ON ENGLISH WATEK MEADOWS. 91 



mainly clue to the chalk and limestone from which the water is de- 

 rived. In a few localities the brooks, like the rivers in the East, run 

 dry in summer, but more frequently the streams are perennial. 

 The rains in the porous and cavernous chalk hills are absorbed as 

 they fall, and sinking gradually and constantly to the lower levels 

 where the springs break forth, the flow of water in the rivers is 

 not much greater at one season than another. Hence the channels 

 are rarely flooded, and seldom run dry. Here we meet a striking 

 confirmation of the statements that have lately been advanced by 

 Mr Beardmore of Great George Street, "Westminster, in relation 

 to the flow or volume of the rivers in the cretaceous districts of 

 England. By repeated gaugiugs, extending over twenty years, 

 he has found that though the size of a river is considerably 

 reduced in a summer of great drought, it does not sink to its 

 lowest flow before the autumn mouths of the succeeding year, 

 unless there is a copious rainfall during the intervening winter. 

 It may be remarked, that there are no great rivers in that laud of 

 water meadows, but generally the supply of water is tolerably 

 good. Erom the tables of the indefatigable Mr Symons, who has 

 spread his network of rain-gauges over the British Isles, we learn 

 that the mean rainfall of these counties, at altitudes of 300 and 

 400 feet above the sea, is 33 inches annually, but in the dripping 

 year of 1872 at the same stations the rainfall measured 48 inches. 

 Mr James Eawlence, the noted breeder of Hampshire Down 

 sheep, favours us with a few particulars as to his system of 

 managing water meadows. There are on his farm 106 acres of an 

 irrigation meadow, and he is one of the best authorities on the sub- 

 ject in Wiltshire. He had just began to irrigate his first meadow 

 when we heard from him (October 25th), and expected it to be fit 

 to feed on the first week of March, and feed on till the first w^eek 

 in May. It is then irrigated again, and at the end of six weeks 

 it is ready to be cut for hay. After the hay is carried, the water 

 is put on for a short time, and then it is fed by cattle until the 

 second week in October. It is a common practice in South 

 Wilts to irrigate for three days, and again to lay dry for three 

 days alternately, but the practice depends largely upon the 

 weather or temperature. If the frost is severe, the water is kept 

 upon the forward meadow^ as long as it can be spared. Tiie 

 meadows in the neighbourhood of Wilton are thrown up in beds 

 with a gradient of 45° to65°,according to the character of the land ; 

 in a clay soil the former, and in a gravel or sandy soil the latter 

 gradient is sufficient. Some foregoing remarks may serve as a 

 description of the ridge and furrow meadow ; but the natural 

 surface of the catch meadov) gets no forming, and may be made 

 for two or three pounds an acre, if the cost of drainage is not 

 included. Shallow gutters or carriers are made at a level round 

 the slopes of the uneven ground, tier above tier, with no distinct 



