On Warpiny Land. 287 



it is susceptible ; together with some account of a species of 

 river warping in Italy. 



1. Origin of the Practice. A species of warping has been 

 long known in Italy ( 4<5 ) ; but the person who made the 

 first experiment of warping in England, was Mr Richard 

 Jennings of Armin, near Howden in Yorkshire, who tried 

 it about the year 1743( 461 ). It was about the year 1753, 

 before it was attempted by any other person ; and it remain- 

 ed in obscurity, till the beginning of November 1793, when 

 it was made public by three eminent farmers, who had been 

 appointed by the Board of Agriculture, to draw up a report 

 of the husbandry of the West Riding of Yorkshire ( 4<J *). 

 As the Board had only met for the first time, on the 4th day 

 of September preceding, the discovery of warping, in less 

 than two months, is a striking proof of the zeal and activity 

 of those appointed to carry on its inquiries. 



2. The Nature of the Improvement. The water of the tides 

 that come up the Trent, the Ouze, the Dun, and other rivers 

 which empty themselves into the great estuary of the Hum- 

 ber, is muddy to an excess ; insomuch, that in summer, if a 

 cylindrical glass, from twelve to fifteen inches long, be filled 

 with that water when the tide is high, it will presently depo- 

 site an inch, and sometimes more, of what is called warp, or 

 a species of mud of great fertility. This substance proba- 

 bly originates from a variety of earthy particles, washed down 

 by the rivers to their mouths, where they are mixed with sa- 

 line and other fertilizing matters with which the sea abounds, 

 and by agitation are rendered so fine, as to be suspended, 

 when the water is agitated by the tide. Some of it was ana- 

 lysed by an eminent chemist, whose report was, that it con- 

 tained mucilage, and a very minute portion of saline matter ; 

 a considerable quantity of calcareous and most probably alu- 

 minous earths ; the residue mica and sand ; the latter in by 

 far the larger quantity, but both in very fine particles ( 4<S3 ). 



3. Mode of carrying the Plan into effect. The plan of se- 

 curing rich alluvial soil by embankments, has been practis- 

 ed for ages ; but it was reserved for modern times, to con- 

 duct mud-laden waters, artificially, from the estuary or ri- 

 ver in which they flowed, for the purpose of furnishing low 

 and barren ground with a sufficient depth of fertile soil ( 464 ). 

 The mode of executing the plan is extremely simple. When 

 the improvement is determined on, the ground must first be 

 surrounded with banks from three to four, six, or seven feet 

 high, according to circumstances, that the water may be of 

 a proper depth on the land to be warped, and to prevent 



