Mr. Beattie.—"It renders them more speedily flooded, and to a greater height, and they fall sooner. Rivers are lower in Summer and higher in Winter."
Mr. Nielson.—"The immediate effect of the drainage of higher lands has often been to inundate the lower levels."
In a prize essay of John Algernon Clarke, speaking of the effect of drainage along the course of the River Nene, in England, he says:
"The upland farms are delivering their drain-water in much larger quantities, and more immediately after the downfall, than formerly, and swelling to the depth of three to six feet over the 20,000 acres of open ground, which form one vast reservoir for it above and below Peterborough. The Nene used to overflow its banks, to the extreme height, about the third day after rain: the floods now reach the same height in about half that time. Twelve hours' rain will generally cause an overflow of the land, which all lies unembanked from the stream; and where it is already saturated, this takes place in six or even in two hours. Such a quick rise will cause one body of flood-water to extend for forty or fifty miles in succession, with a width varying from a quarter of a mile to a mile; but it stays sometimes for six weeks, or even two months, upon the ground. And those floods come down with an alarming power and velocity—bridges which have stood for a century are washed away, and districts where floods were previously unknown have became liable to their sudden periodical inundations. The land being wholly in meadow, suffers very heavily from the destruction of its hay. So sudden are the inundations, that it frequently happens that hay made in the day has, in the night been found swimming and gone. A public-house sign at Wansford commemorates the locally-famed circumstance of a man who, having fallen asleep on a hay-cock, was carried down the stream by a sudden flood: awakening just under the bridge of that town, and being informed where he was, he demanded, in astonishment, if this were 'Wansford in England.'"
The fact that the floods in that neighborhood now reach their height in half their former time, in consequence of the drainage of the "upland farms," is very significant.
Mr. Denton thus speaks upon the same point, though his immediate subject was that of compulsory outfalls.
"Although the quantity of land drained was small, in comparison to that which remained to be drained, the water which was discharged by the drainage already effected found its way so rapidly to the outfalls, that the consequences were becoming more and more injurious every day. The millers were now suffering from two causes. At times of excess, after a considerable fall of rain, and when the miller was injuriously overloaded, the excess was increased by the rapidity with which the under-drains discharged themselves; and as the quantity of water thus discharged, must necessarily lessen the subsequent supply, the period of drought was advanced in a corresponding degree. As the millers already saw this, and were anticipating increasing losses, they would join in finding a substitute for water-power upon fair terms."
It is not supposed, that any considerable practical effects of drainage, upon the streams of this country, have been observed. A treatise, however, upon the general subject of Drainage, which should omit a point like this, which must, before many years, attract serious attention, would be quite incomplete. Whether the effect of a system of thorough-drainage make for or against the interest of mill and meadow owners on the lower parts of streams, should have no influence over those who design only to present the truth, in all its varied aspects.
As some compensation for the evils which may fall upon lands at a lower level, by drainage of uplands, it may be interesting to notice briefly in this place, some of the uses to which drainage-water has been applied, for the advantage of lower lands. In many cases, in Great Britain, the water of drainage has been preserved in reservoirs, or artificial ponds, and applied for the irrigation of water meadows; and as is suggested by Lieut. Maury, in a letter quoted in our introductory chapter, the same may, in many localities, be done in this country, and thus our crops of grass be often tripled, on our low meadows. In many cases, water from deep drains, will furnish the most convenient supply for barn yards and pastures. It is usually sufficiently pure and cool in Summer, and is preferred by cattle to the water of running streams.
On Mr. Mechi's farm at Tiptree Hall, in England, we observed a large cistern, in which all the manure necessary for the highest culture of 170 acres of land, is liquified, and from which it is pumped out by a steam engine, over the farm. All the water, which supplies the cistern, is collected from tile drains on the farm, where there had before been no running water.