Shirley 1833 – Hill Carter Article
“ACCOUNT OF THE
EMBANKMENT AND CULTIVATION OF THE
SHIRLEY SWAMP.
By HILL
CARTER
The
Farmers’ Register
Richmond,
August 1833
EDMUND
RUFFIN,EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
SHIRLEY,
June 26th 1833.
Agreeable
to your request I have examined my Journal, and find
the following results from reclaiming
eighty-live acres of swamp land at Shirley. The
swamp was heavily covered with gum and ash
trees, and overflowed twice every day
by the tide water at the flood, but left
free from water at the ebb tide. - The land
was reclaimed in the year 1825, by contract,
at the expense of $ 1.25 per running yard,
for the dike, in the following manner…”
Article
on Diking by Hill Carter at Shirley
Plantation. A must read. Once you read this
3 page article, you understand what dikes
were about.
Diagram
of “trunks” to let rain water run out
of the dikes.