GIFT OF

PROFESSOR C.A, KOF3IU

RECLAMATION AND PROTECTION

OP

AGRICULTURAL LAND.

ON THE

H

RECLAMATION AND PROTECTION

OF

AGRICULTURAL LAND

DAVID gTEVENSON, VICE-PEES. E.S.E.

MEMBER OP THE INSTITUTE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS,
CONSULTING ENGINEER TO THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND, ETC.

Published with the sanction of the Directors of the Highland and
Agricultural Society of Scotland.

ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK.

MPCCCLXXIV.

6, -5

GIFT OF

PROFESSOR C.A. KOF010

I'RISTED BT KEILL AMD COMPANY, EDINBURGH.

PBEFATOKY NOTE.

THE following paper on the Eeclamation and Protection of Land
was communicated to the Highland and Agricultural Society of
Scotland, and published in the last volume of the Society's
Transactions, and is republished in its present form with the
sanction of the Directors.

The Publishers conceive that the subjects briefly treated in the
following pages are of sufficient general interest to agriculturists
to warrant separate publication, while the chapters on the
reclamation of land from the sea afford information in some
respects new, and likely to prove useful on a branch of agricul-
tural engineering which ere long may engage general attention.

To show the interest now taken in works of reclamation, it
may be stated that in France the Paris Society for the Encourage-
ment of National Industry has invited competitive papers
to be given in during the year 1874, "On Eeclamation of Land
and Embankments ; " and in America the same subject has been
brought before the Government Department intrusted with the
coast survey of the United States. In England also many

M217025

Vi PREFATORY NOTE.

writers have of late, through the newspaper press, been urging
the Government to take advantage of their right to the fore-
shores of the country by affording every possible facility to
public companies and landed proprietors to embark in reclama-
tions.* Some of those English writers seem to maintain that
by wholesale national reclamation the agricultural resources of
the country may be made to keep pace with its growing popu-
lation, so as to check our increasing dependence on foreign
countries for supplies of agricultural produce.

The following short treatise, however, demonstrates that all
schemes of reclamation are not necessarily good agricultural
speculations; and that it is only where the estimated value
of the land to be gained from the sea is deduced from well-
ascertained physical facts, and the works by which it is to be
reclaimed and protected are based on sound engineering prin-
ciples, that the result may safely be relied on as successful.

* See "Times," " Daily Telegraph," " Edinburgh Cou rant," &c. , for January
1874.

CONTENTS.

PAQB

INTRODUCTION 1

CHARTER I.

THE PROTECTION OP LAND FROM THE WASTING ACTION
OF RIVERS.

Abrading action of rivers, illustrated by the Forth. — Winding rivers may
be improved by " cuts." — Remedial works for checking abrading action
of rivers — by making the surfaces of the banks smooth and uniform —
by planting willows and reeds — by depositing stones on the face of the
banks — by timber pile-work and the deposit of fascines of brushwood. —
Examples of river embankments

CHAPTER II.

THE PREVENTION OF RIVERS, WHEN IN FLOOD, OVER-
FLOWING LOW-LYING TRACTS OF LAND.

lood- Water passed by rivers bears no constant ratio either to their summer
water discharge or to the drainage area. — Ordinary and extraordinary
floods. — Quantity of water passed off different lands during floods. —
Moray shire floods. — Cause of flooding of rivers. — Remedial measures for
checking flooding. — Navigation works on the lower reaches of rivers
have diminished flooding 13

Vlll CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER III.

THE RECLAMATION AND PROTECTION OF TIDAL LANDS
SITUATED ON ESTUARIES.

Object of tidal reclamations. — Interest taken in the subject at present. —
Dee reclamations. — Land-making schemes and navigation not always
compatible. — "Warping." — Amount of matter held in suspension in
different estuaries.— Land made by tidal deposits a slow process.—
Level at which vegetation appears. — Interests of agriculture and naviga-
tion are often identical. — "Warping" maybe hastened by very slight
works. — Time at which marsh -land is fit for inclosure. — Agricultural
treatment of reclaimed land. — Conditions which are necessary to pro-
fitable reclamation 22

CHAPTEE IV.

EXAMPLES OF TIDAL RECLAMATIONS.

Examples of tidal reclamations at Lough Foyle, Morecambe Bay, the Dee,
the Tay, the Lune, the Humber, the Kibble, the Nith, the Forth, and
the Tees. — Line of conservation for estuarial reclamation works . . 44

CHAPTER V.

THE DEFENCE OF SEA-SHORES AGAINST THE ACTION
OF THE WAVES.

Works should not be of an aggressive character, but purely for defence. —
Rubble moles. — Groins. — Continuous line of piling with occasional low
jetties. — Drainage of Reclamation Works . . . . . .60

INTRODUCTION.

T is needless to inquire at what date and in what country
attention was first directed to the reclamation and protection
of land, as such an inquiry would not afford any satisfactory
or useful result. But it is well known that the subject has long
engaged the attention of engineers, and is viewed as of great
practical importance by agriculturists. It has occurred to me,
therefore, that an exposition of the state of our knowledge regard-
ing this branch of agricultural engineering, founded on personal
experience and study of the principal rivers and estuaries of
the United Kingdom, may prove not uninteresting to the mem-

(rs of the Highland Society.
In offering this exposition of an extensive subject, it may
as well in the outset to explain, that I do not propose
to describe those gigantic land-making and land-improving
works carried out in early times in some foreign countries,
and to which the kingdom of Holland, for example, may
be said in a great measure, if not altogether to owe its
existence, and the fertile banks of the Po their productive-

"A ON THE RECLAMATION

ness. A wide enough field of observation may be found
within our own country, where, in prosecuting the ordinary
pursuits of agriculture, thousands of acres of barren sands and
flooded marshes have been converted into valuable land, and
many rivers have been confined within reasonable bounds by
engineering works of greater or less magnitude. Neither do I
propose to discuss questions of hydraulics, which belong to
pure engineering, or to state details of construction that have
already been given in many interesting papers in the Society's
Transactions, describing individual reclamation improvements.
My object is rather to show, generally, in what way engineer-
ing is connected with agriculture in the important work of re-
claiming and protecting land — what are the varied conditions
of exposure and locality which render such protection neces-
sary,— and what description of work is best adapted to each
particular case, for the information not so much of engineers,
as of agriculturists, to whom this communication is specially
addressed.

The general feature of all low-lying lands intersected by rivers,
of all marsh lands on the borders of tidal estuaries, and
of some extensive tracts of land along the sea-coast, is their
liability to injury, and their need of protection by artificial
works, and the elements with which the engineer has to con-
tend in effecting agricultural improvements in such situations
are, river-currents and floods, tidal-currents and sea-waves. The
subject, therefore, with which we have to deal embraces distinct
compartments, each of which has its own characteristic features
and treatment, and it may perhaps be most conveniently con-
sidered under the following general sections : —

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

I. The protection of land from the wasting action of rivers.

II. The prevention of rivers, when in flood, overflowing low-
lying tracts of land.

III. The reclamation and protection of tidal lands situated
on estuaries ; and

IV. The defence of sea-shores from the action of the waves.
Large tracts of peat bog, such as Blair Drummond moss in

Perthshire, and of waste land, such as the Fylde of Lancashire,
as well as land submerged by lochs, as Loch Leven in Kinross-
shire, have been reclaimed and brought into cultivation ; but
these improvements having been effected by drainage, do not,
it will be seen, come within the range of the topics treated of
in this paper.

CHAPTER I.

THE PROTECTION OF LAND FROM THE WASTING ACTION OF

RIVERS.

Abrading action of rivers, illustrated by the Forth. — Winding rivers may be
improved by "cuts." — Remedial works for checking abrading action of
rivers — by making the surfaces of the banks smooth and uniform — by plant-
ing willows and reeds — by depositing stones on the face of the banks — by
timber pile-work and the deposit of fascines of brushwood. — Examples of
river embankments.

IN considering the first of the topics to be discussed, which
refers to the wasting action of rivers on their banks, the follow-
ing general statements may be made : —

1. The scouring or abrading action of a stream is influenced
by its velocity.

2. The velocity again is influenced by the fall or slope on
its surface.*

3. The effect of the scouring action on the adjoining banks
is further influenced by their geological formation, — experiments
having shown that ordinary sandy soil is moved by a current
having a velocity of about half a mile an hour, and that a cur-
rent of about one mile per hour will move fine gravel, while
heavy gravel resists a current of upwards of two miles per
hour.

* When a river is in train also by its hydraulic mean depth.

ON THE PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

An illustration of the abrading action of small rivers or streams
may be found whenever they traverse a flat alluvial tract of
country. If the velocity of the stream be sufficiently great
to abrade the banks, it will commence an attack at some vul-
nerable point where the soil is very soft. This soft bank soon
assumes a concave outline, round which the stream sweeps
and impinges with violence directly on the opposite bank,
which, in its turn, soon yields to the abrading action, and
another concavity is hollowed out in a direction opposite to that
first formed. In this way the river, deflected from bank to bank,
enlarges its bends and lengthens its course. But as the length
of its course increases, the gradient and velocity of the stream are
reduced, and its abrading power, which, as we have said, depends
on the velocity, may ultimately by successive bends be so dimi-
nished that the original destructive current becomes a placid
stream, incapable of making further violent inroads on the banks ;
and to this state of permanent conservation many of the tortuous,
sluggish rivers to be seen meandering through the flat meadow
lands of England have been brought, but the sluggishness of
such streams may have been attained at a considerable sacrifice
of valuable land. Perhaps the most notable instance, on a large
scale, inScotland, of a winding river is the Forth. The straight
distance from Stirling to Alloa is about 5 miles, which with a fall
of 13 feet between the two places gives a gradient of 2 feet 7
inches per mile, but following the course of the river the dis-
tance is about 10 miles, giving a gradient of about 1 foot 3
inches per mile, while the land occupied by the '* Links " or
" bends " amounts to nearly 500 acres unavailable for cultiva-
tion. In referring to this case, I do not wish in any way to

6

ON THE RECLAMATION

countenance the idea, that either in the interests of agricul-
culture or navigation it would be profitable or desirable to form
a straight cut from Stirling to Alloa. I only refer to it as being
perhaps the most remarkable instance, in our country, of a
winding river which has attained a permanent course, and its
bed and banks a state of stability.

Figl.

There are, however, many winding rivers where a " cut" may be
made with great advantage, as at the river Rinnel,inDumfriesshire,
which is shown in fig. 1. That " cut," which was formed under
the directioiiof Messrs I). & T. Stevenson, was made chiefly for

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 7

the better regulation of the boundaries of the march lines of the
adjacent properties. It will be seen that the river was, in that in-
stance, carried through a narrow neck of land measuring about
500 feet, and saving a detour of upwards of 4500 feet. Fig 2.
is a cross section of the new channel. To the effect of such
alterations on a river's banks and floods I shall have occasion
to refer hereafter, and merely add here that the cut at the
Kinnel was formed twenty years ago, and Sir William Jardine,

C __ FjmMr Surface of Grnuncl

Fig 2.

through whose property it was made, informs me that it " has
proved most satisfactory in every respect, and that the banks
have stood without any necessity for repair."

The violence of scouring action is also well illustrated on
rivers with steep gradients and high velocities flowing through
a channel having alternately high gravel scars and flat gravel
banks. Such, for example, as the Ae in Dumfriesshire, which
at some places has a fall of 45 feet per mile. In all such cases,
the river highly charged with gravel has its power of erosion
greatly augmented, and very speedily hollows out its solid banks,
and makes serious inroads on the adjoining property, and, if
unchecked, will continue to abrade the banks to an extent that
may interfere with existing roads and fences, and thus prove
highly prejudicial. In my own experience I have found both
fences and roads carried away, to the great inconvenience of the
public and damage to property.

