138 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



diminish its friction in some measure, and to make it easier to 

 preserve an equality of depth in ploughing, than by the common 

 instrument. There are parties who will perfectly understand 

 this, and who, if they deserve attention, will avail themselves of 

 these suggestions. 



CUT. IRRIGATION. 



1. THEORY OF IRRIGATION. Irrigation, or watering land 

 under growing crops, can scarcely be called a very frequent 

 operation in English agriculture; yet I cannot imagine the 

 process to be more beautifully or successfully carried out than in 

 some examples which have here come under my notice. These 

 I shall describe as well as I can. 



When a sterile and unproductive waste is converted into a 

 fruitful field, and land which yielded nothing is made to produce 

 the most abundant crops, when the simple element of water, 

 which Heaven, in its unlimited goodness, pours out in most situ 

 ations in such abundant profusion, becomes the kindling instru 

 ment of life and energy to the vegetable world, to be used or 

 applied by human art at its pleasure, a reflecting mind contem 

 plates the beneficent results with an elevated and grateful admi 

 ration. In such cases, one sees the highest encouragement to 

 further efforts ; the limits of progress and improvement the im 

 agination has not yet descried ; and past victories prefigure future 

 triumphs in this humble but most useful field of exertion. 



That water is an important and indispensable element in vege 

 tation, every one knows. That its elements constitute a portion 

 of every plant, is well established. But in what particular way 

 it operates to produce its effects, is not so well determined. Its 

 operation, say some persons, is purely mechanical. It reduces 

 the matters in the soil, the manures, and the mould, into a con 

 dition to supply the plants with the food which they require ; 

 yet. if the water becomes stagnant in the soil, its effects are per 

 nicious. It serves, in the opinion of one eminent person, to 

 wash the roots of the plants, relieving them from that excremen- 

 titious matter which exudes from their roots, and which, if suf 

 fered to remain, injures their health, and impedes their growth. 



