April 14,1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 303 
tbat of the tide at high water ; and the water of the river should be 
subject to supply from extensive watersheds of cultivated land, in 
order that large quantities of alluvial matters may be flowing with 
the water, especially at the time of floods, and held in suspension 
when the water is penned and retained as a pond over the surface 
of the land to be warped. For this purpose the river water at low 
tide is allowed to flood the land by means of outlets in the banks of 
the river and prepared channels and sluices, and it is then kept 
there until it has deposited the mud or silt with which it is charged. 
When this has taken place the clear water is allowed to flow away 
by other channels and return to the river. Fresh quantities of 
water are then admitted at every succeeding tide, each of which 
produces a new superstratum of sedimentary matter, and this 
operation is repeated until the requisite thickness of the warp has 
been obtained. The quantity of warp so deposited by each suc¬ 
cessive tide in many cases exceeds one-tenth of an inch in thick¬ 
ness. It varies, however, greatly at different periods of the year, 
according as there is little or much flood water in the river and in 
the position of the land. By these means there is often created in 
the course of a few months a new soil of considerable depth, which 
will consist for the most part of the various kinds of earth and 
undecomposed vegetable and animal matters which the waters of 
the river have collected and borne along in their course. Land 
thus warped is said to possess a natural power of production of the 
most remarkable kind, and a degree of fertility far exceeding that 
which is obtained by any of the ordinary processes of cultivation ; 
in fact, large tracts of perfectly sterile land, such as sandy and 
peaty soils in the neighbourhood of the rivers Humber, Trent, 
and Ouse, with many others on various parts of the seacoast, have 
yearly been converted into good land solely by the agency of 
these operations. Still there are large areas capable of being 
reclaimed in the same way under similar circumstances, which in 
most instances if properly managed might be rendered profitable 
either as arable or pasture land. 
As we must consider the question of warping and reclaiming 
land, especially in those cases where the mouths of rivers meet the 
tides, it will be necessary not only to refer somewhat minutely to 
the general question, but also to the advantages to be derived 
by the owners of seaside property by enclosing and reclaiming 
mud lands, and before concluding we shall refer to dry warping. 
Although warping has been only known in England for about 
130 years, having been first practised near Howden on the banks 
of the Humber about the middle of last century, and brought 
prominently before the public by a Mr. Marshall in 17S8, yet it 
has been long followed on the continent with great success under 
a different name, and is thus described by a Mr. Cadell in his 
“Journey in Carniola —“In the Yal di Chiana fields that are 
too low are raised and fertilised by the process called colmata, 
which is done in the following manner :—The field is surrounded 
by an embankment to confine the water ; the dyke of the rivulet 
is broken down, so as to admit the muddy waters of the high 
floods. This water is derived only from the streams which flow 
into the Chiana, and is allowed to deposit its mud upon the field. 
The water is then let off into the river at the lower end of the 
field by a discharging source. In this manner a field will be 
raised 5| and sometimes feet in ten years. If the dyke is 
broken down to the bottom the field will be raised to the same 
height in seven years. It is found that water which comes off 
cultivated land completes the process sooner than that which 
comes off hill and woodland. Almost the whole of the Val di 
Chiana has been raised by the process of colmata.” 
Take for instance the counties of York and Lincoln, which illus¬ 
trate also various portions of other districts. Not only are they 
both more than half surrounded by water, but the greater portion 
of the country so situated lies below the level of the sea, from the 
encroachment of which, indeed, it is only preserved by extensive 
walls and embankments. The water of the rivers that flow through 
such a district, as may be naturally supposed, is highly charged 
with fine mud and silt, admirably adapted for the purposes of the 
warper, who conducts his operations as follows :—After an exca¬ 
vation has been made in the river bank a dyke, and sometimes 
raised embankments, are built to guide the water from the river 
to the land to be warped. In order to confine the water to any 
particular spot and prevent it overflowing the adjacent country 
the land is divided into compartments of about 20 acres in extent 
by strong well-formed banks, which are of the same height as 
those of the main feeding dyke. In this way each flood tide is 
conducted into every one of the compartments in succession, and 
as it ebbs the hydrostatic pressure of the water alone suffices to 
force open the swinging doors of the return sluices, thus allowing 
itself to escape in the main canal, and thence into the river, after 
having deposited nearly the whole of its mud upon the surface of 
the enclosed land. 