ON THE RECLAMATION

The remedial measures for checking the abrading action re-
ferred to are, the planting of willows or reeds on the banks, the
deposit of broken stones of sizes varying with the exposure,
timber piling and planking, and the deposit of fascines or
faggots of brushwood. It may, however, be safely affirmed
that nothing tends more to the protection of a river's banks
than a uniformly smooth surface. The water in such a case
meeting no obstruction, glides gently past without resistance.
But if the banks have from neglect got into a rugged, uneven
state, they are comparatively easily excavated by the current ;
and it may be well to keep in view that an inoffensive, sluggish
stream, which passes quietly along a smooth bank, will become
a formidable excavator if there be opposed to its otherwise gentle
flow a succession of rugged protuberances. Each of such pro-
tuberances, though on a small scale, acts in the same way as a
jetty, the water is heaped up on its upstream side, and flows with
increased velocity and scouring power round its extremity, and
the river thus becomes more destructive in wasting its banks.

In all cases, therefore, where such streams intersect valuable
property, all irregularities and incipient wastings in the banks
should be repaired without loss of time after the occurrence of
each flood.

In many cases, howrever, such repairs cannot be conveniently
made until the wasting has proceeded so far as to render neces-
sary some of the works to which I have referred, — such as the
deposit of stone, broken like large road metal, in sufficient
quantity to make a new face to the river's bank, which is a
simple and often efficient means of defence, and should in
all cases be first tried; But where the current is strong

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 9

enough to sweep away road metal, or even large material,
and especially where it has formed an acute bend in the bank,
and hollowed out a deep pool in the bed of the river, works
of a more expensive character may be required such as I
have shown on the accompanying cut, fig. 3, which has, with

Fig. 3.

modifications to suit the localities, been executed with good
effect. It consists, as will be seen, of round piles and cross
planking with back piles and cross ties backed with fag-
gots and clay. Upon the top of this rest layers of faggots,
the whole being surmounted by a turfed embankment, and
protected at the bottom by rubble stones. Figs. 4 and 5 are
sections of other forms of protection adapted to situations
where the depth of water is not so great, and with some modi-
fication in the arrangement and sizes of the materials to suit
special circumstances, I have found that the styles of con-

10

ON THE RECLAMATION

struction shown in these three sections were useful in many
cases where protection was necessary.

^To'T>e 'filled -up
to Grass ' line ' ~

Fig. 4.

I may only repeat, on this branch of the subject, that early
careful attention may often avert the necessity of subsequent

> 3 »0 <

Fig 5.

expensive works, and that the timely planting of &few willow sap-
lings may avoid the driving of many piles of full-grown timber.

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

11

The junction of two rivers is often the occasion of much
injury, by causing extensive diversions of the channel, particu-
larly if the axes of the two streams form a large angle at the
point of junction, as will be seen from fig. 6, in which the

arrows represent the junction of the Ae and Kirkburn, and
the same objectionable feature will be seen in the junction of
the Kinnel and the Annan, to which I have already referred
at page 6. In such cases, according as either river happens to
be in higher flood, the stream below the junction is forced
to one or other side, and when the valley through which it
flows is broad, and the banks are composed of soft material,

12 ON THE KECLAMATION OF AGRICULTUEAL LAND.

the river may be found shifting its channel from side to side
of the valley, and devastating all the intervening land. This
may sometimes be obviated by diverting the courses of the
rivers immediately above their junction, in such a direction
and to such an extent that at the point where they unite the
direction of their respective currents should be as nearly as
possible parallel. But the configuration of the ground and
the boundaries of the adjacent properties may present such
difficulties and involve such cost as to render such a work
practically impossible, and, in that case, the river must be left
to take its course, and the land within reach of its flood lines
abandoned for all agricultural puposes.

CHAPTER II.

THE PREVENTION OF RIVERS, WHEN IN FLOOD, OVERFLOWING
LOW-LYING TRACTS OF LAND.

Flood-Water passed by rivers bears no constant ratio either to their summer water
discharge or to the drainage area. — Ordinary and extraordinary floods. —
Quantity of water passed off different lands during floods. — Morayshire
floods. — Cause of flooding of rivers.— Remedial measures for checking flooding.
— Navigation works on the lower reaches of rivers have diminished flooding.

THE second branch of the subject relates to the protection of
low-lying lands against the effects of river floods.

With reference to such inundations, I may here repeat what
I have elsewhere stated,* that the quantity of flood water passed
by rivers bears no constant ratio either to their summer water
discharge or to their drainage area. This conclusion is the
natural consequence of the very different geographical and
agricultural characteristics of the districts through which rivers
flow.

The drainage area in one situation, for example, may include
large tracts of hill country, having steep and scantily soiled
slopes, from which the rain is readily discharged. In other
places the surface may be flat, or gently rising deeply soiled
land, absorbing much of the rain that falls, and giving it off

* The Principles and Practice of Canal and River Engineering. A. & C. Black,
Erlinr., 1872.

14 ON THE RECLAMATION

only by slow degrees. The discharge of other districts, again,
may be much influenced by their geological formation and the
absorbing power of the underlying strata.

Agricultural improvements, also, exert an important influence
on the drainage of land, large tracts of sheep grazing pasture,
for example, being less absorbent than an equal area of well-
drained arable land. Again, all rivers which flow from lakes
may be said to have natural reservoirs at their source for the
storage of surplus water, which tends to check the floods in
the low country. But this, again, is not always the case, for
it has been found at the Tay, which flows from Loch Tay — a
sheet of water 14 miles long and three-quarters of a mile
broad — that in heavy westerly gales the wind acting on so long
a reach heaps up the water at the outlet, and, if combined with
heavy rainfall, greatly increases the flood in the river. It thus
appears that there are so many local circumstances which affect
the frequency and severity of floods in different localities, that
no rule generally applicable can be stated regarding them.
What may be termed the ordinary floods of rivers generally
occur with heavy rain and melting snow, for then the bed of
the river has to discharge a compound flood made up of what
is falling in the form of rain and what is draining off the land
as melted snow. But extraordinary floods, affecting a limited
area, may occur at any period in connection with thunderstorms,
and it is the fact, that some of the most remarkable floods, such
as that in the northern counties of Scotland in 1829, occurred in
August, and were due, not to a sudden thunderstorm, but to
the continuance of heavy rainfall over a large district of
country, and in the instance referred to, 3| inches of rain fell

*

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 15

between 5 o'clock on the morning of the 4th and 5 o'clock on
the morning of the 5th of August. Various formulae have been
suggested for calculating the flood discharge due to a given area
of land, but the information as to the amount of flood water said

have been discharged from different districts of country is so
discordant, due no doubt to the varied physical conditions above
noticed, that it seems to me to be impossible with elements so
variable to found any formula that can be generally useful.

It may not be uninteresting to state, however, that the quan-
tity of water passing off during high floods is variously given
by different authorities at from 1 foot to nearly 100 cubic feet
per minute per acre for the districts in which the observations
were made. The highest gauging I have ever got was ] 5 cubic
feet per minute per acre from a town district of 630 acres,
after three days of nearly continuous rainfall. Thunderstorms,
however, discharge a very much greater amount during their
short duration, and it is stated that, in August 1846, during
a thunderstorm in London, 3'3 inches fell in two hours and
twenty minutes, being 85 cubic feet per minute per acre. I
think that, with our present information, the only general
result to be gathered from records of floods is, that the flood
discharge bears a higher ratio to the ordinary discharge in small

n in large rivers. This is due to the fact that in a small
iver a rainfall may affect and swell every one of its drains

d feeders at the same time, whereas, in a larger river the

infall may be confined to one district only, and thus the
flooding is modified in its amount. It follows, therefore, that
the smaller streams or burns intersecting a property at a place-
far removed, it may be, from the main stream, may, especially

16 ON THE RECLAMATION

if their slope and sectional area be small, be subject to sudden
and destructive floods bearing a very high ratio to their ordinary
discharge.

But under whatever circumstances and to whatever extent
the floods in rivers take place, their destructive effect on pro-
perty is too well known to require illustration, and the means
of securing the prevention or amelioration of such disasters
cannot receive too much attention. In using the words pre-
vention or amelioration, it is perhaps almost unnecessary to
explain that I do not refer to floods of .such calamitous and
overpowering violence as that already alluded to, which occur-
red in Morayshire in 1829, and has been so well recorded by
Sir T. Dick Lauder, as " bordering on the marvellous, and ruin-
ing property to an extent that defies calculation." * On that
occasion the Spey, where fully a mile wide, rose 10 feet 2 inches,
and where half a mile, 13 feet 9 inches. The Doveran rose 18
feet ; the Dee in Braemar, with an average breadth of 130 feet,
rose from 15 to 16 feet; and the Findhorn at some places rose
as much as 50 feet above its summer water level. Such a visita-
tion is clearly beyond all human control, but the remarks I have
to offer refer to certain periodic inundations which, in some
localities, are of occasional if not frequent occurrence, and are
regarded as phenomena that may be expected at least every
two or three years, almost as certainly as the biennial equi-
noctial spring tides of the ocean ; and though the districts over
which such occasional floodings extend may form but a small
portion of the agricultural area of the country, still the very

* Account of the Morayshire floods of 1829.

:

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 17

t of their periodic occurrence to a greater or less extent in
many rivers gives the subject a general interest.

Perhaps it may seem almost unnecessary to say that flooding
takes place when the combined sectional area of a river channel

d the fall on its bed do not afford sufficient discharge for
the passage of the drainage water. The obstruction due to
deficient sectional area may be lessened, or perhaps altogether
removed by enlarging the channel of the river, while that due
to insufficient fall may often be removed by making a short
cut instead of a long detour, as already noticed at page 6, and
thus increasing the slope of the surface and the velocity of the
current, and when such operations cannot be carried out, or
do not either singly or combined afford sufficient relief, recourse
must be had to artificial embankments.

In forming straight cuts to shorten a river's course and
increase the fall on its surface, and, consequently, its velocity,
care must be taken that the inclination be not so much
increased as to produce a current so rapid as to injure the banks
of the new cut; and as their liability to injury (as explained in
treating of the abrasion of banks) depends on the materials
of which they are composed, it is not possible to lay down
any rule of universal application in deciding what rate of
inclination may safely be adopted. The formation of a new cut

channel is, however, a work that should not be undertaken
without careful consideration of all the circumstances, as such a
work may in some cases prove injurious to the bed and banks
below the point where it joins the original course of the river,
and thus prove detrimental to the interests of adjoining pro-
prietors.

18 ON THE RECLAMATION

I may here remark in passing, that the currents of large rivers
vary as the place of observation is narrow or wide, and also as
the flow is that of ordinary or of flood water, and that the velo-
city of such rivers as the Thames, the Tay, or the Clyde may,
according to their different conditions of flood, be found to vary
from about one mile per hour as a minimum, to about three
miles per hour as a maximum velocity. Smaller rivers with
steeper slopes have higher velocities. I have found the cur-
rents of such rivers as the Water of Leith, for example, in flood
at places where the gradient of the bed varies from 25 to 32
feet per mile, to run at rates varying from 3f to 5| miles
per hour. Still more rapid currents will be found where the
bed is still steeper, until we reach the mountain torrent carrying
everything before it in its rapid descent.

The details of two very good examples of checking the flooding
of land by widening and straightening rivers, and thus increasing
their power of discharge, are to be found in the Transactions of
the Society — the one an account of the improvement of the pas-
turage lands on the Torran in Caithness, by Mr James Purves,*
and the other a paper by Mr Blaikie on the Improvements of the
Don in Aberdeenshire.^ But it is not often that the divisions
between the properties of conterminous proprietors admit of
extensive deviations of a river's course, and even when no such
difficulty occurs, the formation of the country itself may render
such a work impracticable. Proprietors are, therefore, generally
obliged to resort to artificial embankments for the protection
of their own lands, and such works are, as is well known,
extensively employed for that purpose. Their proper construc-

* Series iv. vol. ii. p. 439. t Ibid. ii. vol. ii. p. 75.

