Oil the Theory and Practice of Water- Meadows. 475 



As in other branches of farmmg, so in the management of 

 water - meadows, constant attention and the master's eje are 

 essential to complete success. Even in Devonshire, where all 

 understand water-meadows, the farmer's management materially 

 affects their production. The plan of repeated folding has 

 answered, as has been seen, with me hitherto. On many water- 

 meadows, where the animals roam at large, they neglect to eat 

 portions of the field which thus become rank. Besides, the 

 droppings are distributed more equally. One agricultural work 

 intimates that there is danger of rot in feeding sheep on water- 

 meadows during summer. In Devonshire, I am told, they have 

 no such fear, nor have I suffered by it as yet ; but I gave my 

 sheep large lumps of rock salt to lick constantly in their folds. 

 The danger may arise from improper flooding in summer, or it 

 may be a real risk, and I therefore mention it. It certainly 

 occurred on a part of the Clipstone meadows. In new water- 

 meadows which require to be raised in condition, I should parti- 

 cularly recommend it as a cheap way of effecting that object. 

 Probably, if continued in after years, it might raise the condition 

 to too high a point ; in order to lower which it might be necessary 

 that a crop of hay should be severed and carried off in the usual 

 manner. The yield of food for sheep would be, of course, the 

 same, though in a different form. I should also recommend 

 folding when ashes are applied to the land : as ashes being what 

 was called formerly a stimulant, a manure of quick but passing 

 action, might impoverish the land if the sudden crop produced by 

 them were carried off. If the grass be fed off on the land, the 

 extra produce is returned to it, and a solid foundation of future 

 high condition is laid. 



There is another point of detail which appears to answer. In 

 folding the sheep I endeavour to have the hurdles so set that on 

 each day, or second day, as they are shifted forwards, the water 

 may be passed over the recently manured land. Every one knows 

 the strong smell of a sheep-fold. Without entering upon the 

 power of water to fix ammonia, a substance on which it is dan- 

 £^erous unless for a chemist to enter, and which led even Liebig 

 astray, there is no doubt that the water thus following destroys the 

 stench and must therefore distribute the manure. In fact, when 

 this is carefully done no spots of dark herbage are seen to arise 

 from the droppings. The water carries the salts down among 

 the roots of the plants : for a great deal of the water sinks into 

 the earth. When land is formed into water-meadow it is rather 

 disheartening for a beginner to see a strong stream sink for days 

 into the bottom of the carrier without overflowing at all ; and 

 when it does at last overflow, to see it creep over the land, ad- 

 vancing but a few inches perhaps in an hour. Even though the 



