FARMERS' REGISTER— DRAINING. 



387 



nient theme. We should hear the ph^n denounced 

 as an invasion of the " sacred rig;hls of property," 

 and the denunciation maintained by so many ar- 

 guments (or what would pass for arguments) that 

 the .idvocates would be glad to retreat from the 

 wordy inundation. But as plausible as such argu- 

 ments may be, precisely such might be urged 

 against opening the existing, or any roads, through 

 private property, if we can suppose such a case 

 possible as the country being settled and cultiva- 

 ted, without having a public road within its limits. 

 Roads are cut through private property wit'.iout 

 asking leave of the owner, and he is also taxed ac- 

 cording to his property, to pay his share of the ex- 

 pense of construction. Sometimes it happens that 

 the road for which a proprietor is so taxed in his 

 landed rights, and on his purse, though beneficial 

 to the public, is to him individually a source of in- 

 convenience and of loss. Still these exceptions are 

 properly considered as no objection to the general 

 regulation, for the general good — and the lawyers 

 raise no objections, because the policy is already 

 sanctioned by taw. But if all of lower Virginia 

 had been one great swamp, held by thousands of 

 individual proprietors, and which could be drained 

 as easily as Chickalwminy and Blackwater swamps 

 now could be — according to our laws and to the" 

 arguments of lawyers, there would be no possible 

 means, consistent with justice and the principles 

 of our legal policy, by w hich this beneficial im- 

 provement could be effected. 



But I have already said too much upon a branch 

 of draining which was only intended at first to be 

 named as a matter to be omitted. My purpose was 

 to advise practical operations which each individu- 

 al may perform — and I have allowed myself to di- 

 gress (uselessly I fear,) upon what individual ef- 

 forts are altogether forbidden. 



Streams of the second class, having sufficient 

 fall, are generally such as (low through a hilly 

 country. The lowgrounds, or bottom lands, lying 

 on the borders of such streams, form a large pro- 

 portion of the best natural soils of lower Virginia. 

 indeed but few other soils are richer than these 

 have been, or would be more productive, if they 

 liad been properly managed : but the general 

 treatment of such lands has been so injudicious, 

 that they have yielded but litlle nett product, and 

 in many cases have become nuisances, and a source 

 of loss instead of profit. I allude especially to low- 

 grounds on small streams, not exceeding the size 

 sufficient for an ordinary mill. Some of the usual 

 and barbarous practices will be pointed out for 

 avoidance, and also because their effects now pre- 

 sent some of the worst obstructions to a proper 

 plan for drainage and cultivation. 



The bottoms through wliich the streams run, 

 have been entirely formed during past ages by the 

 earth washed from the higher lauds by heavy floods 

 from heavy rains, and deposited so as to form a near- 

 ly level surface. Of course the greater part of this 

 deposite has been made from the main stream, and 

 at the times when it overflowed the whole low- 

 ground. But it is not only during such floods that 

 the operation is going on. At all times a shallow 

 running stream is bringing down earth, and thus 

 raising its own bed, until it leaves it for another 

 and lower place, or when a flood comes, throws the 

 accumulated sand out of its choaked channel, over 

 every place low enough to receive an accession. 

 Thus, by the tendency of the overflowing ">^ater 



to cover mostly the lowest land, and from the 

 greater subsidence of the suspended earth, where 

 the water is most deep and still, nature works con- 

 tinually to keep such lands level from side to side. 

 Before the adjacent hills were cleared and subject- 

 ed to the plough, there could have been no great 

 supply of earth, except from the richest soil on the 

 surface — and that was furnished slowly and gradu- 

 ally. 



Rich as these narrov/ bottoms were, our fathers 

 did not readily undertake to drain and cultivate 

 them. Before this was done, the adjacent high- 

 lands had in most cases been cleared, cultivated, 

 and washed into gullies — and had served to throw 

 upon tJie lowgroiind more of barren subsoil in a 

 year, than it had before received of rich mould in 

 ten. Nor was this injurious deposite brought down 

 by the principal stream, and spread over the whole 

 surface. It mostly was brought by torrents of 

 rain water, which for a little time-swelled the rivu- 

 let to a flood, and by which the sand or gravel was 

 canied out on the rich bottom soil, in points pro- 

 jecting from the ravine llirough which the torrent 

 rushed. These points of sand, by their thickness 

 and poverty, now form one of the greatest diffi- 

 culties in draining and cultivating the lowgrounds. 



The management of the neigliboring highland, 

 so far as its wasJiing is promoted or prevented, is 

 one of the most im{)ortant things bearing on the 

 alluvial bottom below. If no mischief had teen 

 already produced from this cause, the instructions 

 that ^vill be offered would be more simple, and yet 

 far more serviceable. Prevention is always bet- 

 ter than cure — and in these cases, the perfect cure 

 is impossible. We liave destroyed the greater 

 part of the value of our lowgrounds, before we 

 know tliCir productiveness. 



Next come the injuries inflicted directly when 

 such lands are under cultivation. 



Bottoms of the kind under consideration are ge- 

 nerally from 150 yards wide, to the narrowest 

 size worth draining — meandering continually in 

 Iheir course, — and having sufficient fall or incli- 

 nation to give a rapid course to the natural stream, 

 and to allow the land to be effectually drained for 

 cultivation. The stream is still more crooked 

 than the valley through which it runs, and is often 

 twice as long as would be the slraightest course 

 that might be given. Nor is the course of the 

 stream always through the lowest part of the 

 land — tor the margins of the stream are often the 

 highest parts, owing to the more plentiful deposite 

 of sediment when the overflowing waters first 

 rise over their banks. The first error usually 

 committed is to leave the stream (if a large one) 

 in its natural crooked bed, instead of giving it a 

 shorter course: the next is, to impede still more 

 the course of the water by allowing thickets of 

 laiers and shrubs to stand on the edge of the 

 stream, and every kind of rubbish to be thrown 

 into it. The crooked and choaked channel causes 

 the stream to overflow with a rain that would not 

 sv.ell the current injuriously, in a clean and 

 straightened bed, though of no more average width, 

 and occupying not one fourth as much land. The 

 land lost is not only the bed and banks of the 

 stream. A very crooked course makes it impos- 

 sible for the plough to run in the same direction : 

 and many points of land are formed too narrow to 

 to be worth cultivation. Hence a wide margin is 

 left to grow up in thickets, and to harbor musk- 