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 19

Aon has received much attention, as may be learned from the
numerous papers describing them and their effects, as executed
in different localities, which have appeared in the Transac-
tions, among which I may refer to the communications of Mr
Hamilton,* Mr Udney,t Mr Menzies,J and more recently to
the'papers of Mr Sutter,§ and Mr Milne,|| communicated to the
Society in 1858.

With reference to protecting banks, it may be stated that ex-
perience has shown that they should invariably be placed, if prac-
ticable, at such a distance from the edge of the river as to leave
a solid foreshore. Care should be taken that no abrupt angles or
bends be formed, but that their line of direction should be carried
in easy curves. They may be composed of almost any firm mate-
rials which will compact solidly together, the best perhaps being
a mixture of clay and sand. All combinations of walls of
masonry with embanking, which have sometimes been recom-
mended, should invariably be avoided, as it is impossible to effect
any proper bond or union between the earthwork and the
masonry, and such composite structures are likely to result in
failure. The surface of all banks, particularly that next the
river, should be turfed, and the back slope sown with grass as
speedily as possible, and no hedges, brush-wood; or trees should
be planted on artificial embankments. When the subsoil on
which the bank is formed is gravelly and porous, trouble may
occur from the passage of water under the embankment, and,
in such cases, it may be found necessary to sink a trench and

* Series ii. vol. ii. p. 97. t Ibid. vol. vii. p. 100.

£ Ibid. vol. vi. p. 489. § Series iii. vol. viii. p. 317.

|| Ibid. vol. viii. p. 427.

20 ON THE RECLAMATION

fill it with clay puddle. The ordinary dimensions for such
embankments are that they rise about 2 feet above flood level,
that they have a top width of 3 feet, with a slope of 3 to I
towards the river, and 2 to 1 towards the land ; it will hardly
be desirable to attempt to construct such defence flood embank-
ments when they are likely to be exposed to a greater pressure
than 4, or at most 5 feet, as their cost will then become too
great, and the difficulty and risk of construction too formidable
for private enterprise.

As the effect of all such embankments is to prevent the
river from spreading over flat tracts of country, so their tendency
is to cause a greater discharge and higher velocity through
the natural channel of the river, and to increase the abrading
power of the current on the bed and banks. Again, if the
works of protection include only one side of the river, the
result may be to increase flooding on the opposite bank, if it
be not similarly protected. Hence such operations on the part
of proprietors have led to serious legal proceedings, which
renders it advisable not to embark in the formation of such
works without careful consideration of the consequences.

The remarks I have offered refer, it will be seen, to works
made purely in the interests of agriculture. But the beneficial
effects which have followed extensive navigation improvements
in lessening the floods in some of our large rivers are highly
important and deserving of notice.

The works executed in improving the navigation of the lower
reaches of the Tay, the Clyde, and the Tees, have lowered the
level of the low-water line, and the power of discharging flood
waters with an ebbing tide ; and, accordingly, we find ample

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 21

proof that the flooding of the lower districts of the towns of
'erth, Glasgow, and Stockton, the ports of these rivers, is
msibly diminished both in frequency and extent. On the
bher hand, the danger of rashly obstructing the flood water
mnnels of rivers is well illustrated on a large scale in many
dlway and road-works throughout the country, where lines
)f railway or road have been injudiciously carried across flat
haugh land on solid embankments of earth-work. Cases must
suggest themselves to the recollection of the reader, where great
injury has followed the construction of such works, — injury
which could only be remedied at great expense by enlarging
the water-ways of bridges, and converting solid embankments
into open viaducts for the free passage of flood water — a
relief to the submerged land which I have recommended in
several cases where I have been consulted.

CHAPTER III.

THE RECLAMATION AND PROTECTION OF TIDAL LANDS
SITUATED ON ESTUARIES.

Object of tidal reclamations. — Interest taken in the subject at present. — Dee
reclamations. — Land-making schemes and navigation not always compatible.

— "Warping." — Amount of matter held in suspension in different estuaries.

— Land made by tidal deposits a slow process. — Level at which vegetation
appears. — Interests of agriculture and navigation are often identical. —
" Warping" may be hastened by very slight works. — Time at which marsh-
land is fit for inclosure. —Agricultural treatment of reclaimed land. — Condi-
tions which are necessary to profitable reclamation.

WHAT has hitherto been said refers solely to regulating or
controlling the flow of rivers. The next branch of the subject,
embracing the reclamation of lands on the shores of estuaries,
introduces a different feature ; and although much that has
already been said regarding currents and embankments will
be found to apply to reclamations in estuaries, yet the lands we
are about to consider in one respect at least differ from those
already noticed, inasmuch as, being within sea mark, they are
subject to all the influences consequent on the constant flow
and ebb of the tides.

The object of such works is to reclaim those low lying sand-
banks, mudbanks, and marshes to be found in all estuaries and
outfalls of rivers which are left dry on the receding of the

ON THE RECLAMATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 23

tide, and are thus, according to their level, rendered more or
less easily convertible into pasture or corn-growing land.

It is not for the agriculturists of the British Isles alone that
the subject of reclamation has an interest. Even in the United
States of America, with all its vast tracts of unoccupied land,
attention is now being directed to gaining land on the margins
of the bays and estuaries on the eastern shores of the country ;
and the National Society of Paris have recently invited communi-
cations to be made to them during the year 1874, "on the
embankment and reclamation of land from the sea." Still more
recentty, Mr Eintoul, of Kingston, in East Lothian, has sug-
gested that our Government might profitably make use of the
Crown right to the foreshores within high-water mark by form-
ing sea embankments. That the subject is exciting much atten-
tion cannot therefore be doubted, and that reclamations have in
certain situations and under certain circumstances been success-
fully carried out has been fully established. But it would be
very erroneous to assume that every foreshore uncovered at
low water may profitably be converted into arable land ; and
as there is reason to believe that much misconception exists
on the subject, I have thought it might be useful to discuss
at some length our experience of the methods adopted in
forming reclamations, and the practical results which have
been obtained under different physical circumstances.

The area reclaimed from the estuary of the Dee, which is
now fertile land, was originally pure sandbank covered by all
spring-tides, and utterly unavailable for any useful agricultural
purpose, and as it is a good example of such tidal reclamations,
it may be interesting to give a brief outline of what has there

24 ON THE RECLAMATION

been accomplished. The Elver Dee Company, incorporated by
Act of Parliament in 1732, has from time to time reclaimed from
this tide -covered waste a large tract of land extending to about
4000 acres, which is now in full cultivation ; and alongside of
this gradually gained territory the river has been conducted from
Chester to near Flint, for the purpose of navigation, in a narrow
canal of about 8 miles in length, and 400 feet in width. A
considerable portion of land has also been reclaimed on the
Flintshire side of the estuary, though not by the proprietors
of the Dee Company ; and it is believed that the aggregate amount
which has, from first to last, been gained from the sea is about
7000 acres.

The process followed in carrying out these land-making
works was to construct a high bank rising 9 feet above the
level of high water, so as to confine the river to the south
side of the estuary. The tidal water, which was admitted to
flow freely between this bank and the north coast, gradually
deposited layer after layer of sand and silt, and, in fact, shut
itself out ; and so soon as the surface had attained a sufficiently
high level, a cross bank was constructed between the main
embankment and the north shore, and thus the large area as
above stated was lit ly lit reclaimed. The reclaiming banks
were gradually strengthened and pitched with stone on the
outer face, and substantial self-acting sluices were formed, which
close against the ingress of the rising tide, but being open at low
water, allow the drainage water to escape from the reclaimed
ground, some of which is still below the level of high water.

It may here be well, in passing, to observe, that land-making
schemes constructed on such a principle prove generally in-

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

25

jurious to navigation, and that of the Dee Company which I have
iescribed is no exception. But it is of greater importance,

jrhaps, to state that navigation improvements, as will be
shown hereafter, may, if judiciously carried out, be made to
)romote the acquisition and protection of land as well as
:he interests of navigation, as for example, at the Bibble and
the Lune in Lancashire, and thus to serve at once the two-
fold interests of navigation and agriculture. I know from
experience, that had proprietors of land and conservators of

ivigations, in many tidal estuaries, worked harmoniously to-
gether in jointly carrying out such improvements as would have

mefited both interests, much unnecessary litigation might have
prevented, and a result more satisfactory to both parties
might have been attained. Such a land-making scheme as
that of the Dee can be successfully taken up only by a powerful

>mpany. But many useful reclamations have been effected

ithout recourse to such extreme measures, advantage being
:en of a slow and almost unseen process, whereby, under
favourable physical circumstances, aided sometimes by the help
of very slight appliances to hasten and secure the deposit, the
surface of the banks is gradually raised by the alluvial matter
left by each receding tide, and it is often in carrying out these
isolated and gradual reclamation works, that the interests of
>roprietors and conservators come into collision, and that a

)int plan of works would be very desirable.
The gradual process of reclamation to which I have alluded
often resorted to by proprietors, is termed " warping."
The tide is permitted to flow freely over the surface, and what-
ever matter is deposited at slack tide contributes to the accre-

26 ON THE RECLAMATION

tion, so that the rate at which the process of reclamation goes
on must depend on the quantity of matter held in suspension
and the shelter of the situation, so as to give sufficient dura-
tion of still water for its deposit.

The amount of matter held in suspension varies, as may
be readily supposed, in different estuaries ; in some situations
it is derived from the action of the sea on a wasting line of
coast, in others from alluvial matter brought down by the
river, and in most cases, perhaps, from both of these sources
of supply. The size of the detrital particles carried by the
currents of estuaries or rivers depends on the velocity of
the stream, the nature of the bottom along which the detritus
is moved, as well as the shape of the particles of which that
detritus is composed, and varies with the special circumstances
of each locality. Observations have been made on the quan-
tity of solid matter held in suspension by different rivers,
and repeated by various authors ; but these observations have
invariably been made in water taken from the main stream,
and cannot be held to apply to such cases of reclamation as
we are considering, the substratum of which is slob composed
of the finest silt, and submerged only by sluggish currents,
incapable of leaving anything but the finest matter deposited
on its surface. It has been stated that marshes on the
Seine require twelve years to rise to the level of high water,
thirty years on the Bay of Vays, and eighty years on the
Scheldt, and similar variations are to be found in statements
made by various authors. Mr Oldham * states that at Sunk

* On Reclaiming Land. By James Oldham, Min. of Proc. of Inst. of Civil
Engineers, vol. xxi.

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 27

Island, on the Humber, the reclamation was hastened by con-
structing a temporary or preliminary bank with a sluice, and
permitting the tidal water to flow over the land at high water,
when the sluice was closed, and the whole of the mud held
in suspension deposited, after which the sluice was raised so
as to allow the water to escape, leaving behind its load of
rich deposit. In this way he obtained in two and a half
years a deposit of three feet. The most rapid deposit which
has come under my own notice, was near the mouth of the
Avon, at the Severn, where the channel between Dumball
Island and the shore was silted up to the extent of 32 feet
in seven years. As a general rule, I have found that the
heavier sands and deposits are found on the banks at the
mouth of the estuary, and the particles are lighter as we recede
inwards.

