680 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



it is delivered to him. It will now be necessary to 

 lay (wo logs across and restinir upon the front and 

 in-ends of the sluice, with their ends bedded in the 

 solid ntarsh, so as to prev-ent the mud as it is pack- 

 ed on the sluice Irom slippint; out, and to prevent 

 muskrals and other vermin from burrowing; at or 

 near its sides. It will also be necessary to have 

 inch boards sawed to about six or eight fi^et in 

 length, to be pointed and sharpened in the same 

 manner as directed for the pilings. The laborer 

 standing sideways to the log, with his face to- 

 wards the sluice, must set the edge of the board 

 against the sluice and perpendicularly atrainst the 

 log with the cut off corner of the board next to 

 himself; two other men must have a two inch 

 plank in readiness, and while one of the ends rests 

 on the niud, the other is placed by the man at- 

 tending the piling, on the top of it, who are to 

 hold it steady while the two men walk on the 

 plank until they come over the piling, when, by 

 raising and sinking themselves, they force it down 

 with great liicility. This method is contmued un- 

 til these logs are piled from end to end. It must 

 now be obvious even to a person unacquainted 

 with such business, that if a sluice be laid and 

 secured in this manner, nothing can injure it. For 

 three feet under low water mark, it cannot be un- 

 mined, being, as it were, a tight board fence, and 

 lor more than half-tide up, an equally impenetra- 

 ble barrier against any kind of vermin. 



The duration of a sluice of good materials, and 

 well laid, may reasonably be computed at thirty 

 years. From my own observation, I am decided- 

 ly of opinion, that sluices should always be prefer- 

 red to flood gates. My objections to a flood gate 

 are, 1st. Because the cost is more than double 

 that of a sluice. 2d. A flood gate, on the average, 

 will not last more than from ten to twelve years ; 

 while a sluice will last Irom twenty to thirty years. 

 3d. A flood gate is irequenily out of repair; from 

 the construction of a sluice, it can seldom want 

 any thing done to it, and when necessary, it is 

 easily repaired. 4th. Should a muskrat work a 

 hole under the flood gates, and they blow out, 

 they are good for nothing. Should a sluice blow 

 out we have only to make a counter dam. and re- 

 lay it on the same bed, or dig another close to the 

 one on which it before rested, and there lay-it. 

 The sluice is just as good as before the blow out. 

 These are my reasons for giving the preftjrence to 

 the sluice. 



Description of a Sluice. 



A sluice is a trunk on an enlarged scale, for the 

 constructing of which the usual way among farm- 

 ers is to cut down a large tree, and by reducing its 

 sides to the thickness ol" irom ten to twelve inches, 

 it is hoisted up, and slit through by a whip-saw, 

 which forms the two side planks for the sluice, 

 each beini; about eighteen or twenty inches broad, 

 and in lensxth li-oin thirty-five to forty-five feet. 

 These planks are then set up the width intended 

 for the sluice, (usually about (bur feet,) and cover- 

 ed over with good two-inch plank, well rccured 

 with inch wooden pins. The door is made of two- 

 inch plank also, and hung within these side-planks 

 about six feet from the mouth. The method of 

 hanging the door is, by pinning two pieces of 

 scantling, three by five or six inches, to it ; and a 

 like piece upon the toj) of the sluice over the side 



plank, and through these four pieces of scantling 

 to bore a two-inch hole, through which is passed 

 a good wooden pin or iron boll, to hold the door 

 securely, and permit it to open and shut easily. 

 The advantage of hftiiging the door a little with- 

 in the sluice, is to prevent its being injured by the 

 ice, or by pieces of floaiing timber, and by ad- 

 mitting the discharge of the water more ti'eely 

 li-om it; for in leaving the sluice it glides away in 

 a smooth current ; wliereas, if the door was hung 

 at the moulh, the water would pitch down and 

 wear a deep hole immediately on its leaving the 

 mouth. If it should be thought necessary to have 

 a large sluice, say six, eight, or ten feet wide, the 

 division plank must be mcreased to the number of 

 intended funnels : thus, if there are to be three 

 funnels, then lliere must be two division planks, 

 and so on. 



Flood Gate. 



Tho flood gate is constructed of sills, ties, caps, 

 posts, and studs, all morticed and tenanted into 

 each olher, in the same manner as any ordinary 

 frame building, by having hs bottom planked tight, 

 and its sides boarded up, with its door or doors 

 hunir to the posts, in the same manner as a common 

 stable door. Now it must be obvious to any per- 

 son, that so much wood work, exposed to the al- 

 ternate operation of wet and dry, must, in a few 

 years, give way; while the sluice which has been 

 well laid, and is never dry, will, of course, resist 

 the effects of decay for very many years. 



Creeks and Dams. 



It sometime=! hanpens in large tracts of marsh 

 about to be reclaimed, thattb.ere are creeks of con- 

 siderable width and depth, with a strong tide sel- 

 ling throuirh them, and although the sluices may 

 have been laid, and the bank compleied, and that 

 TOO at a very considerable expense ; yet, until they 

 be safely dammed out, nothinir can be said to have 

 been done effectually. No business in the whole 

 circle of agricultural science, appears to me to be 

 of more importance, than a knowledge of the 

 mode of constructing a perfect dam of magnitude 

 upon a mud bottom, over a deep and rapid creek 

 ol tide water. The method wbich 1 have finind 

 to be the best, I will take the liberty ol' recom- 

 mending to others. In the first |)lace, I proceed 

 with a hand or two in a boat at low tide, and care- 

 tlilly measure, and note down the depth of water 

 at every eiuht or ten feet, until I have ascertained 

 the exact depth ti-oin shore to shore, as well as the 

 distance across. Then all necessary timber is 

 provided, and worked so as to suit the different 

 purposes for which it is designed ; all such posia 

 and other timber as may be wanted lor a day's work 

 are put on board of a lariie scow, or olher vessel 

 capable of the service. Having proceeded to the 

 site intended fbr the dam, stakes are to be set up 

 on both sides of the creek, the tops of which must 

 be at least wo feet above the intended summit of 

 the bank when finished. With sheer-poles and 

 tackle, we proceed to set down a post by lowering 

 it into the mud, and then forcing it down to its 

 proper depth, either by a man hoy, as it is caded 

 (being a large block of' wood,) worked by hand by 

 the men ; or if that be not convenient, by having 

 a large log chained with one end to the top of the 



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