90 ON ENGLISH WATEK I\I£ADOWS. 



It is watered by a tributary of the river Ivel, and consists for 

 the most part of a peaty soil with a little sand; in some places 

 the j)eat is thin, and rests on a loamy substratum. It lies in a 

 greensand district, which is also partly oolitic ; and judging from 

 the indifferent character of the adjacent grounds, the space occu- 

 pied by the meadow had been of little value before it was 

 improved and irrigated. It now affords good sheep and cattle 

 food, and carries good crops of hay. The hay is inferior to the 

 ordinary hays grown on the higher fields, but for winterage use 

 it is superior to the best oat straw. The sheep are put on before 

 the end of March, and pastured down to the middle of May. It 

 is then floated, and the grass is mowed and harvested about the 

 10th of July. The aftermath affords keep for cattle and sheep 

 down to near Christmas, after which it is irrigated, and as a rule 

 the more water the better the crop. If ewes and lambs are 

 pastured on the meadow in the spring months, the lambs are 

 subject to a complaint called the "rickets," which, affecting as it 

 does their joints, impairs their growth and fattening. Mr Street 

 states that the mauas^emeut of the meadow costs about five 

 shillings an acre. About six acres of this meadow has been laid 

 out in ridge and furrow; and the only other artificial meadows 

 worth noting in the above county lie, the one in Flitwick 

 parish and the other in Sutton, and they are both managed on 

 the ridge and furrow system. The ridges range from eight to 

 twelve yards wide, and the crown is about two feet higher 

 than the furrow. The carriers are about one foot wide, and of 

 the depth required for the volume of water to be conveyed. The 

 surface of the Flitwick meadow was a naked black peat 

 before it was formed for irrigation; but when the water was 

 turned on, the poas and best marsh grasses, never before seen, 

 came away luxuriantly. In favourable seasons, two to three tons 

 of hay are obtained from the acre, besides the spring feed and 

 aftermatli, but the hays are rather coarse and benty. Some of 

 the meadow farmers say that if they were laid down with finer 

 grasses, so as to secure better hay, the spring and autumnal feed 

 would be diminished. Muddy water is most esteemed — that is 

 after a fall of rain ; and as the meadows exist at present, they are 

 of more value to the farm than corn land ; but you cannot 

 definitely assign a comparative value with the land alongside, as 

 they differ materially in their texture and composition. If the 

 question were to be asked at twenty farmers in different localities, 

 twenty different opinions would be given in reply. 



But we must 20 to the south of England to see water meadows 

 in perfection, where they occupy an extended area. They are 

 confined mostly to Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Hants, and Berks. The 

 perennial greenness, freshness, and luxuriance of the artificial 

 meadows in these counties are notable, and they are believed to be 



