THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



521 



" The most remarkable specimens in this table are 

 the water-meadow grass (first crop) and the Dactylh 

 glomerata (with ripe seeds). Both in the quantity of 

 nitrog:en and fatty matters, the water-meadow grass 

 nearly doubles the other grasses in the table. This 

 meadow was composed principally of the grasses Poa 

 trivialis, Holcus lanntus, Hordewii pratense, Avcna 

 pratensis, Lolium perenne, &c., in none of which do 

 we see the peculiarity which unitedly they show in the 

 meadow. Are we to attribute the high proportions of 

 fat and flesh-forming principles to the action of the 

 water in irrigation ? If so, we have indeed in it a most 

 important and powerful agent." — Professor Way, in the 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol, xxxi., 

 p. 182. 



Now, that we must so attribute the increase of value to 

 the feeding properties, which, under the special circum- 

 stances, are the most valuable constituents of a grass, is 

 quite evidenced by the presence of (out of the five 

 grasses above named) at least three species which espe- 

 cially indicate the greatest poverty of soil. 



ANALYSES OF NATURAL GRASSES. 



(In 100 PARTS OP THE Geass DKIED AT 212° Faheenheit.) 



Name of Plant. 



Anthoxanthum odoratum . . 



Alopecurus pratensis 



Arrlienatherum avenaceum 



Avena flavescens 



Aveiia pubescens 



Briza media 



Bromus erectus 



Bronius mollis 



Cynosurua cristatus 



Dactylis glomerata 



Ditto seeds ripe 



Festuca duriuscula 



Holcus lanatus 



Hordeum pratense 



Loliura perenne ............ 



Lolium italicum 



Phleum pratense 



Poa annua 



Poa pratensis 



Poa trivialis 



Grass from water meadow . . 



Ditto 



second crop 10.92 



■Si! 



s.s 



5 » 

 O 60 

 S s 



^1 



1043 



12.32 



12.95 



7,48 



7.97 



6.08 



9.44 



17.29 



11.08 



13.53 



23.08 



12.10 



11.52 



11.17 



11.85 



10.10 



11.30 



1 1 .83 



1 0.35 



9.80 



25.91 



The above examples were obtained in the Cotteswold district. 



2nd, The Economics of Irrigated Meadoios. — In 

 discussing this subject, we must bear in mind that the 

 district which will have the requisites for irrigation in 

 the gi'eatest perfection will be usually that of an elevated 

 or hilly country, composed of a porous stony stratum 

 at the hill tops (the water-collecting medium), and in- 

 tersected by valleys scooped out of clays (the watershed 

 strata), covered up by the gravelly debris, the result of 

 the denuding action by which such valleys were formed. 

 Here then the table-lands will be dry, and consequently 

 bare and bleak in the winter, and even its Utile herbage 

 will be late in the spring. And, again, if we bring the 

 argument specially to bear upon the central, or Cottes- 



wold chain of hills of England, it applies with 

 double force, as natural meadow is there so scarce that 

 the vales must be looked to for pasture, and as these are 

 usually narrow, and intersected by a rivulet running 

 more or less through its centre, it seems a most wise 

 provision to aid in the augmentation of meadow, besides 

 ensuring its early productiveness, which is supplied in the 

 facilities for the application of irrigation. 



The following quotation puts this matter in a clear 

 light:— 



"There are also some good water-meadows on the 

 Coin, Churn, and other small rivers (of Gloucestershire). 

 Those meadows produce an early and abundant supply 

 of grass for ewes and lambs, and other stock, which is 

 exceedingly useful in spring. The custom is to con- 

 sume the first crop by keeping the sheep on the land 

 till May, when other grass and green crops are ready to 

 take the stock. The water is then turned on again, and 

 the second crop is mown for hay about the latter end of 

 June, or beginning of July. The water is turned on a 

 third time, and the aftermath which succeeds is fed 

 off, which generally lasts until towards Christmas." — 

 Bravender " On the Farming of Gloucestershire," Jour- 

 nal R. A. S., vol. xi. 



Seeing then that the value of irrigation is so fully 

 recognized, it will not bo a matter for surprise that 

 water-rights, ,v retaining which alone the process can 

 be accomplished, should be so jealously watched, and 

 this not merely s a matter of residential convenience 

 as supplying ornamental waters or fishing streams; not 

 merely as a matter for the consideration of mill- 

 owners ; but really as a subject at the bottom of a widely- 

 extended and peculiar system of agriculture. 



Hence, when in 1854, the Water Works Company o^ 

 Cheltenham, in the vale of Gloucester, applied to Par- 

 liament for powers to divert one of the largest tributaries 

 of the Thames towards the Severn Valley, for the use of 

 that fashionable town, there need be no wonder that 

 those interested in the said stream opposed the project. 



Now, the first opposition was attempted to be met 

 by the promise of a "compensation reservoir," by 

 means of which it was alleged that in winter the surplus 

 water of the stream would be stored up, so that the 

 million gallons a day, which was to have been abstracted 

 all the year round, could thus be provided for, and, as 

 was asserted, there would even be sufficient in this store 

 to be given to the mill-owners and others lower down 

 the stream in the height of summer, the usual season of 

 drought. However, it was shown in the geological 

 evidence, that in a district so constituted, there was no 

 surplus water, as in a region of porous strata there 

 could be no floods, though there would be an abundance 

 (dependent upon the amount of rain- full) of springs 

 and rivulets which would be tolerably equable in their 

 flow, and that the whole of this, and more if it could be 

 procured, was required for the exigencies of the farmer; 

 so that the following conclusions, which were then arrived 

 at, will probably be considered as fully sustained from 

 the whole arguments of the present paper— we place 

 them as separate postulates : 



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