21G THE BOOK OF THE LAKDED ESTATE. 



next be put up along the line of the bank and in its centre, and these 

 pins should be put the height to which the bank is to be raised, and 

 will thus act as a guide to the work-people employed. We shall 

 suppose that the embankment is to be made four feet high and eight 

 feet wide at the base. The first operation will be to procure good, 

 tough, and thick turfs, and build them up very firm and compact. These 

 turfs should be laid with the grassy or natural side downwards. As the 

 building of this turf wall goes on, earth should be packed in behind it, 

 and firmly beat down and pressed together with a wooden beater, and 

 gradually raising the embankment of earth as the building of the turf 

 wall proceeds. The wooden beater is made of timber four feet long, 

 and with a diameter of five or six inches at the bottom, with a hoop 

 of iron round the bottom rim to keep it from splitting. It is then 

 gradually thinned from the bottom to the top, leaving it about two and 

 a half to three inches diameter at the small end. At about one foot 

 from the top a cross handle is inserted by which to work it up and down 

 with the hands. 



When the earth embankment has been carried to the desired height, 

 the side should be carefully sloped down and made generally equal 

 all along the bank. It should then be turfed over; the lower turf 

 should be let into the soil about three or four inches, as this prevents 

 the water from working it out of its place before it has had time to grow 

 into the soil forming the bank. The top of the embankment should then 

 be levelled and laid with turf. It need not be very broad at top; but 

 if brought to a narrow point at the top, that part is apt to give way 

 under the pressure of a heavy flood passing along. 



This kind of embankment should be made as early in the spring as 

 possible, as then the turf has time to grow into the soil and form a solid 

 piece with the bank before there is any likelihood of flood coming. 

 During the summer the turf may possibly require watering, especially 

 if the season is dry. Attention should be paid to the bank from time to 

 time, to see that there are no holes in it. Water-rats sometimes make 

 holes in such banks, and thus allow the water to get an opening, which 

 gets larger from the force of water working on the loose soil. All such 

 holes should be rammed full with earth, and the surface turfed over 

 again. The grass on the banks should be mown at least once in each 

 season, which will cause it to grow thicker. 



The cost of forming such an embankment as described will vary with 

 the description of soil at command, and also with the distance that the 

 turf may have to be brought. 



Similar embankments are made by having the side nearly perpen- 

 dicular, and building a dry-stone wall in front of the turf, and so to 



