144 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



height necessary for irrigating the land below. On a farm in 

 Dedham, Massachusetts, situated upon an acclivity, at the foot 

 of which ran a small brook, I saw that the farmer had formed a 

 reservoir above his house and barn. Into this reservoir, through 

 leaden pipes of a small bore, the water of the brook was forced 

 up, by means of an hydraulic ram and forcing pump, itself 

 operated by the running brook; and a supply of water was 

 always maintained in the reservoir amply sufficient for the 

 domestic purposes of the family, and the supply of the cattle in 

 the yard. The water was forced a considerable distance, and 

 the expense of the machinery was very trifling. The cost and 

 labor of keeping it in operation were nothing, excepting that of 

 opening and shutting the gate. The expense of the whole 

 apparatus, excepting the reservoir, did not exceed five pounds, 

 or twenty-five dollars. The farm would, in England, be con 

 sidered a very small one, not exceeding one hundred acres ; but 

 it shows, just as much as a larger one, to what advantage the 

 most simple contrivances may be applied. This water, thus 

 raised, might have been used for the purposes of irrigation. 



Where the supply of water is sufficient, it is carried along on 

 the upper margin of the land to be drained in a trench or furrow : 

 and, when it is required to throw the water over the land, the 

 end of this trench or furrow is to be stopped, either by a gate or 

 a damming up for the occasion, so that the water entering it 

 may flow gently and evenly over its sides. It is plain that the 

 water trench or furrow should be carried nearly upon a level ; 

 first, that the flowing of the water over the sides of the furrow 

 or gutter may be equal and uniform ; and, next, because any 

 variation from a level would force the water to a particular point, 

 either to prevent its equal diffusion over the field, or to occasion, 

 perhaps, a rupture of the side of the trench, and an injury to the 

 field itself. The variation from a level, recommended by some 

 persons with a view to giving the water an easy flow in the 

 trench or gutter, is only one inch fall in every ten feet. 



Besides the formation of the trench or furrow, the surface to 

 be irrigated requires to be made even, the knolls reduced, the 

 hollow places filled, and the holes, occasioned by vermin of any 

 kind, stopped, that the water may flow evenly over the whole. 

 The degree of inclination, desirable in a field to be irrigated, is 

 stated to be about ten feet in ninety; but although this may be 



