IRRIGATION. 



157 



&quot;In the end of July and beginning of August, 1844, a second 

 cutting was made of the grass growing on the land above referred 

 to, and carried to the homestead in a green state for consump 

 tion ; and this crop appeared nearly as heavy as the first. 



&quot; It must be remembered that no deduction has been made for 

 any waste of ground arising from the carriers and troughs ; but 

 it may be presumed, after allowing for this loss of surface, that 

 the average produce yielded the three last years has been about 

 thirty-one tons of grass, or eight tons of hay per acre. It appears, 

 from the different periods of the year at which the crops arrived 

 at maturity, that, even on irrigated meadows, the temperature of 

 the atmosphere in the early part of the spring exercises consid 

 erable influence over the growth of the grass, where water is not 

 always at command to apply to the meadows. 



&quot; Italian rye grass seems suitable for irrigation, as a patch at 

 Audley End measured three feet two inches in height on the 

 30th of April, 1844.&quot;* 



6. SOMERSETSHIRE. I have already referred to Mr. Roals s 

 account of his forming some catch-meadows, or meadows to be 

 irrigated on very high lands, by collecting the water from some 

 springs high up, and then bringing it down by successive gutters 

 or trenches. &quot; The water gutters were made to take the water 

 that was drained from the springs above. He set out the water 

 ing gutters by a level, giving them one inch fall in every ten 

 feet. They were cut nine inches wide and three deep. If the 

 land has a gentle slope, the gutters may be put sixty feet from 

 each other ; but if it be very steep, and there is a good flow of 



* Journal of Royal Agricultural Society, vol. vi. p. 522. 

 VOL. II. 14 



