HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURN ENSIS. 253 



with deep drains between them. A main carriage is then 

 taken out of the river, at a level sufficiently high to com- 

 mand the tops of the ridges. Along the top of each ridge 

 an open drain or trench is made to conmiunicate with the 

 main water-carriage. These little water-carriages being fur- 

 nished with moveable stops of earth, disperse the water on 

 each side of the ridge, which is received below by the drains, 

 which conduct it to other parts of the same meadow. The 

 point of importance next to that of having a perfect com- 

 mand of water, at least as far as the growth and prosperity 

 of the superior grasses is concerned, is the size of the ridges. 

 Where there is a plentiful supply of water, as from a river, 

 the ridges may be from forty to fifty feet broad, and seventy 

 feet in length ; but when the supply of water depends upon 

 a small brook, or upon a reservoir formed by land-drains, 

 thirty feet in width and fifty in length are supposed to be 

 the best dimensions. The height of the ridges seems to be a 

 point of considerable importance. I have invariably observed, 

 that all the superior grasses inhabit the crowns of the ridges, 

 extending generally to eight feet on each side of the water- 

 carriage, and the inferior grasses occupying the lower extre- 

 mities of the ridges. When the ridges are nearly level, 

 much less water is required to irrigate the land ; but unless 

 the subsoil is porous, the produce will be found much infe- 

 rior to what it would have been had the ridges been raised 

 to a proper height. In all the observations I have made 

 while examining different water-meadows at various periods 

 of the season, the most productive in the superior grasses 

 were those where the ridges were formed thirty-three feet in 

 width and two feet and a half in height, that is, from the 

 level of the furrow to the crown of the ridge. But when the 

 situation is very low and moist, and the soil deep, as in the 

 instance of a peat-bog, or where the subsoil is tenacious, the 

 height of the ridge should be from two to three feet. 



From numerous statements published by gentlemen who 

 have made these improvements, the expenses of forming- 

 land into water-meadows appear to be from four to twenty 

 pounds per acre, — varying thus according to the local cir- 

 cumstances under which the improvement is made. The 



