[rge J 
which, ina well-laid-out meadow, bring on and 
carry off the water as fy{tematically as the arteries 
and veins do the blood in the human body. 
As water meadows are totally unknown in many 
parts of the kingdom, and but very partially known 
in others, it may not be thought improper, in an 
agricultural account of South-Wilifhire, to fpeak a 
little more fully on their nature and properties. 
If it fhould tend to excite the fame improvement 
in other counties, one of the great objects of the 
inftitution of the Board of Agriculture will be an- 
fwered. . 
Nature and properties of water meadows.—It has 
been already premifed, that the principle of a water 
meadow, is the power of bringing on and carrying 
off the water at pleafure. And provided this great 
objcé& can be accomplifhed, it is not material what 
the fhape of a water-meadow is, or that the difpo- 
fition of the trenches (provincially “ he works of 
“ the meadows’) fhould be uniform. But as very 
‘Tittle land can be entirely commanded by water, un- 
lefs its inequalities are reduced by manual labour, 
it has been found convenient to adopt two different 
kinds of water meadows, one for land lying on de- 
clivities, and which mutt in general be watered from 
{prings or {mall brooks, and the other for low land 
near rivers, to be watered from thofe rivers. 
The firft kind is called, in Wiltfhire, “ catch- 
“ qwork meadows,” and the latter “ flowing méa- 
“ dows,” 