Such reclamation of land, however, as is due to the deposit
left by the free and unobstructed flow of the tide is a very
slow process, because in proportion as the banks rise, they
are more seldom covered by the tide, and, moreover, the mate-
rials deposited in the higher parts of the banks are exceedingly
fine, being carried only by the slack water of highest tides, and
it is not until the surface has attained a pretty high level that it
can be regarded as land in any agricultural sense. It has been
very generally found in open estuaries where the reclamation
is permitted to go on undisturbed by encroachments of the river,
that vegetation, in the form of patches of aquatic plants, begins
to appear when the bank has reached the level of high-water
mark of neap tides. As it rises above this level, its surface
will be found to be more or less covered with patches of

28

ON THE RECLAMATION

III!

vegetable growth up to high water
of spring- tides, where the vegetation
attains a continuity and the land a
firmness from the roots of decay-
ing plants, such as to entitle it to be
termed " marsh-land," and when the
surface is not covered with reeds and
rushes it is fit for grazing. Below the
neap tide level, again, the surface is
what is called " slob/' consisting of sand
covered with mud, with no vegetation
whatever, and lower down there will be
found sand more or less pure accord-
ing to the situation. The disposi-
tion of those different limits will be
seen from the accompanying section,
fig 7. The upper or " marsh " portion
of the section corresponds to what
in England are locally termed " salt-
marshes" and "outmarshes," and in Scot-
land simply marshes. The aquatic plants
growing on these marshes are found
to vary according to their position.
If near the sea the plants predominat-
ing are those which flourish in saline
soils, such as marsh samphire, sea-pink,
&c. If the situation be more estuarial,
and more within the influence of fresh
or brackish waters, reeds, sedges, flags,

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND 29

and rushes will prevail. The surfaces of these naturally formed

racts of ground are, as may be gathered from what has been said,

n a pretty high level. I found the marshes of Salt-area,

Coleway, Ovangle, and Overtoil on the Lune, and of Clifton,

Howie, and Hesketh on the Eibble, to average about a foot below

high water of ordinary spring tides.

In connection with this gradual accretion and formation of
land, and the sudden changes which, if unprotected, it some-
times is destined to undergo, it may be interesting to the geo-
logist to state as having come under my own observation, that a
sandbank covered by every tide may, by a happy diversion of
the river, become in a few years useful pasture land ; while, on
the other hand, by another capricious change of the river's
course, the apparently permanent pasture meadow, the growth
of years, may suddenly disappear in a few tides, and the spot
where cattle have been grazing to-day may to-morrow once more
be the main channel of the river. Instances of such sudden
changes I have witnessed both on the Eibble and the Lune
before the courses of these rivers were controlled and directed by
proper works.

In my treatise on "Kiver Engineering" I have shown that
many cases the interests of navigation and agriculture are
dentical, and that the erection of training walls, such as shown
in fig. 7, by guiding the river, and thus improving the naviga-
ion, may, at the same time, greatly promote the interests of
iculture, by rendering such wholesale destruction as that to
which I have alluded impossible, and by converting reclaimed
marsh land into permanent property.

On the Tay and at other places the process of warping is

30 ON THE RECLAMATION

hastened by driving double rows of open pile work, and filling
the intervening space with faggots of brushwood weighted
down with stones, and as the surface rises additional faggots
are laid down, till the whole is sufficiently elevated to
warrant the exclusion of the water. Sir John Eichardson
has paid much attention to this on the Tay, and has com-
municated his experience to the Society's Transactions.*
He advocates especially the filling up of runs or waterways
caused by the running off of the receding tide, by running
lines of stakes and faggots across them, and advises that
these cross lines of stakes should be made lower in the centre,
with a rise towards both ends, so as to prevent the water
from escaping round the ends, and so forming new channels.
He also strongly recommends all surface water from the
adjoining land to be led by catch water drains clear of the
land proposed to be enclosed, or if that be impracticable, by
a properly constructed outlet through it, so as in any case
to prevent the water flowing over the surface of the marsh
or slob land. Sir John Eichardson tried very successfully
the planting of small patches of bulrushes over the slob
land, but from my experience as to the growth of vegetation
in such situations as above stated, the planting of patches
of bulrushes or marsh samphire need not be attempted at a
lower level than about the high water of neap tides, and it
does not appear that this was done on a lower level on the
Tay. The tenure by which such marsh lands are held has
been shown to be uncertain, excepting in estuaries where the
river is confined by training walls ; but even after such naviga-
* Series ii. vol. vi. p. 298.

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 31

I ion works have been executed the land is still submerged by
very high tide, and though this is not found to injure it
for pasture, it renders it quite unavailable for tillage without
orks specially constructed to afford protection from floods, and
rovide for effectual drainage. The erection of all such works
not be too carefully considered, and even after they have
n constructed they have to be closely watched, and are
often kept in repair at a constantly recurring expenditure.
The remarks I have made at page 9 regarding the construc-
tion of river flood embankments apply generally to those for
reclamation, and I need not repeat them here ; but the cross
section of such works must, of course, in all cases be regulated
by the exposure.

In making estuarial reclamations, it is of importance to
determine how soon marsh land may be considered fit for
enclosure, and on this point my experience leads me to conclude
that it is in general inexpedient to attempt to enclose land by
permanent banks until, by gradual deposit and subsequent accu-
mulation due to the decay of vegetable matter, its surface has
reached about the level of high water of ordinary spring tides.
I do not say it may not be done before this level is reached, for
land has, within my own knowledge, been enclosed at a con-
iderably lower level on some parts of the Tay, where the
arshes covered by reeds in sheltered places were found to be fit
r enclosure, though covered to the extent of from 3 to 4 feet
high water, and on the Forth still lower slob lands have
n inclosed. But, as a general rule, it is safe to assume
at the higher the level of the land the greater is the chance
of profitable reclamation. The inducement to place a protect^

32 ON THE RECLAMATION

ing bank in deep water, is, of course, the enclosure of as large
an area as possible. But greater extent of area may prove
of little or no advantage if the larger portion of the enclosure
is mere " slob " on a low level requiring a long period for its
accretion. Above all, such enclosures require banks of great
height and strength, which are more liable to be damaged,
both in the course of construction and after completion, than a
more unpretending, but perhaps in the end far more useful work
formed in shallower water. 1 have found, in estimating the cost
of banks proposed to be made on a low level, that the agricul-
tural gain was not commensurate with the cost and risk attending
their construction, while in some cases they would have proved
prejudicial to navigation. Generally speaking, indeed, proposals
to build banks in deep water including a large extent of " slob "
have, in my experience, been found to be fallacious. But even
though the reclamation be restricted to marshes that have
attained a pretty high level and a fair solidity of surface, there
are low "gulleys" or "swashways," as they are variously
locally termed, kept open and deep by the flowing and receding
tide ; and if these gulleys are large, it is often troublesome to
carry the embankments across them, for as the opening comes to
be contracted by the gradual formation of the bank, the scour
and depth of water are increased. In dealing with such cases,
it may be found advisable, instead of closing the gap by extend-
ing the bank from either side, to deposit on the bottom fascines
loaded with stones, and to bring up the whole surface of the
bank across the gulley gradually.

In making enclosures in front of rapidly rising high land, diffi-
culty may be experienced in consequence of land- water from

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 33

higher level finding outlets within the embankment, and
thus interfering with the thorough drainage of the reclaimed
land, — an inconvenience which is not so likely to occur in such
enclosures as are made in front of low lying tracts of country.

The time that must elapse before such enclosures may be
expected to become ready for the exclusion of the tidal waters
must, as we have seen, vary with the situation, the rate of
accretion depending on the amount of suspended matter in
the water and other circumstances, and even after the exclusion
of the tide, a considerable period elapses before the land is
ready for tillage. Many extensive tracts of " salt marshes " are
never enclosed, and although covered to a depth varying from
a few inches to a foot during high tides, they afford excellent
pasture. But if the land is to be cropped, the water must,
as already noticed, be wholly excluded.

The treatment of reclaimed marsh or slob lands in order to
fit them for the purpose contemplated by their enclosure, belongs
specially to agriculture, and not to engineering, and I am unable
to offer any opinion which could be of any value on that subject.
But, I think, it would be unpardonable were I to omit all
reference to this important matter, especially as it has been
very fully, and I should think judiciously, treated by the late
Mr John Wiggins, F.G.S., in his treatise on " Embanking Lands
from the Sea." I therefore offer no apology for giving the follow-
ing extracts from Mr Wiggins' book : —

" The various modes by which embanked lands may be brought
into a state of cultivation depend chiefly on the nature of
the soil. We are therefore now to contemplate an intake
securely embanked, with sluices of sufficient capacity to take

34 ON THE RECLAMATION

off the drainage down to 18 inches below the general level of
the surface of the intake. These are essential conditions on
which alone the work of cultivation can be commenced with any
hope of success, and these conditions being strictly fulfilled, we
now proceed to agricultural operations according to the nature of
the soil, which may be classed as clayey, sandy, and loamy, each of
which will require a somewhat different treatment in some
respects, though in other matters the treatment applies to all.
Thus, for instance, in the first agricultural operation, — viz., that
of enabling the soil which has so lately been supersaturated with
salt water, with all its chemical combinations, to part with so
much of its saline and other particles as may be in excess for the
purpose of vegetation, or in other words, to freshen the soil
sufficiently for land plants to thrive upon it, — the process will
be the same upon all these soils, and this process consists in
forming a series of surface drains by which the drainage waters
may run off, carrying with them such portion of the saline
and other particles as they may have been enabled to dissolve
and take up or absorb.

" But such channels and drains are to be made, not only
with the view of freshening the soil, but also in such manner as
to answer the ulterior purposes of fences, and of drains to carry
off the surface waters.

" The fences of an intake are usually marsh ditches or dykes*
of sufficient width and depth to prevent cattle attempting to
cross them, and an intake seldom admits of any other description
of fence. Such water fences and drains must, in the first
place, be drawn all round the intake, i.e., from the sluices by

* Dyke in Scotland means a dry stone wall ; in England a ditch.

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND 35

which the water is to escape along the land side of the sea bank
or wall, and along the edge of the higher lands of the adjoining
country. Having surrounded the level with these fences and
drains, the next operation is to divide it into marshes of such
convenient size as may be judged most judicious ; and this size
will be partly governed by the soil, — clayey soils parting with
their salt most reluctantly, and sandy soils most easily. It will
also be more strictly governed by the size most convenient for
occupation in the particular locality, and also by the desire to
save expenses ; but in general, sandy marshes may be considerably
larger than other soils, and there may even be some advantages
in leaving the interior of the level for some time without sub-
division, since it will be by no means wise to hasten the
process of freshening by sudden saturation, but on the con-
trary, to allow a considerable period of time to elapse before
any thought of cultivation is entertained, and during that period
to allow the level to remain sodden, only leading the surface
waters away gently into the circular dykes already described ;
and it may be very judicious to fill up the nearest of such
hollows with the stuff out of the circular dyke. This sodden-
ing or stagnation of the soil in a watery state is considerably
more applicable to sandy soils, and to such of those as have
before embankment been covered by every tide, than to clayey
soils, and will be quite unnecessary in such high fringes or
salts as have only been occasionally covered by the tide. But
the benefits of allowing the soil to remain for a length of time
under the influence of stagnant fresh water are great, since
it affords time for the decomposition of such animal and vege-
table matter as the sea -may have deposited in it, macerates

36 ON THE KECLAMATION

and dissolves the calcareous, shelly, and other such matter, and
even reduces the siliceous matter into a state of subdivision
resembling clay; and it amalgamates all those heterogeneous
particles, takes off their crudities, promotes or prepares them
for chemical combination, and reduces them to a state fit for
the purposes of fresh-water vegetation. We, however, dis-
approve any attempt at suddenly freshening the soil, and con-
sider that even the soddening process recommended should be
conducted with great care and caution, always gradually, but
neither allowing the water to remain too copiously nor too long,
nor suffering it to run off too quickly ; for this purpose, there-
fore, cuts or channels should be made from the lowest spots
of the level into the circular dyke, so that no water should
remain absolutely stagnant if it could be got off, but that at
the same time it should only be drawn off gradually. Thus,
supposing the whole level could be channelled within the first
year after shutting out the sea, and this was done only 12
inches deep, these channels should be allowed to remain at
that depth a full summer and winter at least, before deepening
them another 6 inches, bringing them to the ultimate depth
of 18 inches ; gradual freshening and maceration are essential
to future fertility, and require a longer time in proportion to
the quantity of saline matter, with reference to vegetation, at
the period of embankment."

