In the second case, it is evident that injuries, although of another nature, are often sustained by farmers, from rivers overflowing their banks. Sometimes the tanner is prevented from sowing his field ; at other times the crops of grain and grass are greatly injured, by being covered for a considerable time with water ; mid at others again, the whole produce of the year, the hay and corn crops, are swept away. To prevent evils so complicated, ;Ind so serious in their nature, is the business of every man, who, from the situa tion of his fitrm, has reason to apprehend, that, without using proper precautions, he may be subjected to such vis-!tations. These damages can only happen in level tracts, where the banks of the rivers are low, and where the cOlirSe is not of sufficient breadth to contain the water in time of flood. Some people, although very improperly. raise mounds of earth close to the top of the bank, and of a height exceeding that to which the river can be expected at any time to rise. These mounds, from being placed so near the river, are unable to resist the pressure of the water, and hy giving way, frequently admit a current into the fields, which proves notch more injurious in its course than if no mound whatever had been erected. Were a monad of earth fi wined on the side of the drain, proposed to be made for carrying ()11' the land water, and were that minimal well sloped on the side towards the river, it would be the !mist secure and effectual guard against rivers doing injury to the adjoining, lands, of any that could be adopted. By these mounds being placed at a distance from the river, the f wee ofthe stream would he much lessened, and the natural boundaries of the river greatly enlarged ; as, in proportion as the mounds are removed from the centre of the current of the river, in like will they become more secure, as being less liable to violent pressure. The propriety of erecting these mounds at a proper distance must, therefore, lie sufliciently evident ; as, when mounds are erected near the top of the bank, which can only be owing to ill judged parsimony, they form as it were a part of the bank, and are liable to be undermined and swept away. Whereas, when they are placed at the distance of 20, 30, or 40 yards, they serve rather as a boundary to confine the overflowing waters which glide ailing the bottom, than as a barrier to prevent the eneroachtnents of an impetuous river during the time of floods.
In regard to the third ease, it is observed, that th•tners who possess lands in low situations often sustain damage from rivers, in time of flood, by their flowing back into the channels of the rivulets and streams that conduct the water from the more distant and elevated grounds to the rivers, whereby these rivulets and streams are made also to over flow their banks.
The only precaution that can be adopted, in such a case, or at least the one which appears to have the greatest proba bility of answering the purpose, is to erect mounds at a dis tance from the banks, and of a size proportioned to the quantity of water, which, from the cause now mentioned, may be supposed at any time to stagnate in these channels. This may be clone at a very trilling expense either in money or land. It' the proprietors do not choose to ornament the country and improve their own estates, by planting trees on the borders of the rivulets and streams, the filmier,: may so construct these mounds, as that they may become fences to their arable fields, while that portion of the farm, neces sarily and properly cut of]' l'or the protection of the remain der, may he devoted to pasturage.
Several different embankments of a successful kind have been effected in the northern parts of the kingdom. An important work of this nature was some years since executed On the estate of Lord Galloway, situated on the mouth of the river Cree, near Cree-towit, by his lordship's tenant, Thomas Hammy, who states, in the third volume of the "Farmer's Magazine," that at the time he entered on the farm, upwards of 100 Scottish statute acres IA ere regularly flooded by the highest spring-tides, excepting about three months in summer, when the tides were lower. They were
se dote, covered above the depth of one or two feet. and newer abo% c linr or five. Eighty acres of the above consisted of a rich sea marsh, or ingg. a.: they call them there. ahnt mt. a true level, excepting where hollows were formed by the egress and regress of the tides, and the passage of fresh water froin the higher grounds; and ;doom •1 or 5 acres, which were about 16 inches lower, being a younger marsh, and nothing but what they call ink-grass growing upon it ; other grasses, such as clover, rib-gras:, &e., rest of the marsh, forming a very beautiful dose cover in the summer. The other 20 acres were on an average about 18 inches higher ; consequently the sea did not cover them so often. It had formerly been ploughed, but not for about 20 years past. Last tittle it was in coin, it was flooded immediately after being sown, which rendered the mop almost entirely useless, and deterred former tenants from ploughing it again. Nr. Hannay began to hank this field in the autumn of the year 1798, by making a dike along the side opposite to the river, in a direct line facing the east. This dike was made, at an average, about 31 feet high, and 6 feet broad at bottom, and •20 inches at top, built after the same manner with that mentioned below. Ile enclosed, along with the said fields, he says, 4 acres of the marsh adjoining, by making a dike 5 feet high. and 5 feet in bottom. almost wholly of solid foals or sods, with a very little stuff properly beat, in the heart of it, which makes an excellent fence, and promises to he a very durable one. This dike, together with two small drains, one on each side of it. about two feet deep, cost 3d. per yard. The division•dikes of the whole marsh, which now, divided into 4 parts. arc all built after the same manner, only that there is too loose stuff in the heart of some of them, but all of solid feal, jointed like bricks, as notty he seen at Figure 17, which represents an end view, or section of it. This dike, meant as a permanent fence, answered as a temporary bank, and enabled him to plough that field in spring, although the hank round the whole marsh was not finished till the winter followinff. Ile sowed oats on this field, and, considering the badness of the season, had a very good crop ; particularly so on that part which had not been ploughed formerly. On flintier consideration, Ile altered the plan of the bank round the marsh, (which extends in a circular direction lacing the north) by making it. at an average. about flour feet and hall hiLril, and allowing about two feet in the base for one in height, as at Figure 18, where a c represents an end view, or section of it, every small span representing the section of a feal or sod ; a 1 shows the inside of the bank, with the green side of the real down ; c the base ; a c the side next the water, with the green side of the feat out, (which adds greatly both to the strength and beauty of time bank ;) and d the heart of the dike, made up with stuff properly compressed with a rammer. The stuff was taken from a ditch, in the inside of the bank, leaving a easement of a foot, which ought to have been three at least ; and, where the ground is of a sandy nature, more : as the fresh water, running in the inside, was likely to undermine the bank, had he not prevented it, by cutting a new drain, and filling the old one with the stuff' cast from it. The only creek worth noticing, through which the bank passed, was about 40 feet wide and 9 feet deep. in the bottom of which a wooden pipe, with a stopper, was laid through the bank.