PART IV. AGRICULTURE. 221 



mill, the brooks, rivulets, or springs collected within might ea- 

 sily be made to turn a water-wheel, which would be more per- 

 manent and uniform than that turned bj the wind. A bason 

 might also be constructed, so that the ebb and flow of the tide 

 would turn a draining-wheel; or a great many other methods 

 might be successfully adopted. Thus, in land gained from 

 the sea, there cannot be any difficulty in preserving it from 

 water, from whatever quarter it may come. When the land 

 to be gained is covered (more or less) with stones, these should 

 be put in flat-bottomed boats at low water; and when the tide 

 floats them, they should be rowed to the proposed line of em- 

 bankment, and then dropt. This mode of conveyance will ge- 

 nerally be found the most economical with all the solid and 

 distant materials. When the ground is sandy or poor on the 

 surface, and argillaceous earth or rich loam below, it may be 

 trenched (with the plough) of such a depth, as to turn up the 

 good, and bury the bad soil*. If the soil be shallow, and even 

 rocky, it may still be rendered valuable. The most rocky 

 parts may be covered five or six inches with soil, and the whole 

 sown either with meadow grass, to be flooded with fresh water, 

 and kept as meadow; or with other grasses, as the j uncus bul- 

 bosus-f, &c. and kept as salt marsh. When mud of a good 

 quality and considerable depth is gained, it may in some cases 



* As might be done at Aberlady, East Lothian. 



f The grass that generally composes salt marsh pasture.. 