"Thus we have brought the level into this state, viz., it has
a marsh dyke or water-fence surrounding it, and very numerous
channels throughout its surface leading the waters into the
marsh dykes, to the depth of 18 inches below the general sur-
face. The depth of the soil, we may now suppose, has been

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 37

to

vn

somewhat increased by the soil taken from the channels being
spread about. By this time several brackish plants, partly of
maritime and partly of a fresh water nature will have
appeared, and partially covered the surface ; these may be grazed

advantage, and as the surface soil freshens, it may be har-
rowed, and Dutch clover and rye grass may be sown and
rolled in, wherever the absence of other plants may allow
of them ; first, however, bestowing but a small quantity of
seed by way of experiment, and increasing this as success
may encourage from time to time. In a period varying from
three to seven years, according to the tenacity of the soil and
its height above the tide, the level will be fit to bear corn
and pulse. If its surface be coarse and uneven, and its soil
tenacious and stubborn, or what is called marsh clay, it may
be judicious to dig it over and level it at the same time, pre-
serving, however, the channels 'already dug; taking in the
first instance a crop of rape, which might judiciously constitute
the first crop, and may either be saved for seed or fed off, and
be succeeded in either case by oats, beans, and wheat ; but even
after the digging of such soils, they will require much tillage,
so as to thoroughly mix and pulverise them, and the bean crop
should be repeatedly well hoed and weeded. With good treat-
ent, however, such soils bear heavy crops of wheat and beans

succession, and when some degree of exhaustion calls for
relaxation of cropping, the course of fallow, oats, clover, wheat,
, will give all the produce that can reasonably be expected

m any land, the crops very commonly grown on .good soils

this kind being eight or ten quarters per acre of oats, four
to six quarters per acre of wheat, and about the same of beans.

38 ON THE RECLAMATION

This produce, however, must not be reckoned on as over the
whole surface ploughed and sown with these crops ; for at least
one-eighth to one-fifth thereof will be still too crude, too salt, too
wet, or too stubborn to bear perhaps any crops, or at most but
one-fourth of what is borne by the best parts. This drawback, to-
gether, with the expenses of cultivating this description of land,
soon points out that grass, not tillage, is its most profitable ulti-
mate destination, and accordingly it is found expedient to pre-
pare it for the true and legitimate purpose of an intake, viz., graz-
ing. But we must not fall into the error that because this is the
last, it may also be the first destination of the land, a course of
tillage being requisite for a time upon all the argillaceous soils
in order to mix and incorporate them, and to pulverise the
soil, so as to bring it into a fit state for the production of the
better kinds of grasses, otherwise the coarser will predominate,
and the value of the ground be much deteriorated. In propor-
tion, therefore, as the course of tillage is perfect without being
continued to exhaustion, and as the levelling and surface drain-
ing are well performed, so will be the productive value of the
grazing marsh which succeeds the tillage. Nor are these opera-
tions sufficient in stiff clayey soils ; such will require to have their
tenacity subdued or lessened, their working rendered easier, and
their pulverisation or admixture of parts more effectual by the
application of chalk. This supply of calcareous matter will also
act as a manure, and will not only increase its quantity of wheat,
but also tend much to improve its quality, to stiffen its straw, so
as to prevent or check its lodging, and the consequent deteriora-
tion of the grain. In these various ways an expense of L.5 per
acre thus incurred will soon be repaid, whilst its beneficial

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 39

effects on the soil will last at least twenty years, even under a
succession of cropping, but in grass would be permanent."

" The more siliceous soils, whether sandy or loamy, require less
chalk if any ; and as their texture is apt to be rather too open than
too close, lime is often much better adapted to them, if any manure
be at all needful, since an intake of soils of this kind generally
abounds with shelly fragments, enough to supply the requisite
quantity of calcareous matter. It may, however, be well worthy
of consideration, whether a supply of lime would not be advan-
tageous in setting to work that calcareous matter, and consoli-
dating the texture of the soil. The period of tillage should be
limited to such a space of time as may be sufficient, according to
the nature of the soil, to bring it into a fit state for the best grasses
to grow to perfection. This, on stiff clay lands, may be reckoned
as — 1, oats ; 2, beans ; 3, wheat ; 4, beans ; 5, wheat ; 6, clean
fallow ; 7, oats ; and lay this crop down with grass seeds."

" But on good silty loams a different mode and duration of
cropping may be adopted. Upon such lands, along the coasts
of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, the usual course of cropping is, —
1, beans ; 2, oats ; 3, wheat ; and they get better wheat after the
oats than before, the straw being less bulky, and less liable to
'go down.' But even in the case of such soils, if the argillaceous
particles are in such abundance as to produce an unctuous
texture, or slipperiness under the feet, when rather wet they
may judiciously be subjected to the rotation prescribed for clays,
and treated similarly."

" There must, however, be a very great difference of treatment
with regard to those slight, loose, sandy soils, of which some spots
of the intake level will be found to consist, when taken from

40 ON THE RECLAMATION

the low slobs of a sandy shore which has been covered by every
tide. Such loose sands, if blowing when dry, should be fixed as
soon as possible by any feedable grass that can be made to grow
upon them, until a better sward can be produced. On such loose
spots the Agrostis maritima, or seaside florin, has grown luxu-
riantly, especially when the stolons have been planted in a wet
sod of bog turf, and that trodden into the sand. The shoots
from these sets have been extremely vigorous ; the cattle have
sought and eaten them with avidity ; and the treading thus
induced has fixed the sand, whilst the droppings of the cattle,
containing the undigested seeds of other grasses, have soon
brought up a good sward wherever the drainage was sufficient
for its establishment."

" In such cases of loose sand no tillage can judiciously be con-
templated. Such soils are already sufficiently open to part with
their excess of saline particles, and are generally sufficiently
homogeneous not to require admixture by stirring, unless it be
by harrows on the surface to let in the Dutch clover seeds that
may, with propriety, be sown thereon, when that brought by
cattle shall be permanent enough to show an aptitude in the soil
for that plant. These seeds, after being thus sown in moist still
weather, should be rolled down, and if the soil has been well
drained and freshened, it is more than probable that a good
grazing marsh will be established at less expense and in less
time than could be effected by any other means, since if the
clover thrives, the cattle will lie so constantly on those spots as
to enrich them more than any others."

Mr Wiggins concludes by saying, that " the great and leading
points for the guidance of the adventurer in reclaiming his in-

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 41

take are the following : — To freshen gradually ; to drain effectu-
ally ; to cultivate perfectly ; to crop moderately ; to look to
grazing ultimately ; and to lay down to grass carefully."

Even, with all the difficulties that beset the subject, there can
be no doubt that the daily recurring sight of large tracts of banks
left high and dry by the receding tide, suggests the very natural
idea of easily excluding the sea and extending the land. It is
difficult, indeed, to suppose that any proprietor on the banks of a
tidal estuary can be indifferent to such a prospect of adding to
his fields, and hence attempts at such reclamation works on vary-
ing scales of magnitude are, we may say, almost universal. But
though the process may seem easy, and the object very tempting,
it is a great mistake to suppose that these estuarial tide-covered
banks can, in all cases, be converted into arable or even pasture
land at a cost commensurate with their future agricultural value,
or to assume that in order to increase the arable land of the
country, all we have to do is to steal it from the ocean. On the
contrary, as shewn by practical experience, the return for in-
vestment of capital on such improvements is always uncertain,
and has proved in many cases utterly insufficient. But in all
such questions the most reliable and valuable information is
that which is derived from practice, and I have therefore been
at some trouble to obtain authentic accounts of several reclama-
tions, most of which have been brought under my own notice in
connection with navigation works, and I offer no apology for laying
them at some length before the reader. These accounts refer, as
will be seen, to reclamations formed under very different circum-
stances as regards locality and construction, and being founded
on observations made by reliable independent authorities, who are

42 ON THE RECLAMATION

personally cognisant of what they state, must be regarded as
valuable records of ascertained facts. Some instances will be
found of reclamations, on a small scale in favourable situations,
being highly satisfactory, while similar works in less favourable
localities have not proved so successful. It further appears that
the larger class of modern reclamations do not as yet seem to
have afforded very satisfactory financial results when viewed as
agricultural schemes. While the most successful reclamations
are those where, in the first instance, the foreshore has been
accreted by extensive training walls, constructed to improve
navigations, and having the effect of raising the banks on either
side of the estuary to the level of high water of ordinary spring
tides, and thus rendering the subsequent reclamation-works
comparatively easy and inexpensive. In such cases, however, it
would be obviously quite fallacious to value the cost of reclama-
tion at the comparatively small outlay required to protect and
drain land that has already been raised by navigation works to
such a level, as to be covered only by high spring tides. These
records will also, I think, be found most fully to bear out the
views I have already stated, which may be briefly summarised in
the following general propositions : —

First, That in order to insure success, the space to be re-
claimed must be within the influence of water containing much
alluvial matter, and not on the shores of an open sandy estuary.

Second, That the spaces to be reclaimed should be allowed to
receive the deposit left by the tide for as long a period as pos-
sible, and the water should not be entirely excluded until they
have, by gradual accretion, attained the level, if possible, of high
water of ordinary spring tides.

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 43

Third, That by properly conducted survey and observations,
the amount and fertilising properties of the deposit should be
ascertained in order to determine, — first, over how many years
the process of reclamation is likely to extend ; and, second, what
may be the productive value of the soil deposited.

CHAPTER IV.

EXAMPLES OF TIDAL RECLAMATIONS.

Examples of .tidal reclamations at Lough Foyle. Morecombe Bay, the Dee, the
Tay, the Lune, the Humber, the Kibble, the Nith, the Forth, and the Tees.—
Extent of unreclaimed land in Britain. — Line of conservation for estuarial
reclamation works.

Lough Foyle.

The first case which I shall cite is Lough Foyle — a situa-
tion where the amount of salt water greatly preponderates over
the fresh, and where extensive reclamations have been made under
power granted by Act of Parliament. It is, in fact, a pure re-
clamation scheme, and I have received, from Mr G. Henry Wiggins
of Londonderry, some notes regarding it, from which I extract the
following interesting information : — After the salt water had been
excluded, shallow surface drains were formed, and in about two
years rye-grass grew pretty freely, but exceptional spots re-
mained barren for some time. The grass was followed by oats,
which improved as the salt left the soil. Deeper draining allowed
the cultivation of flax and clover. Afterwards, on still deeper
draining, all ordinary crops began to grow well, — wheat, beans,
turnips, mangold, and carrots, but all requiring as much manure
as any old upper land. These slob lands yield a great return for
manure, but must have manure on the lower and damper portions.
Fiorin grass grows well without manure.

RECLAMATION AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 45

Whenever the ditches have so far drained the soil as to allow
of its becoming cracked and open to the air, the crops begin to
increase in produce. But the full value of the soil is never
known until thoroughly under- drained with tile or stone ; it
then yields excellent crops of almost any produce, clover and
rye-grass for hay being perhaps the most profitable. Grazing the
land does not answer, except from the middle of May to the
beginning of September ; after this the soil is too cold and damp
for the beasts to lie down, and they begin to fail.

