AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 19 



Aon has received much attention, as may be learned from the 

 numerous papers describing them and their effects, as executed 

 in different localities, which have appeared in the Transac- 

 tions, among which I may refer to the communications of Mr 

 Hamilton,* Mr Udney,t Mr Menzies,J and more recently to 

 the'papers of Mr Sutter, and Mr Milne,|| communicated to the 

 Society in 1858. 



With reference to protecting banks, it may be stated that ex- 

 perience has shown that they should invariably be placed, if prac- 

 ticable, at such a distance from the edge of the river as to leave 

 a solid foreshore. Care should be taken that no abrupt angles or 

 bends be formed, but that their line of direction should be carried 

 in easy curves. They may be composed of almost any firm mate- 

 rials which will compact solidly together, the best perhaps being 

 a mixture of clay and sand. All combinations of walls of 

 masonry with embanking, which have sometimes been recom- 

 mended, should invariably be avoided, as it is impossible to effect 

 any proper bond or union between the earthwork and the 

 masonry, and such composite structures are likely to result in 

 failure. The surface of all banks, particularly that next the 

 river, should be turfed, and the back slope sown with grass as 

 speedily as possible, and no hedges, brush-wood; or trees should 

 be planted on artificial embankments. When the subsoil on 

 which the bank is formed is gravelly and porous, trouble may 

 occur from the passage of water under the embankment, and, 

 in such cases, it may be found necessary to sink a trench and 



* Series ii. vol. ii. p. 97. t Ibid. vol. vii. p. 100. 



Ibid. vol. vi. p. 489. Series iii. vol. viii. p. 317. 



|| Ibid. vol. viii. p. 427. 



