Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1836-09-27
FROM DIR. HUMPHREYS LETTERS.
Published in the N. Y. Observer,

are considerable tracts of low swampy land,
called moors, which for ages were thought
to be of very little value. Lincolnshire, es.
pecially, was almost half covered with these
deep alluvial fens, the favorite haunts of
aquatic birds and amphibious animals. The
greater part of these moors have been DRAIN
ed and brought under the plough and har-
row; and thus converted into some of the
finest and richest lands in the kingdom.
One method ofdraining, as | was told, in
Lincolnshire, where the ground will not ad-
NIT of any other, is by steam engines. The
water which would otherwise accumulate
in miry places, and prevent cultivation, is
pumped up from one level to another, till it
flows off in artificial channels, or is made to
irrigate the higher grounds in the vicinity.
We, in this country, have just begun to
find out that our low swampy lands are the
most valuable lands we have. Thousands
aud thousands of acres, even in the oldest
states of the Union are at this moment
worse than useless to the owners, when
little expense and trouble might make them
yield the best hay and pasturage, and the
richest harvest of any they possess. 1t is
wonderful to see how our people will cling
10 the hills and knobs of their farms, year
after year till they have utterly worn them
out, when they have the richest bottom lands
within stones throw, which have long
since swallowed up the soil ofall the high
grounds in the vicinity, and which need on
ly to be drained and cultivated, to reward
their owners to a hundred fold. And how
many thousand beds of rich vegetable ma
nure are there, which the proprletors have
never dreamed of, and from which they
might, with very little expense, restore their
exhausted up-lands. How lamentable is it
to see industrious families almost starving
upon thirty or fifty acres Of sand and grav.
eli, when they might 60 down into their own
moors, and grow rich upon twenty acres.
English Downs.
These are large, open and elevated plains
where the soil is generally light, and there
is little or no cultivation. They are devo-
ted chiefly to pasturage and sporting.-
Immense numbers of sheep are kept upon
the more fertile portions of these extensive
table lands, and Judging from the appear
ance they thrive extremely we'll there. To
me, there is something highly picturesque
| i was going to say romantic-ln passing
over high downs, as we approached the
Scottish border from Newcastle and saw
hundred focks, sprinkled over the hills
as far as the eye could reach, under their
Irrespective shepherds. Pastoral simplicity,
innocence, peace What magic is there,
in these associations Of early childhood, as
they come thronging upon the mind, under
such circumstances, even in the decline OF
life! Your ripper experience and observa-
ton may have told you bettsr-your sober
Judgment may convince you, that it is chief
ly poetry. But no matter. The witchery
of pastoral ballads will again come over
your soul, and hold you spell bound, as when
they lulled you to sleep, and brought sweet
dreams to your pillow in the nursery.
Though there is but little wood growing
on the downs, there is, in some parts, a
considerable growth of furzc and under.
brush. The furze springs up in great
number of single stalks, from one root,
somewhat like our current bush. 1t is
thickly covered, quite down to the ground,
with a long narrow leaf resembling the
spruce, in shape and color. 1t grows to
the height of four or five feet, and bears a
beautiful yellow blossom. We should
consider few punches oft highly orna-
mental in our gardens; and | took notice,
that here and there, IL clump, was either
left or planted in the pleasure grounds Of
England. | saw large patches, or rather
fields oft, growing SO thick and rank, as
to be almost imperyious and where it once
takes possession of the hill side in this man.
ner, it is quite as exclusive and myeterate
as the heath itself.
Grouse, patridges, and pheasants are
found in great numbers upon the downs,
and are protected by severe penal enact
ments. The shooting season commences
about the middle of August and is, | believe
nearly over by the last ofSeptember. The
nobility and gentry are extremely fond Of
this kind of sport; and many of the large
estates are rented, or farmed out, for this
purpose. A company of sportsmen gives
so many hundred pounds, for the exclusive
privilege ofshooting grouse and other game,
within certain prescribed limits; and it is
incredible how high the competition some
times runs. | saw it stated it a paper just
before | left Scotland, that two dislin-
guished gentlemen had rented single es.
tate, for the season, at eight hundred pounds
sterling.
The BOOK.
The English rook exactly resembles Our