142 IRRIGATION OF LAND. 



the premiums awarded within a few years past by the New York 

 State Agricultuial Society on grazing farms, it is found that irriga- 

 tion was the principal means employed in effecting large yields of 

 grass on both pasture and meadow lands. The premium for the 

 best crop of grass awarded in 1860 was on grass grown by irriga- 

 tion. The same year ^20 was awarded to a gentleman for his sys- 

 tem of irrigation, which consists mainly in directing small streams 

 of water from their natural courses, principally by means of the 

 plow on to quite poor soils, from which he obtained last year four 

 tons and seven cwt. per acre, from twenty-five acres by two cuttings. 

 Nearly similar results have been obtained in various parts of the 

 country, the early and rapid growth of the grass often admitting of 

 two crops of hay being obtained from the same field each year, and 

 it is this early growth of vegetation induced by irrigation, which 

 renders it important in those sections were the growing season is 

 short. 



The effect of water on pasture land is equal to that on meadows, 

 and it will be generally noticed that stock of all kinds show a pref- 

 erence for the irrigated portions of the field. On some soils, irriga- 

 tion may be continued while the stock have access to the field, as 

 the surface of an irrigated field is usually less injured by the feet 

 of cattle than when the land is naturally wet and soft. It fre- 

 quently occurs that after a few years of watering, the soil becomes 

 so compact that only slight injury will be done by cattle, but when 

 the surface is liable to injury in this respect, the water should be 

 withheld while cattle occupy the field, and in no case should water 

 be allowed to flow over the surface while the field is occupied by 

 sheep, (unless a short time before being slaughtered,) as the water 

 tends greatly to induce foot rot. Profuse watering in early spring 

 and even in winter, will render it less necessary in summer, and the 

 effects will be observable through the entire season. The soils best 

 adapted to irrigation are those which are dry enough either natu- 

 rally, or by undcrdraining, to produce corn, wheat, rye, &c. 



Muck and clay soils are not well adapted to summer irrigation. 

 Upon common dry loam, fine sands and gravels, irrigation is usually 

 most effective. An English writer says, " the finest water meadows 

 on the Avon, where the richest herbage is found, have scarcely any 

 soil at all, but are on a bed of gravel and pebbles, and these are 



