FARMERS' REGISTER— DRAINING IN VIRGINIA. 



519 



We cannot be insensible of the industry of our 

 ancestors. With a hasty hand they have cut down, 

 cultivated and lain barren witii deep red gullies, 

 much, and we may say, the greater part of our 

 high land, the soil of which now rests in silent re- 

 pose adjoining our water courses. With sJeadi- 

 ness, industry and enterprise it devolves on us to 

 turn our attention to the reclaiming and making 

 productive that land which until within a few 

 years, has been considered of but little value. Im- 

 mense capital by individuals collectively, have been 

 spent in endeavoring to make their tracts of land va- 

 luable by reclaiming their own low land ; but as 

 yet they have not met with their expectations ; 

 being at first unacquainted with the nature and 

 principles of ditching. V/ithout a good descent 

 for the water, it is impossible to have huid well 

 drained ; and to prove the impracticability of 

 ditching without the above conveniency, it may 

 not be improper to make the following illustra- 

 tion. Suppose A, B, C and D, have tracts of land 

 bordering on a water course adjoining E's, which 

 is below them, and to which is attached a large 

 quantity of low land, and without reclaiming this 

 low land, they will be compelled to cultivate their 

 poor land, not producing more than half a suffi- 

 ciency for support ; that they call on E and inform 

 him of their wish, proposing at the same time ihr 

 him to join them in their undertaking, that they 

 cannot obtain a sufficient descent without carrying 

 the ditch through his land ; that E says he felt no 

 disposition to join them ; that they then state 

 they will either buy of him at a fair valuation, or 

 reclaim his land for him ; he refuses their offer, and 

 by so doing they are constrained from reclaiming 

 their land. It is also distinctly understood that the 

 land of E is not worth more than one fifth of A, 

 B, C and D's land when reclaimed, and in the 

 present and the continuing situation not any of 

 their low land can be worth to them any thing. 

 The question necessarily arises, what should be 

 done to enable A, B, C and D to have their land 

 reclaimed .' 



Cannot the Legislature take as much cogni- 

 zance of their necessities and sufferings, and ac- 

 cordingly provide for them with as much propriety 

 as to make new roads through favorite land, and 

 even by private desirable situations. 



The above short address is made to the public 

 for information. The author is well apprized of 

 the novelty of the subject, and that its importance, 

 as yet, has attracted the attention of but few indi- 

 viduals, and believes time only is wanting for due 

 reflection and consideration to discover the neces- 

 sity of some provision. Legislative assistance is 

 deemed as indispensably necessary in making 

 ditches, as in making canals or public roads when 

 every circumstance is fairly considered and inves- 

 tigated. 



The above is respectfully submitted to the bet- 

 ter information and judgment of the enlightened 

 people of Virginia. 



^ Citizen of Nottoway. 



" The Deep Creek Navigation Company have 

 met a most unnatural opposition and obstacle to 

 their progress in rendering that creek navigable. 

 Eight individuals who own lands on that creek, of 

 the best quality of low grounds, which are entirely 

 insecure for want of a proper system of draining 

 and canalling, have not only not joined the Compa- 



ny m making the creek navigable, but have op- 

 posed and thrown obstacles in the way. We have 

 been compelled to meet a jury of inquest, and con- 

 tend against an attempt to assess damages against 

 the Company for running the works through ihe 

 lands of one man who owned on 1 oth sides of the 

 creek. The importance of the subject — its great 

 utility to the general intere.sts of society, must i)e 

 acknowledged by all. 1 have always been of an 

 opinion that the Legislature are as much entitled 

 to act on the subject of swamps as millponds ; and 

 on revising the Virginia Code, I find very many 

 excellent regulations relating thereto : but like too 

 many of our best measures, they remain a dead 

 letter in the statute book. 



In the case which you have illustrated, there ap- 

 pears to be the highest equity, that E should be in 

 someway compelled to yield to the paramount in- 

 terest of his lour neighbors. " To use your own 

 so as not to abuse your neighbor," is the language 

 of the common law— and 1 say, of common "sense 

 and equity. Tiie courts should act on these sub- 

 jects in the liberal spirit of guardians of private 

 and public right both ; and Ijoth might be made to 

 harmonize in the management of clear heads and 

 sound hearts. Upon the whole, I consider the 

 subject as deserving much more specific enact- 

 ments of ihe Legislature, and much more pointed 

 notice of the grand juries and courts; but that 

 bug-bear " infringing private right," scares them 

 from it, and the whole subject is generally over- 

 looked. This IS a case wherein the spirit of gospel 

 morality displays itself in its native beauty and 

 grandeur — " Do unto others as ye would" they 

 should do unto you." If such were the universal 

 l)ractical disi)osition of mankind, what radical 

 changes should we not immediately see in the 

 movements of human society.^" 



I am decidedly of an opinion myself, that Legis- 

 lative interference is indispensably necessary to^the 

 promotion and regulation of a proper and useful 

 system of ditching. Upon every stream worth the 

 labor of draining, there are more or less persons 

 owning land thereon, as the water courses were 

 made the line of demarkation between tracts of 

 land. The tracts are often owned by orphan chil- 

 dren — also by old women mid contrary and obsti- 

 nate men, whose pride and delight seem to indul"-e 

 in their invested power to throw obstacles in the 

 way of those who wish to reclaim and improve 

 their land. 



Since 1828, I have been steadily and gradually 

 engaged, more or less in ditching. E was the per- 

 son who would not give us the fall. He has since 

 died, and I became the purchaser of his land. In 

 all probability, I have had more difficulties to en- 

 counter in ditching, in a small way, than any 

 other person in Nottoway county. The Birchen 

 creek, on which I reside, I expect has afforded as 

 much good high land as any stream of the same 

 size in Virginia. It was early settled, and with an 

 unsparing hand our forefiithefs cut down and laid 

 waste the greater part of the high land, the soil of 

 which now lies on this stream. Within the last 

 few years the owners have been very much en- 

 gaged in ditching and improving it, and with the 

 exception of one man's possession, (which is of no 

 very considerable consequence,) the whole of the 

 Birchen creek for eight or nine miles v.ill very 

 soon have a ditch averaging from ten to twelve 

 feet wide, and depth sufficient to reclaim it. Some 



