ON ENGLISH WATER MEADOWS. 89 



and the opposing interests of the owners, are also formidable 

 checks against anything being done in the deepening, widening, 

 and straightening of the river courses. We travelled from Bed- 

 ford to Olney, a distance of eleven miles by rail, leaving the 

 Great Ouse at Bedford and coming tip to it at Olney; but the 

 distance in following the multitudinous curves of the river is 32 

 miles. It is noteworthy too, tliat in olden days there were many 

 fords that cannot now be waded over. The soils and subsoils 

 consist mostly of light alkivial and peaty deposits,- — mud, clay, 

 and sand carried down from the higher grounds that settle in the 

 eddies, the accumulations of untold centuries. They are naturally 

 fertile, l3ut do not grow crops conformably, as tlie herbage is of 

 a dwarfish description, and rents range from L.2 to L.4. an acre. 

 If it is asked how the vales along the river courses are so generally 

 used for growing meadow hay, it may be answered briefly because 

 of their insecurity for growing other crops. The tillage farmer 

 knows well that by draining and reclaiming he could grow giant 

 crops on them, and that the soil is of a more manageable descrip- 

 tion than the untractable clays most prevalent oji tlie adjacent 

 rising grounds. 



Before giving the particulars of some meadows with which we 

 are familiar, we may premise that water meadows, where the 

 conditions are at all favourable, never fail as a profitable invest- 

 ment. A deficiency of water, a costly outlay in their formation, 

 or a heavy and impervious clay, will thwart the best schemes. 

 The meadow yields a large quantity of winter provender for the 

 live stock, which adds largely to the manure heap, for the enrich- 

 ment of the tillage lands. Still it is seldom that we see dry land 

 converted into meadows. The necessity for extending iirigated 

 meadows is indeed less urgent, since the introduction and exten- 

 sion of turnip culture and the other cattle crops, with the artifi- 

 cials to grow them with. It must, however, be granted that the 

 increasing cost of labour has a tendency to direct more attention 

 to the subject, for the cost of management is trifling compared 

 with ploughed land, — as water meadows require neither plough- 

 ing, manuring, nor seeding. In none of them have we seen any 

 signs of exhaustion, whatever kind of water is applied, — so good 

 crops may be expected so long as grass grows and water runs. 



Water meadows were introduced into Bedfordshire about 80 

 years ago by a late Duke of Bedford, near Woburn Abbey 

 demesne, under manifestly unfavourable circumstances. The 

 levelling, channeling, and sluicing cost L.8 to L.9 an acre, but 

 there was not a perennial stream within the scene of the first 

 operations. We inspected one meadow of 30 acres in the parish 

 of Maulden, Bedfordshire, which was laid out subsequently. It 

 is occupied under lease from the Duke of Bedford by ]Mr George 

 Street, who is so well known for his fine Oxford Down sheep. 



