304 WATER MSADOtrS. 



Improvement rous, it will be attended with much more expense to make 

 b^ ^rn^ado"^'' ^"^^ ^^"^ marks into a regular form for floating, on ac- 

 count of the great expense of wheeling the earth from the 

 hills to the follows. In these cases, it is necessary (in 

 order to avoid expense) to adopt an irregular method of 

 floating : by taking advantage of such irregularities of 

 surface, a meadow may often be floated at a quarter of 

 the expense required to put it into a regular form, and 

 this method is found to answer the purpose very well, if 

 the works are properly laid out, with the spirit level. 

 When the fall of water is ascertained, the form of the 

 ground is the next thing to be attended to ; if there are 

 no natural declivities in the surface, down which the water 

 may run from the overflowings of a cut on the summit 

 into a drain in the hollows, so that the water may keep 

 constantly running down such slopes by a regular cur- 

 rent, which prevents a diminution on the ridges and a 

 quick discharge in the lower drain ; to avoid an accumu- 

 lation in the furrows, it must be made with good slopes 

 and plenty of drains ; these, with a constant supply of 

 water in the winter, are the most essential parts of a water 

 meadow. The water must be constantly kept moving 

 over the surface, and the practice proves, that where the 

 water moves the quickest, there is always the most 

 grass. 



And, as the water must be constantly running oif the 

 land, it follows that it must be constantly running on, to 

 keep every part of the surface properly supplied ; and 

 this requires a much greater quantity of water than is 

 commonly imagined by those, who are wholly unac- 

 quainted with the practice of irrigation. In fact, every 

 good water-meadow should be formed so that it may be 

 said to be nothing but a wide extended channel for the 

 water, no part of which should be too deep to prevent 

 the points of the grass from appearing above its surface, 

 consequently the water cannot be seen when the grass 

 begins to grow. Yet it will still find its way between the 

 shoots, and nourish the grass without bearing it down, or 

 excluding it from the benefit of the air and sun : this is a 

 state, in which the grasses of a water-meadow increase 

 very rapidly; in this state, no water can be seen in any 



part 



