136 On Planting the Moist alluvial Banks of Rivers, tyc. 



and Apple-trees, some of them nearly two hundred years old ; 

 one of which, a Pear-tree, often produces twenty thousand 

 saleable fruit in the season. 



But these advantages are too frequently counteracted, and 

 rendered of no avail, by the operation of the same cause as 

 that from which they are derived, such grounds being gene- 

 rally liable to be inundated ; and should the water lie long 

 on them, it chills and sours the soil, and destroying the roots, 

 the shoots canker, and the trees die off. 



Having a piece of ground on the banks of the river Nore, 

 near this city, thus favourably circumstanced, but not at the 

 time liable to be injured by floods, I planted it with Fruit- 

 trees, mostly Pears and Apples ; subsequently the building of 

 some mill-weirs in the river raised its waters above their usual 

 level, and threw it back over my ground to such a height as 

 frequently, in winter, to cover the surface, and render it a per- 

 fect quagmire. The trees in consequence cankered and ran 

 rapidly to decay ; banking out the water produced no good 

 effect, as it always rose through the soil to the same level 

 within as without, or higher, being absorbed by the surface. 

 I also failed in an attempt to abate the nuisance by legal 

 means ; but being unwilling to abandon an object which had 

 been of so much promise, I had at length recourse to an 

 expedient, which proved effectual, and though obvious and 

 simple, yet, as I am not aware of its having been before re- 

 sorted to, I think that its communication may possibly be of 

 some importance, as there are many thousand acres of land 

 similarly circumstanced, and at present of comparatively low 

 value, which if so treated, might be much more profitably 

 converted to the purpose of Orcharding ; and there are pro- 



