No. 11. 



Irrigation , — Drainage. 



343 



Irrigatioii,--Brainage. 



Editors of Farmers' Cabinet, — As you 

 were pleased to give room in your April 

 number, to a short article on Irrigation, I 

 have inferred that you judge the matter of 

 sufficient importance to claim the attention 

 of your readers. Perhaps they, like myself, 

 may be willing to look a little further into 

 it, and the kindred subject of drainage. I 

 have accordingly gleaned some extracts from 

 the January number of the Westminster Re- 

 view, which, with the accompanying remarks, 

 I offer for your columns. 



We are aware that the draining of vast 

 bodies of lands in Great Britain, is fre- 

 quently a matter of so much importance, as 

 to become one of Parliamentary interfer- 

 ence. The powers of the steam engine are 

 there called in, and the multiplication of 

 under drains with tiles, is often submitted 

 to, for the purpose of draining their wet 

 lands, at an expense per acre, that would 

 frighten the American agriculturist. Yet 

 in many of these instances, we find the en- 

 terprising undertakers declaring, that the 

 results have afforded most profitable invest- 

 ments for capital. Not only is private in- 

 terest to he regarded in justification of the 

 expense, but we should keep in view the 

 fact, that " every step towards improvement, 

 is an advance m reduction of the existing 

 burdens" of the people at large. Agricul- 

 tural writers in England, are quite of the 

 opinion, that while the population of that 

 country is increasing 14 or 16 per cent. 

 every ten years, the growth of wheat — the 

 most important of her crops — 'may readily 

 be increased in a still greater ratio, by a 

 general system of drainage, and the neces- 

 sary attention to irrigation. Indeed, by pass- 

 ing the rich sediments of their streams over 

 their fields, fertility may be increased be- 

 yond any thing it is easy to calculate. We 

 speak more particularly of the results of 

 these measures in Great Britain, because it 

 is an English article on these subjects, that 

 we set out with noticing : we are, however, 

 inclined to believe, that the enterprizmrr 

 American farmer, may learn much to aid 

 him in bringing into profitable use, many of 

 his now worthless acres. Lord Stanley- 

 stated at Liverpool, in 1841, "that there 

 was no bank in the whole country — no com- 

 mercial speculation — no investment so safe, 

 so sure, so profitable, as that in which even 

 borrowed capital may be engaged, by invest- 

 ing it under the ground of your own soil." 

 To carry out a complete measure of under 

 drainage for the whole of the wet lands of j 

 Great Britain, different estimates have been 

 made of the capital that would be required,} 



varying from £85,000,000 to £150,000,000 

 sterling ! And yet it is confidently as- 

 serted, that the result would justify the ex- 

 penditure of so large a sum. 



" The benefit of irrigation," say the com- 

 missioners for the drainage of the bogs of 

 Ireland, " is necessarily connected with an 

 effectual drainage." And "what valuable 

 matter," says the Westminster Review, " is 

 abstracted from the land, by various rivers 

 of the different continents! Hartsoeker 

 computed the Rhine to contain in suspen- 

 sion one part mud, to ninety-nine parts 

 water. Sir George Staunton states, the 

 Yellow river to contain one part in two 

 hundred. The alluvial soil deposited bv 

 the waters of the Nile, is 14,784,000 solid 

 feet per hour. The Mississippi deposits 

 8,000,000 solid feet per hour, and the Ko- 

 angho, according to Barrow, carries hourly 

 into the sea, 2,000,000 solid feet of sediment. 

 Major Rennell considers the Ganges to con- 

 tain of sediment, one part in four;* and says, 

 no wonder then, that the subsiding waters 

 should quickly form a stratum of earth, or 

 that the delta should encroach on the sea. 

 Mr. Everett calculates the annual discharge 

 of sediment from the same river, at 6,368, 

 077,440 cubic feet." 



It has been calculated, that the proportion 

 of impurities to the volume of the water of 

 tiie Thames, is about as one to ten thousand. 

 If; however, the surface-cleansing of the 

 streets, were added to the ordinary mass of 

 impurity, the proportion held in suspension, 

 would probably be about double that just 

 mentioned. Of what incalculable import- 

 ance then, must it be to the producth. 

 of the countries through which these riyers 

 pass, to be able to throw the rich matter 

 which they hold in suspension, over their 

 lands.f "The testimony of Mr. Stephens," 

 says the Review, "goes to show that the 

 winter time is the most proper for irrigation. 

 The water should be allowed to run through 

 the whole of October, November, December 

 and January." It has been estimated that 

 in England and Wales, there are 10,000,000 

 of acres of cultivated lands, that require 

 draining; and an equal quantity of waste 

 lands, from which the water might be drain- 

 ed by a general measure. If the water thus 

 acquired by draining from 20,000,000 of 



* We cannot help suspecting there must be a mis- 

 print of the Major's estimate.— Ed. 



t Johnston says in his Elements of Agricultural Chem- 

 istry, "The very fertile alluvial soil of East Friesland, 

 formerly overflowed by the sea, but for sixty years cai- 

 tivated with corn and pulse crops, without manure, 

 has been analyzed. and found to contain ten per cent, 

 of orjranic matter." 