The expense of these intakes on the Foyle may be taken at
about L.20 an acre to get them from the sea, the expense of
bringing the land, when got into cultivation, will come to at least
L.10 more, making a total of L. 30 per acre. The best lands are
worth from 50s. to 40s. the Scotch acre, and the lowest and
wettest parts perhaps not more than 10s. — say 30s. as a fair
average. To this has to be added the expense of keeping up the
banks and pumping water. The above remarks may be held
generally to refer to reclamations made about the same time on
Lough Swilly, and certainly do not present encouraging views as
to these reclamations viewed as a mercantile speculation.

Morecambe Bay.

The reclamations made by the Ulverston and Lancaster Eailway
in Morecambe Bay were rapidly formed by the embankment for
carrying the railway, which was made in pretty deep water. Like
the Foyle, there is also a great predominance of sea water. From
G. Drewry, Esq., of Holker, in Lancashire, I have been favoured
with the following information : — A portion of the land enclosed
by the railway in 1856 was grassed over, and the remainder was

46 ON THE RECLAMATION

sand without any vegetation on it. After it was levelled it was
divided into fields by open ditches and iron fences. The ditches
had to be made very wide at the top in order to get them to
stand. The land was then drained with 3-inch pipes, each drain
opening into the ditch on each side of the field. The tiles were
embedded in peat moss, to act as a filter to prevent the sand run-
ning into them. The sand is so fine that, without this precau-
tion, the drains would have filled up yery quickly. The drainage
is the great difficulty, as the pipes are very apt to fill up after
every precaution has been taken.

On the portion which was grassed over before it was enclosed
two crops of oats were first taken, and then it was green cropped.
It grew for a few years good crops of wheat, beans, and clover,
as well as Swedish turnips and mangolds, but though a great
quantity of manure was used the crops fell off, and at present it
is nearly all in grass. The portion which was bare sand when it
was enclosed was treated in the same way, except as to the first
two crops of oats. It was green cropped after it had been enclosed
about two years. After the railway was made there was no
means for silting that portion of the enclosure which was sand.
The tide was entirely kept out. Had it been admitted the lands
would have been much more valuable and much higher. We
would then have had better drainage and a richer soil. That por-
tion which was grassed over at the time it was enclosed is still
much the best.

When land is reclaimed from the sea, the first thing to be
looked to is a good outfall for the water, and when it is possible
no doubt it is very desirable that the land should be silted up
gradually. In our case this could not be done, as the reclama-

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 47

tion of the land was a very secondary affair, it being a railway,
and not a reclamation scheme.

The Dee.

I have already described the works of the Eiver Dee Company.
My own opinion is, that had they been originally designed as
low rubble training walls to guide the channel by judicious lines
through the estuary, instead of confining it by a high embank-
ment to the south side, it would not only have been better for the
navigation, but more for the interests of the Dee Company.
However, the following extract from a letter addressed by W. J.
Hamilton, Esq., the chairman of the company, in 1845, to the
Tidal Harbours Commission, who were then holding an inquiry
at Chester, describes the financial position of the company as
follows* : — " The citizens of Chester, not having either the means
or inclination to make any efficient improvements of their har-
bour, certain individuals, afterwards incorporated as the Kiver
Dee Company (in 1732), undertook to do so on having, as a com-
pensation for the outlay of their capital, a grant of the White
Sands, then of no value whatever, with the right of imposing
tolls for the use of the improved navigation. Upon this agree-
ment the undertakers laid out nearly L.80,000 — a large sum one
hundred years ago — in making the present channel and outlets for
the river in lieu of the numerous streams through which the
river at that time flowed over the estuary, upon which out-
lay the original subscribers received no dividends or return for
nearly the first fifty years, and those who have since represented

* Tidal Harbours Commission, 1845, p. 318.

48 ON THE RECLAMATION

them have been receiving a dividend gradually increasing to 4J
per cent, per annum, which is now at last paid on each L.I 00
of original stock. Had that capital been originally invested at
interest in the Government Funds, or upon mortgage, it would, at
the end of the first fifty years, during which no return was re-
ceived upon that expenditure of capital, have amounted to a sum
far above the present value of the Eiver Dee Company's estate.

" This statement of facts will, it is hoped, be sufficient to
satisfy yourself and your colleagues (the letter is addressed to
Admiral Washington) " that the company's bargain has not been
so highly beneficial to them, nor so very prejudicial to the
citizens of Chester, as has been represented. I do not think it
necessary to refer further to the additional outlay incurred by us
from time to time after the original expenditure of L. 8 0,000 in
improving and maintaining the present navigation, but I will
rest satisfied with assuring you that the Eiver Dee Company has
derived no other return from that outlay than the dividend before
stated, and such prospect as they have of gradually and slowly,
and not without additional expenditure of capital or income,
reclaiming farther portions of this estuary."

The Tay.

I have already referred to Sir John Kichardson's experience on
the Tay, where the enclosures, on account of the limited depth
of water, and the favourable circumstances in which they were
made, were much more likely to lead to satisfactory results
than the cases I have cited. The water of the estuary of the
Tay, where Sir John Eichardson's reclamations were made, is
highly charged with alluvial matter, the slob lands are on a

AND PEOTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 49

pretty high level, and there were one or two small islets in front
of the property separated from the shore by shal^y channels, all
contributing to successful reclamation. Sir John Richardson
has kindly communicated the following notes regarding them:—
The first ^ggot dyke was run across to Cairnie Island in
1808-9, and 50 reclaimed acres (Scots) were under crop in 1826.
The first crop was oats, which was rent free, and it paid the
whole cost of the embankments (L.1400). The first ten years were
alternately white and green crops, and had one or two dressings
of lime, but no manure was required, and then a four shift rota-
tion commenced. The reclaimed land continues to be more
fertile than the adjoining land, which is also of excellent quality
—less manure is required for the reclaimed land, as some virgin
soil continues to be blended with the upper stratum when the
land is ploughed. To make it perfect it requires a little more
silica to strengthen the straw, which is scarcely stiff enough to
stand upright in a favourable season. On the whole, the opera-
tion has, in my case, been extremely profitable, and when ex-
hausted it can be refreshed by warping with the tidal waters.

The Lune.

Aldcliffe Marsh lands, on the Lune, extending to 160 acres,
were enclosed in 1820, and I am indebted for the following
notes regarding them to the proprietor, Edward Dawson, Esq. of
Aldcliffe Hall. " The land enclosed was previously an old marsh,
a good part of it covered with rushes. As it approached the
tide there was more silt, and it was partly covered with sward
and pastured with sheep.

" The whole was ploughed in 1821, being the spring after its

50 ON THE RECLAMATION

enclosure, and sown with oats, which proved a very fine crop.
This was succeeded by a four-course rotation, and continued in
crop till 1855, when it was gradually laid down in grass, as
more profitable than the cultivation of corn. It still remains in
grass, with the exception of ten acres. I consider the land quite
equal to the ancient enclosed land/'

This enclosure refers to land having had a long period for
accretion, being an " old marsh." The training walls on the
Lune, which were completed in 1851 by Messrs Stevenson,
have had the effect of fixing the channel, so as to allow the
marshes to extend their limits, but no additional land has been
enclosed by embankments in consequence of the navigation works.

The Huniber.

The Humber, as already noticed, is a river largely charged
with alluvial matter, and Mr Oldham states the following as his
experience, in the ' Proceedings of the Institution of Civil En-
gineers : ' — " Soon after the exclusion of the tidal water the
marine grasses and vegetation begin to die and decay, and in
the course of one or two years fresh- water grasses appear ; after
the lapse of about three years a tolerably good surface of pasture
is naturally formed. But that which is most surprising is the
spontaneous appearance and the growth on the enclosures of Sunk
Island of an entire covering of white clover, which presents it-
self within three or four years of the date of the exclusion of the
salt water. Where the land is destined for crop the first sown
is rape, about the third or fourth year after the enclosure, and
the produce is usually of extraordinary quantity and vigour.
The following season oats or beans may be sown, and then

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 51

wheat ; and perhaps of all districts of England the largest and
best crops may be found on Sunk Island, for the tenants admit
that the land produced upwards of six imperial quarters of wheat
per acre. Flax also is produced of a fine and valuable quality,
and in large quantities. The producing power of this description
of land is not limited to the growth of cereals or fibrous products,
but the finest roots, such as potatoes, turnips, mangold wurzel,
&c., are successfully cultivated. The climate is mild through
the winter, but it is hot in summer. The rainfall averages 18
inches per annum, and the harvest is frequently from one to two
weeks earlier than in the surrounding country." Mr Oldham states
the cost of the reclamation of these lands as varying from L.5 to
L.20 an acre.

The RilUe.

It would be difficult to find a case presenting more favourable
features for easy and profitable reclamation, on a reasonable
extent, than the Eibble, in Lancashire.

The Eibble Navigation Company in 1838 obtained an Act
for the improvement of the river, under the advice of Messrs
Stevenson, by whom the works were afterwards executed.

The only portion of these works to which it is necessary at
present to refer is the guiding of -the river by low rubble
training walls, which confined the navigable channel to a fixed
course, and, at the same time, allowed the tidal water to flow
freely over the banks on either side of the estuary, as will be
understood by referring to figure 7, at page 28. The anticipated
effect of this was to encourage the deposit of rich alluvial matters
on either side of the estuary, and as this deposit would no longer
be subject to encroachments by the river, it was expected that

52 ON THE RECLAMATION

ultimately a belt of marsh land would be formed all along the
shores. The Act directed that a plan of the banks of the
estuary should be made before the commencement of the
works, and that a similar plan should be made every tenth year
thereafter, showing the quantity of land gained from the river
within each such period of years. It further enacted that at the
end of every successive ten years three persons should be no-
minated— one by the Eibble Navigation Company, another by
the owners of the adjoining land, and the third by the two
persons so nominated — as arbiters to fix the quantity of land so
gained, to settle its value, and fix the annual rents to be paid to
the company by the landowners.

By a subsequent Act, obtained in 1852, the company were
directed to make a statement of the amount of land then gained,
and at the end of every five years thereafter ; and landowners
were declared to be entitled to the right of pre-emption in the
event of their wishing to become owners of the reclaimed land
ex adverse* of their property.

Mr Garlick, engineer to the Eibble Navigation Company at
Preston, has kindly furnished me with the following details, show-
ing how this arrangement has been carried out, and its results : —

A. r. p.

Up to the year 1853 there had been regained, . 913 2 4

1853 to 1858, . 760 1 12

1858 to 1863, 590 1 18

1863 to 1868, 335 0 2

Total, . 2599 0 36

" Generally, but not in all cases, the landowners fronting the
reclaimed land have claimed the right of pre-emption. With the

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 53

exception of two portions, almost the whole of the land reclaimed
by the company's works remains open out-marsh, and is covered
at high tides."

"Sir Thomas Hesketh purchased the reclaimed land in Hesketh
on the south side of the river, and has excluded the tide from
about 700 acres by- a sea embankment. Half of this land was
the new reclaimed land, and the other half was out-marsh in
1838, when the Navigation Company got their Bill."

"On the land embanked in at Hesketh there have been immense
crops of a]l kinds of farm produce, and the land has let at a high
rent. There was a heavy crop of wheat the first year after the
exclusion of the tide."

" The frontagers in Freckleton and Newton, on the north side of
the river, did not claim the right of pre-emption, and the reclaimed
land became vested in the Eibble Company, who seven years
ago embanked 550 acres of this new land ; and the tide has been
excluded from it ever since."

