2U 



AGRICULTURE. 



BOOK I. 



courses; but if the general principles noticed be properly ap- 

 plied, many great advantages will arise to proprietors. I 

 know some estates that lose, from the encroachments of rivers, 

 several acres annually; which five or ten pounds, judiciously 

 and timely applied, would completely prevent. The advan- 

 tages that arise from placing proper flood-gates on the mouths 

 of rivers which the tide enters, are very great, as may be seen 

 in several places in England*. In embanking land from 

 rivers, one great advantage is, the deepening of their course, 

 by which vessels of a larger size than formerly may be admit- 

 ted to traffic in them. This is a well known fact, and of 

 considerable importance. 



It may be observed, that as embankments are made here 

 and there on the borders of rivers and sea-shores, the inter- 

 vening spaces will thus become bays; and quantities of shells, 

 mud, sand, or gravel, will soon be deposited there by the tide; 

 so that these, however difficult to be embanked at first, will in 

 the course of years be as easy as natural bays and creeks are at 

 present. Thus, many rivers which, in their present state, are 

 eight or ten miles wide at their junction or influx with the sea, 

 may, in the course of years, be only two or three furlongs. 

 Such embankments would not only be highly advantageous to 

 the landed proprietor, but also to the merchant and manufac- 



* See Marshall's Management of Landed Property. 



