124 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



We find, at the northern end of the North Union 

 Railway, the Preston and JVyre Railwa}', for 

 which an Act of Parliament was obtained last 

 year. It is connected with a proposed extenaion 

 of the Harbour of VVyre, at the southern side of 

 Lancaster Bay, where, it is hoped, a port of some 

 consequence may s[)ring up: the distance maybe 

 about five miles. This short link completes the 

 communication between our northern and southern 

 waters — a lentjth of nearly 800 miles, the expen- 

 difure on which will exceed six millions sterling. 



Returnino; to London, we discover, at the toot of 

 London Bridge, the commencement of the Lon- 

 don and Greenwich Railway; a singular work, con- 

 ducted, throughout its whole length of 3;^ miles, 

 on a succession of irregular arches, the ground be- 

 low being already appropriated. The number of 

 these arches will be from 900 to 1,000. averaging 

 22 it;et in height from the ground; the longest 

 structure of the kind, we believe, in the king- 

 dom. The estimate is 400,000/.; the works were 

 begun in 1834, and are now far advanced. 



From Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. 

 A TREE DAHLIA. 



In the beginning of August, 1835, I went to 

 Liverpool. At the old botanic garden there I saw 

 an arborescent dahlia growing : it is a cutting, re- 

 sembling a middle-sized trunk, or small stem, of 

 an elder birch, as thick as one's leg, and fully as 

 woody as the elder. The plant is said to grow 

 forty Itjet high in Mexico. It was throwing out 

 leaves very like those of our herbaceous species. 



From tlie Londovi Mcclianics' Magazine. 

 SUGAR FROM INDIAN CORN. 



M. Pallas lately presented to the Academie des 

 Sciences of Paris a sample of this substance, ex- 

 tracted from the stem of the plant, which has been 

 found to contain nearly 6 per cent, of sirop boiled 

 to 40 degrees, a part of which will not crystallize 

 before fructification; but it condenses and acquires 

 more consistency fi-om that period to the state of 

 complete maturity. The most favorable time to 

 obtain the greatest quantity of sugar, is immedi- 

 ately after the maturity and gathering of the fruit. 

 The matter left after the extraction of the sugar, is 

 capital to feed cattle, or to make packing paper. 



From Burnett's Botany. 

 NATURAL HISTORY OF RICE. 



The rice, (oryza sativa,) if estimated by the 

 proportion of food it contributes to the sustenance 

 of man, is the most valuable of all the grasses, 

 and perhaps the most useful vegetable grown; as 

 the unnumbered millions of the east are supported 

 almost wholly on this corn, for the growth oi' which 

 the extensive swamps of those hot countries, and 

 their unrivalled means of irrigation, are so pecu- 

 harly adapted. Rice is the staple corn of the 

 tropics, as the oat is of the northern, and wheat of 

 the temperate regions. The culture of rice is an 

 exceedingly unhealthy occupation; for the fi-equent 

 flooding of the fields keeps them constantly in a 

 ewampy state, and favours the production of ma- 

 laria. Rice has been raised in England on the 



banks of the Thames, a crop having been once 

 tried and gathered in near Windsor. In Italy it 

 is cultivated with success: but artificial irrigation 

 has been carried there to a higher degree of per- 

 fection than in any other part of Europe. Still it 

 shrinks into insignificance if compared to the gigan- 

 tic labors of the east, as will appear from tlie fol- 

 lowing account. 



Between the fort of Nundydroog and the rising 

 ground on which we stopped to view the prospect, 

 tliere extended a valley some six or eight miles 

 across, the whole bottom of which was marked 

 with a succession of artificial tanks, used for irri- 

 gating myriads of rice fields lying below the level 

 of these reservoirs. 



The table-land of Mysore, which is several 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea, is not 

 strictly a flat plain, as the name would imply; nei- 

 ther is it mountainous, nor even very hilly: and yet 

 the surface is extremely uneven, being moulded 

 into gently sloping ridges, which form between 

 them a succession of long valleys slightly inclined, 

 broad and shallow, and winding about in all direc- 

 tions. Across almost every one of these vallej's, 

 the natives have thrown embankments, some of 

 them of very ancient date, though some of them 

 are even so recent as the dynasty of Hyder. 

 These walls, or bunds as they are called, are made 

 of considerable strength, and when they are small 

 generally curve upwards, so as to ofitr the convex 

 side to the pressure of the water; but if they be a 

 mile, or several miles in length, the embankments 

 assume a waving snake-like shape; I suppose 

 from some idea of strength. One valley was 

 pointed out to me about a mile broad and forty 

 miles long, from end to end; this included between 

 thirty and fortv tanks, some large and some small, 

 every square yard of the intermediate space be- 

 tween the bunds being richly cultivated, while the 

 surrounding country appeared to be condemned to 

 nearly perennial sterility. I believe that the whole 

 rice crop of Mysore is derived from irrii'ation. 



This vast supply of water is gained partly by 

 the method of the tanks just described, and partly 

 by tapping the Cauvery and other rivers by means 

 of subaqueous dams built, during the dry season, 

 diagonally across the bed of the stream. The 

 efTects of these dams is to direct a portion of the 

 river into lateral trenches, stretching far and wide 

 over the country. From these it is again drawn 

 off to water the rice fields. I remember hearing 

 a traveller describe the mode in which the great 

 river Indus is tapped or drawn ofi' in this manner, 

 to the right and left, for the purposes of agriculture, 

 until the unhappy stream is fiiirly exhausted, and 

 its channel left dry. One is so much accustomed 

 to consider the mighty mass of water, forming a 

 river of any magnitude, as something beyond the 

 power of man to control, that it requires good evi- 

 dence to satisfy our credulity on this point. But 

 if the Indus, in the districts alluded to, resemble 

 the Mississippi and many other streams flowing 

 over extensive alluvial countries, there need be no 

 difficulty in conceding such a transfer of the whole 

 of its waters, fr-om the ordinary bed of the stream 

 to the fields on either side; because rivers which 

 traverse deltas almost invariably flow along the 

 summits of ridges somewhat higher than the ad- 

 jacent country. These ridges, it is true, are so 

 wide and flat, that their elevation, at most places, 

 can scarcely be detected by the eye; but still the 



