AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 26 



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fore led to a gradual reduction in the capacity of the drains, until at 

 Haarlem, the last and greatest drainage work, the proportion of surface 

 occupied by them is only -^ of the whole. This appears to be sufficient, 

 even there, where they receive a large amount of water from surrounding 

 lands ; and it is believed that a still further reduction may be safely ven-* 

 tured up-on at Hackensack, where it is intended to exclude all water, 

 except that which falls upon the land, in the form of min. A careful 

 survey and examination, of the whole tract,, must be made before the num- 

 ber, sises and situations of these can be fixed with any certainty that the 

 arrangement will be a useful or proper one. But for the present purpose, 

 of estimating their cost, it is assumed that the Haarlem proportion will be 

 adopted, and that ^V part of the whole ti'act will be occupied by drains 

 and water courses, and that these must have an average depth of four feet, 

 or one yard and one-third — ^^g- of 13,000 is 406,25 acres, the excavation 

 of which 1^ yard in depth, will require the removal of 2,621,666 cubic 

 yards, and will cost, at twenty cents per cubic yard, $524,333.20. 



A catch-water drain of eight miles in length, increasing in breadth and 

 depth, from its head to the place of discharge, at the river, and having a 

 mean cross section of twenty-seven square feet, will require the excava- 

 tion of 42,240 cubic yards, and at twenty cents per yard, will cost S8,448. 

 Ten and one-half miles of embankment, averaging five and one-half 

 feet in height, eight feet in width at the top, with slopes of one and one- 

 half in width to one in height on the outside, and one to one on the 

 inside, will require about 9.1 cubic yards, in each yard of its length, or 

 168,320 yards in all, and will, at twenty cents per yard, cost $33,726. 



To work the steam engine, including attendance, fuel, oil and other 

 stores and repairs, will cost from $6,000 to $6,500 per annum, or fifty 

 cents per annum, per acre. 



For clearing and repairing drains, and preserving embankments in order, 

 no account of the current expenditure required has been found in any 

 work consulted; the estimate for this must therefore be taken as conjec- 

 tural, but it is believed that it can scarcely exceed twenty-five cents per 

 acre per annum, or $3,250. 



As there is little probability that any single capitalist, of sufficient 

 means, will undertake the work, the only other mode of proceeding, which 

 appears practicable, is to obtain a charter for a joint stock company, that 

 shall have power to purchase the land, drain and fit it for cultivation and 

 then either sell, or lease it to occupants and cultivators, subject to a small 

 annual assessment for maintaining the work, and raising and removing tlie 

 water. The capital which this company should be authorized to raise 

 ought not to be less than $500,000 ; and it should be permitted to hold 

 real estate worth $3,000,000 : it should-, however, be allowed to comnienee 

 operations when one-half its capital, or $250,000 shall be subseribed and 

 paid, or secured. 



The land, in its present condition, is almost valueless ; but if wanted for 

 the purpose of improvement must be obtained at such rates as the owners 