By the above plan it has been found possible to warp land in 
one year to the depth of from 2 to 3 feet, and this is generally 
considered to be quite deep enough, and is permanent in its 
action. This statement, of course, only applies to those lands 
which are sufficiently below high water mark ; where the level 
is higher a longer time—often from two to three, and sometimes 
even four years—is required. In the year 1825 the Society of Arts 
voted a premium, consisting of its large gold medal, to a Mr. 
Balph Creyke, jun., for his description of the process of warping 
by an improved method a tract of 429 acres of peat moss. The 
superiority of his process over those ordinarily followed consists 
in creating a fine deep rich soil more effectually upon a larger 
scale and in a shorter time than has hitherto been practised. 
According to the usual practice the tides are only admitted during 
the months of August, September, and October ; but by his plan 
they are admitted all the year round. Usually the sluice is not 
made more than 5 feet wide ; his has two openings of lfifeet wide. 
The main drain is usually only 12 feet w r ide ; his is 90 feet wide. 
Not more than about 14 acres are often embanked in one piece ; 
he has enclosed 500 acres in one compartment. Formerly not 
more than 1| foot of deposit was obtained ; he has got from 3 to 
5 feet upon the increased quantity of land. Scarcely any inlets 
used to be made for the purpose of spreading the tide water 
quicker and more equally over the surface of the land within 
the embankment, as well as for the speedy return of it upon the 
ebb. In all his practice innumerable inlets are formed for this 
purpose. It is necessary to keep all warped land thoroughly 
drained ; and as in various cases it is found advantageous to sub¬ 
irrigate the land, it is desirable to set out the drainage with this 
double object, so that in extremely dry seasons the tide water 
may be admitted to percolate the drains as occasion may require. 
We have pursued this plan with open drains on our own marsh 
land with good effect. 
The process called dry warping consists in the spreading and 
covering land with other soils to a depth of from 6 to 9 inches 
according to circumstances, and thus converting barren or inferior 
into fertile land. A remarkable illustration of this is afforded us 
in the utilising of Hatfield Chase, which was a peat moor of about 
40U0 acres lying above the level of the neighbouring corn lands. 
An Act of Parliament for enclosing the moor was obtained about 
seventy years ago, though for what object at the time it was not 
easy to see, as no one could then have anticipated the possibility 
of making this hitherto impassable morass of any value. By the 
construction of public and private enclosure drains it gradually 
became firm land, and the existence of an old river course—the 
waters ot which two hundred years ago had taken a new channel 
—was remembered, and a Mr. Hatfield Gossip, who owned a con¬ 
siderable part of the moor, conjectured that this old course would 
contain rich alluvial matter deposited by the tides from the river3 
Trent and Humber. He conceived the idea of covering the whole 
moor with this, and to his perseverance and skill in carrying it 
out we are indebted for the practical exposition of the advantages 
of dry warping. The process pursued was to form a railroad 
from the pit (or excavation into the alluvial deposit) over the 
moor, with branch rails leading to the parts to be improved. “A 
stationary engine drew up from the pit the loaded waggons, which 
were then taken by a locomotive engine along the main line, and 
passed by the branches to the required spot. Here the waggons 
were tilted over, and the soil spread to a depth of 6 or 8 inches. 
When the moor for 7 or 10 yards on each side of the branch was 
covered, the rails were removed by a machine traversing the line 
and taking up the separate pieces of rails and deposited them in 
a fresh fine with the greatest expedition and facility, and thus 
was seen a sheet of firm and fruitful soil steadily spreading over 
this once hopeless quagmire.” The advantage of a well-drained 
substratum of peat has been long appreciated for grass crops. 
