

 much to the beauty and health of the coun- 

 try and neighbourhood in which they lay, as 

 well as to their wealth. Within a few years, 

 many farmers of Newcastle county, have 

 greatly beautified and increased the value 

 of their lands, by under-draining. Amongst 

 the most prominent that have come under my 

 observation and notice, are Arley Lore of Ap- 

 poquinnimink, W. J. Hurlock, Major Rey- 

 bold. Dr. C. Noble, D. Veasey, J. L. Clay- 

 ton, John Gregg and Bryan Jackson. Be- 

 sides these, many others of whom I have no 

 knowledge, have also availed themselves of 

 this mode of improving their wet lands. 



The most extensive and perfect experi- 

 ment that has come under my notice, and to 

 which I wish to call your attention particu- 

 larly, is that of Bryan Jackson, who has some 

 4 or 5000 feet of perfect miry unsightly bog 

 beautifully reclaimed. The process which 

 he adopted was first to open a main and open 

 ditch through or near the centre of the low 

 lands, designed to be reclaimed, some four or • 

 six feet wide, and two to three feet deep, or 

 of sufficient width and depth to carry off all 

 rain and other surplus water. Into which 

 open or main drain all his under-drains lead. 

 The covered drains are started at the lowest 

 part of the land designed to be drained by 

 this process, at the main ditch, running per- 

 pendicular thereto, and extending as far into 

 the fast land as to head off' the springs; then 

 following up the fast land in a general di- 

 rection, parellel with the main open drain, 

 taking care to head all springs carrying the 

 bottom of the main covered land drain to a 

 depth as nearly level with the bottom, of the 

 main open drain, as to give a gradual descent 

 — the slower the better so as to lead off all 

 spring water. To lead off the water from the 

 main covered or land drain, he has cut cross 

 drains, from it to the open main drain, in a 

 direction somewhat down stream, and at dis- 

 tances from each other sufficiently to com- 

 pletely drain the land. Some parts of the main 

 covered drain on either side of the cripple, was 

 cut full five feet deep. The drains were form- 

 ed as far as I saw them, by three boards, one 

 of which was laid flat on the bottom ; the 

 other two, after being cut so as to fit, are 

 placed on their edges and brought together 

 at the top, forming a triangular drain. The 