" The land of the company in Freckleton and Newton was, as
soon as embanked, let on a lease for twenty-one years in one
farm at a yearly rental of L.3 per statute acre, the tenant paying
rates and taxes, and doing all other work, the company main-
taining the embankment. In the spring of the year, after the
tide had been excluded from the land, it was ploughed and
cropped with oats, potatoes, carrots, and turnips, and all were
good crops. In the second year wheat was an excellent crop,
and all sold for seed, turnips and carrots were extra good crops,
oats and barley, ryegrass and clover very full, asparagus plentiful
and rich — beans sufficient in straw, but yielded nothing, being
the only exception to the productiveness of the land. This

54 ON THE RECLAMATION

second year the Eoyal North Lancashire Agricultural Society
held the trial of all kinds of implements on the farm. The
rotation of cropping may be stated as green crop, wheat, rye-
grass and clover, oats, then green crops again ; but in this part
of Lancashire the rotation depends altogether on the seasons,
which are so variable as to affect the state of the land, and
necessitate changes in the intended course of cropping. That
part of the reclaimed land embanked which has been lately
devoted to pasture has grassed satisfactorily. Flowers, straw-
berries, gooseberries, apples, &c., grow in the gardens, and indeed
almost everything that is grown on a cropping farm*nourishes on
this reclaimed land when enclosed from the sea. The land here
alluded to was mostly grassed over before being enclosed (being
nearly at the level of high-water of spring tides), and the fore-
going observations as to cropping must be considered as referring
to such enclosures, and not to low raw land from which the tide
has been early excluded."

The Nifh.

Low training-walls were constructed by Messrs D. & T.
Stevenson on the Nith for the improvement of the navigation,
which were completed in 1863. Part of the wall extended in
front of a bay of slob land belonging to the estate of Kirkconnell,
and I have a letter from A. Maxwell Witham, Esq., the pro-
prietor, in which he says : — " The training-walls which you put in
the Kiver Nith have greatly improved the navigation." The
effects of these works on the foreshore of Kirkconnell, after an
experience of 10 years, Mr Witham describes as follows: — " What
was formerly marsh has not been enclosed ; it remains as before.

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 55

Some portion of what was formerly slob has gradually and very
slowly grassed over. JSTo part has been enclosed, or is ever likely
to be. The cost of embanking to keep out the spring tides
would be too heavy. Moreover, such land pays best in the short
grass which grows on it, impregnated as it is with salt from the

tidal water."

The Forth.

For an interesting account of the enclosures at Tulliallan, on
the Forth, I have to refer to the paper by the late Mr William
Menzies, in the Society's Transactions, already quoted. The first
reclamation, of 152 acres, was completed in 1823. The second,
of 220 acres, was completed in 1838. Mr Menzies' paper, which
was written in 1838, does not treat of the financial results of
these works, and I applied to Mr John Menzies, of Inch farm, to
learn if he could throw any light on that branch of the inquiry.
In reply to my letter, in speaking of the last made reclamation,
of which he has the most knowledge, he says " it cost the estate
between L. 18,000 and L.20,000. As a speculation, I am afraid
you cannot say it pays. My father did everything in the shape
of bringing the land reclaimed under cultivation, and I have
heard him express the opinion that it never came to carry crops
until it was once properly swarded with grass, and if he had
sown it all out at first it would sooner have yielded him some
return. It never paid him as a tenant."

The Tees.

Two extensive reclamations have been made on the Tees in con-
nection with the navigation works of the Eiver Tees Conservancy
Commissioners, and Mr Fowler, the engineer of the Commis-
sioners, has given me the following information regarding them.

56 ON THE EECLAMATION

The accretion at Haverton has been going on since 1837, and
was induced by the groins erected by the Navigation Commis-
sioners. In May 1860, after a lapse of twenty-three years, the
foreshore having been raised to the level of high-water of neap
tides, the works of enclosure were commenced, and in February
1863 the water was excluded from 150 acres of land at a cost
of L.9800, including interest on the outlay, but exclusive of any
allowance for the cost of the navigation works. Seventy acres
of this land were grazed in 1867, and cropped with oats in 1868,
and subsequently with grass, oats, carrots, and potatoes. Eighty
acres were sold for manufacturing purposes at L.8626, 14s. The
portion under tillage is rented at L.200 per annum.

The Eston and Tod Point reclamations were commenced in
1869, and the water was excluded in 1871 from 585 acres, at a cost
of L.I 6,494, special facilities having been offered for making the
embankments of slag from the iron furnaces. About one-half of
the land is grassed over, and the other half is sand, and the whole
enclosure was valued by arbitrators as available for manufactur-
ing purposes at L.113,925.

Neither of these reclamations can be viewed as agricultural
improvements, the chief inducement being to obtain sites for
public works, and they probably would never have been under-
taken but for the facilities afforded by the expensive works of
the Navigation Commissioners, and the refuse from the iron-
works.

Such are the results of some important reclamations made
under different physical circumstances and financial arrange-
ments. To what extent the estuarial shores of the country can
be further reclaimed, so as to prove profitable agricultural specu-

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 57

lations, without injury to navigation, is a very wide question, of
which engineers take different views.

Mr Hyde Clark, in a paper on the " Engineering of Holland,"
published in Weale's Quarterly Papers in 1844, says — " The fol-
lowing moderate estimate will show the large area available for
the enterprise of our capitalists and the skill of our engineers : —

England — Humber, &c., 40,000 acres.

The Wash, 60,000 „

Suffolk and Essex, .... 40,000 „

Hampshire and Dorsetshire, . . 10,000 „

The Severn, 30,000 „

Cheshire and South Lancashire, . 50,000 „

Morecambe Bay, .... 40,000 „

TheDuddon, 10,000 „

Solway, . .... 20,000 „

300,000 „
Ireland— Loughs, 300,000 „

" The total extent in the two countries cannot be estimated at
less than 1000 square miles, or 600,000 acres, worth at the lowest
average L.20 per acre, though most of it, as in Morecambe Bay
and Lough S willy, would be worth L.60 per acre."* The total
value of reclaimed land would be between twelve and twenty
millions sterling.

I give these figures to show what large views have been pro-
pounded as to the practicability and prospective value of recla-
mations on the shores of this country. But I think some of the
facts I have stated on the authority of gentlemen intimately
acquainted with the details of each case regarding reclamations
actually made, such, for example, as Lough Foyle, Lough Swilly,

* The information I have received, it will be seen, does not warrant such a
conclusion.

58 ON THE RECLAMATION

Morecambe Bay, the Forth, and the Dee, do not present much
encouragement as to the prospective value of enclosures made
on a large scale ; whereas such enclosures as those on the Tay
and the Eibble, where the deposit was not unduly hastened, but
left to the gradual action of the tide, are found to afford satisfac-
tory results. Moreover, Mr Clark's views, as his paper indicates,
are given apparently irrespectively of the interests of navigation,
as he seems to contemplate reclaiming the shores even of the
Mersey, though he very truly adds that to make such an attempt
would create a " panic." Now, however important it may be
agriculturally to gain acres from the sea, it can never, in my
opinion, be justifiable to convert sea into land to the detri-
ment or injury of the free navigation of our rivers and har-
bours, and it must ever be a duty of our Legislature to see
that navigation is not sacrificed to agricultural speculation.
But I have, I think, shown that the extent to which reclamation
can be carried as a profitable agricultural speculation is really very
limited, and that if such reclamations are made on sound engineer-
ing principles, they do not necessarily interfere with navigation.

In accordance with these views, I stated in the first edition of
my treatise on Eiver Engineering, published in 1858, — "With
, reference more particularly to the operations of landowners, it is
notorious that in many cases attempts to reclaim or protect pro-
perty have led to serious and costly legal proceedings between
landowners and the local conservators of navigations ; and this,
we are sensible, has in some instances arisen from a feeling on
the part of the landowners that their operations could not be
regarded as prejudicial. The local conservators, on the other hand,
have generally no means of knowing what the ultimate intentions

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 59

of the landowners are until their operations have proceeded so
far as to render it impossible, if the interests of navigation require
it, to stop or to remove the works without considerable loss. A
difference of opinion has thus been raised, which has too often
ended in an expensive lawsuit. We have long held the opinion
that it would in many, if not in all, of our estuaries be most
desirable to have a line of conservation marked out by the
Admiralty (without whose authority no encroachment can be
made within high-water mark),* for the regulation of all works
for the protection of land. Were such a line defined, the land-
owners could then with confidence, and without risk of challenge,
enter on such works within the line of conservation as they con-
sidered necessary for the protection of their property, and a source
of much difference of opinion and expensive litigation would be
at once removed. It is obvious that were such a duty to be per-
formed, it must be committed to a duly qualified commission, so
composed that the protection of navigation and the interests of
landowners should be fully represented."

Since that date a Eoyal Commission has determined the legal
boundary-line between sea and river salmon fishings in all the
estuaries of the kingdom. This was a delicate duty, affecting
the rights of many proprietors, and settling questions that had
long afforded ample discussion and many trials in the law
courts, but it has been done by the Salmon Fishery Commission.
I do not see why, in many cases at least, a similar commission
should not usefully be employed in deciding in what estuaries
reclamation is consistent with the interests of navigation, and if
so, to what extent it maybe carried.

* This authority is now vested in the Board of Trade.

CHAPTEE V.

THE DEFENCE OF SEA-SHOEES AGAINST THE ACTION OF THE

WAVES.

Works should not be of an aggressive character, but purely for defence. — Rubble
moles. — Groins. — Continuous line of piling with occasional low jetties.—
Drainage of Reclamation Works.

IN more open and exposed estuaries than those we have been
considering, and all along the exposed sea-shores of the coast, the
works of reclamation or protection assume a more formidable
aspect, and must be considered under the fourth branch of the
subject, viz., Defence of sea-shores against the action of the
waves.

The first remark I have to offer on this subject is, that in all
cases of such exposure the works should never be of so aggressive
a character as may be prudent in sheltered estuaries, as it is a
dangerous policy to attempt to encroach on the sea-coast within
high-water mark, excepting with works of a solidity and cost
proportionate to what they have to resist, and this, I may safely
say, will, in almost all instances, be found to be greatly in excess
of the agricultural value of the land reclaimed. In illustration
of this, I may quote a case where a road had been formed along
a sea-beach for a considerable distance round the boundary-wall of
valuable agricultural property. In this case I found it advis-

RECLAMATION AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 61

able, on investigation, to recommend the proprietor to abandon
the acquired tide-covered space, and relinquish a portion of
his arable land as a site for a new road on solid ground, and to
build new fence-walls, as being far less costly than a sea-wall
sufficient to protect the roadway against the possible damage
due to the coincidence of heavy storms with high spring tides.
It is no doubt true that by the erection of costly groins and
other works, such as at Sunderland, Leith, and elsewhere, land
has been successfully gained for the construction of docks. But
the expense in such cases has ranged from L.2000 to L.3000 an
acre. It is also true that the engineer is often called on to
construct extensive sea-walls for the protection of roads and
railways involving interesting questions of marine engineering,
but it is obvious that such works cannot with any propriety be
considered as belonging to agricultural engineering, and do not
fall to be considered here. There are, however, tracts of country
raised but little above the high- water level, and, therefore, liable
to be submerged during excessive storms, where works, not of
aggression, but purely of defence, are not only warranted, but are
essential for the protection of agricultural land, I may refer, in
illustration of what I mean, to one case on the shores of the
Bristol Channel, where large tracts of low-lying pasture, extend-
ing for a distance of about five miles along the coast, are the
most valuable lands in the country, bringing exactly twice the
rental of the tillage lands in the district. These low-lying
lands, though above ordinary high-water level, are nevertheless
exposed, when high winds and high tides coincide, to be flooded
by a very prejudicial inundation, and would, if not protected,
ultimately lose their present high value as pasture land. This,

62

ON THE RECLAMATION

then, belongs truly to those cases of defence, and not of aggres-
sion, which I conceive may be legitimately dealt with in the
prospect of the result, even in an agricultural point of view,
being satisfactory ; and on such cases I have still to offer a few
observations.

