322 = 56 
British Agriculture. 
Floods bene- 
ficial, except 
where permit- 
ted to remain 
too long 
stagnant. 
I 
r.ront 
engineering 
works seldoi.i 
required. 
Floods in river valleys in autumn, and winter, and spring, 
provide rich irrigation for the land, the mud in which subsides 
when the waters are for a time partially stagnant. They are 
very beneficial if not permitted to remain too long. Land 
subject to such floods should never be broken up from grass, as 
in no other way can it in this country be more profitably 
used. Before under-drainage became so general, the floods came 
down much more loaded with sediment, and therefore much 
more enriching than now, when the rains of the uplands pass 
through and are filtered by the soil. Summer floods are in- 
jurious but they are rare, and if once in twenty years they injure 
or even carry off the hay, there is some compensation in the 
heavy crops of aftermath that follow. If the natural beds ol 
the rivers were kept free from obstruction there would be far more 
benefit than injury from floods. 
But in earlier times, before steam-power was known, water 
power was found a valuable aid for both mills and navigation 
Weirs and dams were then constructed, and water rights havg 
grown up which greatly hamper arterial drainage. Towns o:M 
the river banks, though generally built above flood-mark, aiK 
injured by long-continued floods; and their interests, as well a 
those of the land, are concerned in removing all artificial ol 
structions. There is no longer any necessity for these, as stean 
power can everywhere be substituted for water-mills, and tl 
tedious delays of barges be superseded by the quicker and mo 
certain conveyance by railways. The barge navigation w 
attended by one benefit, as, in order to maintain adequate dep 
of water, it was necessary to keep the bed of the river fi 
from the natural growth of weeds which otherwise impede t 
current, and cause deposits of mud which gradually contract 1 
outfall. Questions of compensation, however, arise when rig 
of any kind are touched, and hence the need of some author • 
to control and reconcile opposing interests. 
The Inclosure Commissioners have power, upon applicat 
being made to them, to recommend the formation of drain e } 
districts, which may embrace either the whole or a part of a r r j 
basin. So far as their experience has gone, it is in favou )f » 
placing each river basin as a whole system under compe it 
authority, with power to that authority to form sub-dist)tl 
for the management of each, with representatives at the ger al 
board which controls the whole. As the object is not to pre/*ftj^ 
floods, but to limit the period of their stagnation, it is sellHn 
that any grand engineering operation is required. 
Power to 
exchange 
intermixed 
Another most useful branch of the office is the very exteij 
power entrusted to the Commissioners to carry out exdic 
