The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-01-02
Gigantic Drainage Enterprise.

Oiganttc Drainage Enterprise
The author OF the Ogden farm pa.
/ pers, III the -fEss5can 4gr5cuLtUrails,
has recently beeIAin Europe ard thus
describes some OF the gigantic drain
age operations Of that pattern people,
Lhe Dutch:
In some regions, after the waters
had been inciosed within ponlerous
dykes and then pumped out by wind
mills, there were developed only vas;
beds Of barren peat several yards in
depth. This was cut into blocks and
piled up to dry, preparatory to being
-old for fuel; the vessels which
took it to market brought back
the accumulated refuse of the
towns, and this was used to make a
fertile sci in place of the unfertile one
that had been removed Thus the
former abodes Of fishes are now the
seats OF tue most prosperous ayricul-
ture of Europe.
A map OF the province Of North
Holland, made three hundred years
ago, shows a bare network of marshy
land, protected from the North Sea
by range Of sand hills, and inclosIng
within its meshes vast bodies of navi
gable water-the mere outline of
country entirely unpromising for hab-
itation and afflicted with most rigor-
Gus climate. This whole province is
now a smiling, fertile land, busy with
every form of industry, aud one Of
the great centers Of the worlds pros.
porous activity. In few years, when
works now in hand shall be complet-
ed, there will remain no water within
its vast boundaries, save in the en-
banked canals, where, high above the
level of the fields, the lii;ed water
flows tc the sea and affords channels
for the vast commerce of the coun-
try.
Arrangements are already being
made for the drainage of the Zuyder
Zee, work which will cost over
$5O,OOO,OOO, and which will take
twelve years for the preparation
alone. When the enormous dyke
shall have been built, and new chan
nels shall have been made for the
rivers which flow INTO it, it will take
the sixty.three enormous steam en-
gines several years working night
and day. 10 pump out its water,
which has an area of about 100000 |
acres, and an average depth of about
ten feet. A survey has been made of
The whole bottom, and the plan of
includes the division of
no land and the construction of the
annals (for drainage and for communi
:ation) which are to serve the future
which are to inhabit it.
This scheme would seem wild and
npossible were it not for the expert
nee with Harlem Lake, which lies
iLhin few miles of it. This mag
ifieent farming district was only
twenty-five years ago a naVigable sea
1Out sixteen miles long and seven
lies wide. 1t lay between the cities
Amsterdam and HARLEM, its sur. a
ce nearly level with their streets, \
I'd threatening them both with Z
during heavy storms. As L
measure of safety it was determined 0
} annihilate it. 1t was surrounded C
18th two immense dykes over thirty il
lilies long, inclosing canal, and three h
ngines with combined force of ,2SO
Orse-power were set at work to K
ump out its waters. At the end Of {
lree and one-fourth years of inces- t
mt activity its bottom was laid dry, f
nd now its $4,000 acres, lying about c
,urteen feet below the level OF the (
"a, are busy with the production of c
,od for the cities which .hey SO late !
? menaced.