124 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



clouds behind. In the course of the day I met with many of 

 these flocks, and nearly all the hill-land seemed given up to 

 them. I was upon the border, in fact, of the great South 

 down district, and, during the next week, the greater part of 

 the country through which we were travelling, was of the 

 same general character of landscape, though frequently not 

 as green, varied, and pleasing, as in these outskirts of it. 



Geologically, it is a chalk district, the whole earth, high 

 and low, and to any depth that I saw it exposed, being more 

 or less of a white colour, generally gray, but sometimes white 

 as snow. The only mineral is flint, which occurs in small 

 boulders or pebbles, cased in a hardened crust of carbonate 

 of lime mingled irregularly with the chalk, more thickly on 

 the hill-tops, and often gathered in beds. The road is made of 

 these flint pebbles, broken fine, and their chalk-crust, pow 

 dered by the attrition of wheels, is worked up into a slip 

 pery paste during such heavy rains as I was experiencing, and 

 makes the walking peculiarly fatiguing. The soil upon the 

 hills is very dry and thin. In the valleys it is deeper and 

 richer, being composed, in a considerable part, of the wash of 

 the higher country, and the wheat and forage crops were often 

 very luxuriant. Advantage is sometimes taken of the streams 

 to form water-meadows, and the effect of irrigation can often 

 be seen at a considerable distance in the deeper green and 

 greater density of the grass upon them. These meadows are 

 of great agricultural value, and I will give an account of the 

 method of construction and management of them. 



An artificial channel is made, into which the water of a 

 brook may be turned at will. This is carried along for as 

 great a distance as practicable, so as to skirt the upper sides 

 of fields of a convenient surface for irrigation. At suitable 

 intervals there are gates and smaller channels, and eventually 

 a great number of minor ducts, through which the water is 