Where rubble stones, as they come from the quarry, can be
cheaply procured, they will be found, in most cases, very valuable

as a defence against inroads of the sea. The proper size of the
rubble, unless the exposure is very great, may vary from one to
three cubic feet, and should have a sufficient quantity of smaller
pieces to fill up the interstices. A trench should be cut in the
beach as a foundation for the rubble mole, and the stones should
be deposited roughly, without being built or arranged. The
stuff excavated in forming the foundation should be thrown up
inside of the mole, and mixed with stones, shivers, or quarry
rubbish, as a backing for the rubble stones. The land above the
mole should be sloped back and turfed, or sown with grass seeds,

AND PEOTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 63

and after storms any of the rubble that has been drawn down by
the waves should be at once replaced with additional rubble, till
the whole has acquired stability.

The accompanying cut, fig. 8, shows the nature of this work
as actually executed by Messrs D. and T. Stevenson, on a pretty
extensive scale, to protect carse lands in exposed situations, and
I refer to it as a style of defence, varied, of course, to suit par-
ticular exposures and localities, which may very generally be
successfully applied where stone can be easily procured.

In some places, such as the mouth of the Humber, the inroads
of the sea have been successfully resisted by occasional groins
run out from the beach ; and it may, in many cases, be prudent,
as a first measure, to ascertain the effect of groins, as -in the
event of their proving successful the expense of any continuous
line of defence may be saved. In so far as my own experience
goes, however, isolated groins do not generally prove a satisfac-
tory defence, and have to be supplemented by longitudinal work
of some description. I may, as exemplified in several places
where groins have been tried on the shingle beaches of the
southern shores of England, refer to one instance of this coming
within my own experience at the Bristol Channel, already
noticed, where jetties run out at right angles to the high-water
line had long been tried without good result. I found that in
heavy seas the waves were led along the jetties, and struck
with great force in the corner where they joined the beach at
high-water mark. I further found that the shingle of which the
beach is composed was heaped up on the western sides of the
groins by prevailing westerly winds, while it was heaped up on
the eastern side of the groins by winds which had prevailed from

64 ON THE RECLAMATION

the east. The groins, therefore, in that particular situation, did
not tend to encourage a uniform deposit of shingle, which shifted
from side to side, according to the wind, while the exposed face
of the groin, from which for the time the shingle had been
removed, acted most injuriously by presenting a decoy to the
sea right up to high- water mark. These high isolated jetties
were therefore removed, and a continuous line of piling, parallel
to high-water mark, was substituted, presenting no obstacle to
the run of the waves along its surface. Occasional lines of low
jetties were put in front of the higher continuous pilework to
arrest the shingle, and the ends of these low jetties were at some
places, where the scour of shingle was greatest, connected by lines
of low piling parallel to the higher continuous piling ; and this
mode of construction has proved very successful, not only in
encouraging a more uniform collection of shingle, but also in
preventing the run of the sea, during high tides, overtopping the
shingle beach and deluging the adjoining lands. In proof of
this I may state that, on making an examination after the occur-
rence of an unprecedentedly heavy storm, accompanied by high
tides, I found that wherever the continuous upright piling and
planking had been constructed, there was no influx of anything
beyond spray upon the adjoining land, but that at all other parts
of the coast (which is about six miles in length), where the face
of the beach was sloping, and the upright piling had not been
applied, the water passed freely over in considerable depth,
carrying drift timber far into the fields, and in some places
heaping up heavy shingle on the land to the depth of two or
three feet. It was evident, therefore, that the problem to be
solved was" to oppose an obstacle which should throw lack the

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

65

sea, even at the risk of its beating somewhat heavily on the face
of the pilework and rising in pretty heavy spray above it, pro-
vided the passage of large bodies of water on the low-lying
land could be prevented. The cuts 9 and 10 show this work

as it was executed in plan and section, from which it will
be seen that the main defence against the inroad of the
waves consists of a continuous line of nearly perpendicular
piling and planking, rising to the height of nine feet above high

f. 10.

water, while the shingle is encouraged to collect in front of this
line of timber walling by low groins and lines of connecting stakes,
forming rectangular inclosures, in which, when the shingle is depo-
sited, the waves seem to have no tendency again to scour out.

66 ON THE RECLAMATION

Occasional reference has been made to drainage, and this is,
perhaps, the natural place to say generally, that in all such cases
of estuarial reclamation and coast defence as we have been con-
sidering, it is essential that the engineering works should embrace
a proper system of drainage. Main and cross drains, of suffi-
cient capacity and fall, must be formed and led to one or more
outlets through the embankments. The outlets of these drains
must be provided with self-acting sluices, to close at high tides,
but to afford an escape for the drainage at low water. The
discharge of such drains, it need hardly be added, must vary in
every case with the drainage area and rainfall of the district to
be provided for, and their sufficiency to discharge the requisite
amount will depend on the fall that may be found available;
and whatever that may be, it will regulate the cross sectional
area of the drains themselves. The whole of the works of the
drainage should be carefully designed, on due consideration of
the meteorological, geographical, and engineering features of each
separate case, and the offlets, tunnels, pipes, and sluices should
be executed under proper supervision.

Much of the success of such drainage works, I may add,
depends on the selection of a favourable site for the discharge of
the drainage water, especially on exposed beaches composed of
shingle or gravel. The force of this remark may perhaps be
well illustrated by a reference to the rivers Findhorn and Lossie,
on the Moray Firth, where the shingle is thrown up by the sea
in such quantities as completely to overpower them, and con-
sequently these rivers discharge into the sea at points very
distant from what might be regarded as the natural position of
their outlets. Fig. 11 shows this action at the Findhorn; and fig.

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

67

12 the same action at the Lossie, both on the shores of the Moray
Firth; and in both cases it will be seen that the outlets of the
rivers are driven to the westward, the heaviest seas on that coast
being caused by easterly and north-easterly gales ; and if this be
so in the case of large rivers draining large districts of country,
it must be obvious that the discharge of drainage water connected

Fig. 11.

with ordinary agricultural improvements on sea-coasts having a
similar geological formation, must be more liable to interruption,
and should therefore be carefully considered. In proof of this,
I may state that I have known a drainage outlet, constructed
at a large cost near the high-water mark of a shingle beach,
rendered quite inoperative by the same heaping up of shingle as
I have described. The current was altogether unable to force a

68

ON THE RECLAMATION

passage through it, and an outlet had periodically to be made by
manual labour, at considerable expense, to prevent flooding of
the land. Whereas, had the outlet been formed on a lower
level, and carried out to low water, it would not only have been
clear of the detrital matter thrown up by the sea, and forming
the line of beach, but would have had the advantage of the

Fig. 12.

greater scour due to additional head at low water to remove any
obstructions that might be thrown up opposite the outlet.

In addition to what may be properly styled works of de-
fence against aggression, and may therefore legitimately be
regarded as coming within the province of ordinary agricultural
engineering, the section of the subject we are now considering

AND PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 69

naturally embraces those gigantic reclamations which now form
large portions of Holland and Denmark, and the Fen districts of
England. I do not, as stated in the outset, propose to treat of
such undertakings, which can only be accomplished by national
resources or by powerful public companies. The protection of
Holland, a country which has been called " the gift of the
ocean," is believed to have cost upwards of L.300,000,000
sterling. The sea-dykes of Schleswig and Holstein, in Den-
mark, are stated to protect about 900,000 acres. * The Eomney
Marsh, the first of England's reclamations, has an area of 70,000
acres. The Fen lands of Lincoln and Norfolk are computed at
600,000 acres. But, to learn the history of these gigantic
English reclamation and drainage operations, the reader must
refer to the writings of Sir W. Dugdale in 1652, f and of
W. Elstobb in 1793;J and interesting details regarding
the reclamations in Holland and Denmark are to be found
in papers in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil
Engineers, by Mr John Paton, C.E.,* and Mr John Henry
Muller of the Hague ; § and also in Mr Hyde Clarke's paper
on the Engineering of Holland, in Weale's Quarterly Papers.

It is well to notice, however, that though these extensive
schemes differ from the more humble works we have been
considering, ^as regards the larger area reclaimed or pro-

*0n the Sea Dykes of Sclileswig and Holstein. By John Paton, C.E., Min.
of Proc. of Institution of Civil Engineers, 1862.

t History of Embanking and Draining of divers Fens. By Sir "W. Dugdale, 1652.

t A Historical Account of the Great Level of the Fens. By W. Elstobb,
engineer, Lyne, 1793.

§ On Reclaiming Land from Seas and Estuaries. By John Henry Muller,
Min. of Proc. of Institution of Civil Engineers, 1862.

a

70 ON THE EECLAMATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

tected, the general principles on which all such works are
based are of universal application, so that, in fact, the same
conditions, engineering and agricultural, apply to the defence of
a few fields on a farm exposed to the sea, as to the protection of
Holland, which, equally with the smaller work, owes its existence
to the constant watching and maintenance of its sea defences.
But, of course, the similarity being only in condition, and not in
degree, the actual difference between the two classes of works is
very great. The mere fact that, in addition to the drainage of
such enormous districts, viewed simply as an engineering ques-
tion, the safety of thousands of inhabitants of large towns has
to be provided for, gives to the reclamation schemes of such
countries as Holland — with all their sea-dykes, sluices, canals,
and pumping engines — an importance that undoubtedly places
them in the foremost rank of hydraulic engineering works.

PRINTED BY NEILL AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH.

In Royal octavo, Second Edition, cloth, price 15s.
Illustrated with Plates and Woodcuts,

THE

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

OF

CANAL AND RIVER ENGINEERING.

BY DAVID STEVENSON, F.RS.E.

Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers ; author of " A Sketch of the Civil
Engineering of North America," "Treatise on the Application of Marine
Surveying and Hydrometry to the Practice of Civil Engineering," etc.

CONTENTS.

I. Barge Canals.
II. Ship Canals.

III. The Compartments of Kivers

defined.

IV. Hydrometric Observations.

V. Discharge of Rivers — Under-
Currents — Specific Gravi-
ties of Water, etc.
VI. The -"Eiver Proper" Com-
partment.
VII. Tidal Propagation and Tidal

Currents of Kivers.
VIII. Tidal Compartment— .Works
for its Improvement.

Physical Characteristics of Rivers.

IX. Application of these Works

in Practice.

X. Situations where the Prin-
ciples of Improvement re-
commended are not appli-
cable.
XI. Works for Accommodation of

Vessels.

XII. " Sea Proper " Compartment
of Rivers.

XIII. Reclamation and Protection

of Land. •

XIV. Crossing of Navigations by

Railway Bridges.

PLATES.

I. Caledonian Canal.
II. Amsertdam Canal.

III. Suez Canal.

IV. Dornoch Firth.
V. Chart of the Dee.

VI. Diagram of Tidal Lines of the
Dee during the Flood of a
Spring Tide.

VII. Do. do. during an Ebb Tide.
VIII. Chart of the Lune.
IX. Diagram of Tidal Lines of the
Lune during the Flood of a
Spring Tide.

Tidal Lines of
during an Ebb

X. Diagram of
the Lune
Tide.

XI. Diagram showing Tidal Lines
of the Dee during the Ebb
of a Neap Tide.

XII. Diagram showing Tidal Lines
of the Lune during the
Flood of a Neap Tide.

XIII. Diagram showing Tidal Lines

of the River Forth.

XIV. Chart of the River Tay.
XV. Chart of the River Ribble.

XVI. Elevation and plan of Ouse Hydraulic Swing Bridge.

EDINBURGH : ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK.

In demy 8yo, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, Price 15s.

THE

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

OF

HARBOURS

A TREATISE ON MARITIME ENGINEERING.

BY

THOMAS STEVENSON, F.E.S.E, F.G.S.,

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, AND
AUTHOR OF "LIGHTHOUSE ILLUMINATION, ' ETC.

ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS PLATES AND WOOD ENGRAVINGS,

EDINBURGH: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
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