1

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t Oots °p t ' le g rowt h of willows, such sods as are full of theotij„, ru shes should be made choice of in preference to all®Urf 8 ’ ? s > wkere these plants thrive and spread over thee\> ea ° e ’ tt becomes in a great degree impenetrable by water,&bl e 8 reat floods, and when the river runs with consider-Th *>°lence and rapidity.

Ho,. e directions above given will, it is supposed, be foundo t(1 . 0r iess practicable and useful according as the river onlg f „, " r y occasions runs with greater or less rapidity. In% « ° r nearl y level districts, all that is necessary is to secureom- . Co P e for the rivers to overflow their usual bounds with-ftigy^jerruption; when that is secured by either of thedo a d® before mentioned, floods, unless very violent, seldomti 0t]g ^ ® at erial damage to the banks of rivers in such situa-ta Pid ^ l* 60011168 i n raan y cases extremely difficult to fencerivers in such a manner as to prevent part ofth e , anks from being carried away by inundation. Slopingf; Ven arik s would be attended with no good consequences,by ,, str ong bulwarks made of stone are often swept away8o„ le °verpowering flood. A method has, however, beenjested

> of fencing the sides of a rapid running river, whichlia,| /. e .® n practised with success, after several other attempts: ' 3 b y means of a sort of large baskets, pro-

a ki n j 7 ter med creels, formed of hazel, willow, &c., intoof open network, which being placed along the bottomOritj v bank8 , aye filled with stones. This is a very simple,baslj y no means an expensive expedient; and as theseit c 8 11:1 a y be made to contain two or three tons of stone,

on ly be on few

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on few occasions, and in very particularthat a basket, containing such a weight, can be't i' s or carried away. Such a mode of fencing as this,latiij a g>ned, would prove effectual in many parts of Scot-

•'stn;,] an< i Wales , where the rivers run with

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uncommon

t} l(J Owing to inattention, or rather to not being awaref ive consequences, much damage is often done to the banks’ n level districts, especially if the banks be perpen-’ a nd of a considerable height, by allowing the land-th e f ? t0 fall over them into the river. As the water fromfbe fng t '° vvs approaches the bank, it is frequently stopped in■ i 0 f °' V °^' tbe i le ad ridge, which becomes for a time a8 >ie ra i, re servoir ; the consequence of which is, that a con-e Proportion of water sinks and filters through the’‘adg’ .inch being thus softened and swelled, is more easilyc jUs 0r lrie( l and carried off by the river. Sometimes littletu lg e „°Penings are made for the furrows across the headf| v 6r ’ nr the purpose of conducting the rain-water into the6v er ^....crCj again, the consequences are equally bad. Who-a, ati a 1 examine the bank of a river where this mode ofjbat at ^cnt is adopted, and it is very common, will observe,aver y one of these cuts or openings a little creek is^<1 i, ’ consequence of the bank having been more softened,k Ve r wh at . means having become a more easy prey to thebes i(Jes ' n Hood. To prevent these evils, it is necessary,Mjoitq 8 °P’ng the banks, to devote a part of the lands° Past to * be breadth of 20 or 30 yards, for instance, eitherJ Prof, Ura S e °r the growth of trees, and to form a drain atf r Pos e r distance from, and parallel to the bank, for thec °becting and carrying off the water from thei c ^ ere done, and were the water from this.® n< lucted into the river by conduits formed a little

n<v,i S ordinary level, much land, which is annually lostj tb ' s s * m ple precaution, would be saved, and

. .. tt ln a proper state.

. I '°tli e » Se cond case, it is evident that injuries, although of

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°'vi n .

C tfla 'vinl tu i e ’. are often sustained by farmers, from riversa,. mg their banks. Sometimes the farmer is prevented

l °>h

Sow

ln g his field j at other times the crops of grain and

grass are greatly injured, by being covered for a considerabletime with water ; and at others again, the whole produce ofthe year, the hay and corn crops, are swept away. Toprevent evils so complicated, and so serious in their nature,is certainly the business of every man, who, from the situa-tion of his farm, has reason to apprehend, that, without usingproper precautions, he may be subjected to such visitations.These damages can only happen in level tracts, where thebanks of the rivers are low, and where the course is not ofsufficient breadth to contain the water in time of flood.Some people, although very improperly, raise mounds ofearth close to the top of the bank, and of a height exceedingthat to which the river can be expected at any time to rise.These mounds, from being placed so near the river, are unableto resist the pressure of the water, and by giving way,frequently admit a current into the fields, which proves muchmore injurious in its course than if no mound whatever hadbeen erected. Were a mound of earth formed on the side ofthe drain, proposed to be made for carrying off the land-water, and were that mound well sloped on the side towardsthe river, it would be the most secure and effectual guardagainst rivers doing injury to the adjoining lands, of any thatcould be adopted. By these mounds being placed at a distancefrom the river, the force of the stream would be much lessened,and the natural boundaries of the rivers greatly enlarged ;as, in proportion as the mounds are removed from the centreof the current of the river, in like proportion will they becomemore secure, as being less liable to violent pressure. Thepropriety of erecting these mounds at a proper distance must,therefore, be sufficiently evident; as, when mounds are erectednear 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 overflowingwaters which glide along the bottom, than as a barrier toprevent the encroachments of an impetuous river during thetime of floods.

In regard to the third case, it is observed, that farmerswho possess lands in low situations often sustain damagefrom rivers, in time of flood, by their flowing back into thechannels of the rivulets and streams that conduct the waterfrom the more distant and elevated grounds to the rivers,whereby these rivulets and streams are made also to overflowtheir 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 thequantity of water, which, from the cause now mentioned,may be supposed at any time to stagnate in these channels.This may be done at a very trifling expense either in moneyor land. If the proprietors do not choose to ornament thecountry and improve their own estates, by planting trees onthe borders of the rivulets and streams, the farmers may soconstruct these mounds, as that they may become fencesto their arable fields, while that portion of the farm, necessarilyand properly cut off for the protection of the remainder, maybe devoted to pasturage.

Several different embankments of a successful kind havebeen effected in the northern parts of the kingdom. Animportant work of this nature was some years since executedon the estate of Lord Galloway, situated on the mouth of theriver Cree, near Cree-town, by his lordship’s tenant, Mr.Thomas Hannay, who states, in the third volume of the“ Farmer’s Magazine,” that at the time he entered on thefarm, upwards of 100 Scottish statute acres were regularly