EFFECTS OF IRRIGATION. 283 



on grasses, says: " Irrigation is the easiest, cheapest, and most 

 certain mode of improving poor land, in particular if it is of a 

 dry and gravelly nature. The laud is thus in\t into a state of 

 perpetual fertility, without any occasion for manure." 



To the farmers of Connecticut, J. S. Gould said: *'You 

 ehould sow many diflerant varieties of grasses and by the aid of 

 irrigation you would have seven or eight times the amount of 

 grass you now do." To the same people, Solon Robinson said 

 he had no doubt that if the streams of Connecticut were j)ropcrly 

 utilized in irrigating the soil, they would be more productive in 

 value than by turning all the w^ater-wheels of the State. 



After experimenting on this subject, Mr. Pusey, in Jour. Roy. 

 Ag. Soc. for 1849, said that the money spent in irrigating grass 

 land j'ielded a profit of 30 per cent. "All water is a weak liquid 

 manure, — the w^armer the w^ater the better. A slight film of 

 water trickling over the surface — for it must not stagnate — 

 rouses the sleeping grass, tinges it with living green and brings 

 forth a luxuriant crop in early spring, just when it is most 

 wanted, while the other meadows are still bare and brown. A 

 water meadow is the triumph of agricultural art. The best irri- 

 gated meadows are those upon a gravelly soil, with a good drain- 

 age." 



Tenacious clays are less suitable for irrigation, and then only 

 when well drained so the water can pass off at once. Water 

 from streams is generally preferred to that from wells and 

 springs. In cold weather water may overflow grass, and if not 

 frozen to the grass it may remain there for weeks or months 

 without harm, but in warm weather the case is quite different. 

 Some spring waters contain sulphate of iron in solution or other 

 matters injurious. Diluted liquid manure has often been arti- 

 ficially applied with most excellent results. Where meadows are 

 irrigated the grasses are cut four or five times a year yielding 



