370 litfplo^lNG POOR SOILS. ' 



Obseryations Considerable expehce has been incurred in this cdun'ffy, 



and enquiries j^ order to find the best means of carrying oiF the water : 

 respecting the ■' ° ' 



improvement but sufficient attention has no where been paid to the improve- 



of poor soils, mentof the soil, by the introduction of water for irrigation *. 

 Great advantages, of late years, hare been derived from 

 warping, along the banks of the Ouse, the Trent, and the 

 Dutch river, where the water is let in at the flood tide, and 

 suffered to rest, and deposit its mud, until the ebb. By 

 this process, repeated twice a day during five or six summers, 

 a new soil is formed, to the hrfght of. six feet, which, in 

 the following spring will be firm enough to receive seeds, 

 and in summer to carry an ox. Thus land, which was be- 

 fore only a peat bog, comparatively worth nothing, may 

 be let for forty-five shillings per acre. , 



The Dutch river affords the best warp, because it nearly 

 empties its whole channel during the ebb, and consequently 

 contributes only the tide, there being very little back water 

 during the flooding season; and hence, too, dry summers' 

 are better than wet ones; for, when the freshes are out, 

 the water, tliough muddy, contains nothing btit clay, 

 washed from the tops of mountains, and the banks of rivers ; 

 but the muddy water of the tide contains all the products 

 of the Humber, which consist of a large quantity of animal 

 matter, as well as various species of earths. 



An enterprising and si)irited individual has proposed to 

 warp the whole of several parishes extomling over many 

 thousand acres of bog, for one sixth of the land gained ; 

 which he purposes to effect by cutting a general canal, 

 through these parishes from the Dutch river into the Trent f , 



9thly, 



* The whole of the low lands of Anlaby and Hessle might hate 

 been watered at pleasure, by keeping up the spring that passes 

 through Anlaby town ; or, by boring and piping the springs ikat 

 may any where be found, and which will rise, in most places 

 within those parishes, above the surface. 



f The farmer, the land-owner, and the public, have all been 

 benefited by this improvement. The farmer, by his industry and 

 attention, has converted tlie most barren bog into land capable of 

 bearing the plough^ and of feeding an ox. The landlord by only 

 foregoing the rent during the time the land is under water, has been 

 able in a few years to increase the value of his property fifty fold. 



The 



