58 Mr Menteath on the Geology of NHhsdale. 



of the Annan, and its improvement must be necessarily more 

 retarded. But in the lower basins of the Annan and the Esk, 

 the former abounding in limestone, and the latter with both 

 limestone and coal, though hitherto sufficient advantage has not 

 been taken of these things ; yet it is to be expected that the stiff 

 cold tenacious clays that cover so large a tract of these basins, 

 will be ultimately improved and rendered much more produc- 

 tive, when greater quantities of lime are employed in agriculture. 

 Although the upper basins of the Esk and the Annan are 

 behind those of the Nith in mineral treasures, and in improve- 

 ments, yet, if the local advantages of water, every where so abun- 

 dant in these two districts, were embraced, it may be presumed 

 that the want of limestone might, in some degree, be compen- 

 sated : For these two basins, shut in on all sides by lofty grey- 

 wacke mountains, abound in streams which offer great facilities 

 for irrigating the flat lands of the basins. By this irrigation, 

 and the raising of great additional quantities of hay, the nu- 

 merous flocks fed in these districts, which are often, in the se- 

 vere storms of winter, and in the dry cold springs, driven to 

 great extremities for food, would be abundantly supported ; and 

 it is probable that, by these means, the stock might be greatly 

 increased. The efficiency and successful application of water in 

 flooding meadow or low lands, and thereby augmenting their an- 

 nual produce in either grass or hay, has been clearly demon- 

 strated by what has been done on the Closeburn estate in Niths- 

 dale *. Its proprietor, sensible of the infinite value of water for 

 meadow lands, has, at much cost, engineered a water-course of 

 seven miles in length from the grey wacke hills on the east of the 

 basin of Closeburn ; and, in another direction, another course of 

 equal length, which collects, in their passage, every rivulet that 

 descends from the hills. These two canals are made to irrigate 

 an extensive tract, producing a large increase of food, often up- 

 wards of 400 stones of hay per acre, being nearly twice as much 

 as these grounds formerly yielded. These successful applica- 

 tions of water-fljoding for meadow lands^ afford a strong pre- 

 sumption, where the climate and soil are very similar, that this 



• This instance of the advantage of irrigation has been given as most fa- 

 miliar to the author, though many others are to be found in Scotland. 



3 



