IRRIGATION. 155 



the water of drainage into a valuable mill power ; and then leads 

 it off for the purpose of irrigating about eighty-nine acres of 

 land, taking in its way much of the drainage of the barn-yard, 

 (where a stock of about two hundred head of cattle are con 

 stantly soiled,) which is collected in a large reservoir for this pur 

 pose, and sometimes carried out in a cart for the purpose of irriga 

 tion, and sometimes pumped upon a mixed heap of materials 

 composted for manure, that it may enrich and decompose them. 

 The water, in order to form the mill power, is first collected into 

 a small reservoir, half a mile distant from the farm buildings, and 

 then conveyed in covered drains to the mill house. In order to 

 bring the water out at a proper level, it was necessary to sink a 

 channel through a hard sandstone for a distance of about five 

 hundred yards. &quot; The stream of water was not sufficiently 

 powerful to turn an undershot wheel ; and to enable it to act 

 with force, it was necessary to bring it out to the upper part of 

 a wheel of thirty feet in diameter. This wheel has been placed 

 in the rock thirty-five feet deep, and the head-way has been 

 carried from the bottom through the rock, which comes out in a 

 valley below, at the distance above mentioned of five hundred 

 yards.&quot; 



This mill power is applied to drive a threshing machine ; to 

 the cutting of hay and straw ; to the crushing of oats and barley ; 

 to the grinding of malt, and to the turning of a circular saw ; and 

 it is obviously capable of further application. This is an im 

 mense advantage. The water, having performed this duty, is 

 then conducted into the fields which are to be irrigated, where, 

 by various channels, it is made to overflow and enrich these ex 

 tensive grounds. The whole number of acres embraced in the 

 farm is about thirteen hundred, only a portion of which is sub 

 jected to drainage ; the number actually irrigated is eighty-nine. 

 This land was originally of little comparative value, but is now 

 highly productive. No manure is ever applied to these lands 

 other than what is carried by the water in its mixture with the 

 liquids from the barn-yard. The year before the last, notwith 

 standing the severe drought of the summer, they produced at 

 least two tons of hay per acre. They are fed in the spring with 

 sheep, and with cattle and sheep after being mowed. It would 

 not be easy to estimate too highly the value of lands of such 



