158 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



water, they may be put seventy or eighty feet apart, When he 

 finds the water sink too fast into the land, he spreads fine earth 

 or road scrapings over the surface, in order to fill it up, that the 

 water may pass over to the next catch-gutter. He has drained 

 and formed into meadows, for irrigation, thirty acres, which yield 

 from a ton to a ton and a half of hay per acre annually.&quot; This 

 land, which, previous to these improvements, was valued by 

 authority at 2 s. per acre rent, would now let for 25 s. This 

 demonstrates the extraordinary value of this improvement. 



His remarks subjoined to this account are too valuable to be 

 omitted. &quot; The sides of the mountains, in the north of England 

 and Wales, might be converted into catch-meadows, in the same 

 way that I have done mine, provided the water is of good quality, 

 and the land can be made porous, to let the water filter gently 

 down. I have never found turning water over old pasture do 

 much good, as the grass that comes up is coarse and thin, and 

 the hay, if mown, is not of good quality. If, therefore, old pas 

 ture is intended for meadow, it will answer best to break it up 

 first, work it well, and seed it down with those grass seeds which 

 are most congenial for water meadows.&quot; 



The judgment of this farmer, in respect to the management 

 of old pasture, seems at variance with the experience of Lord 

 Braybrooke. But I suppose they are speaking of entirely dif 

 ferent qualities of soil. The former is speaking of high moun 

 tain pasture, the latter of alluvial lands, which have been greatly 

 enriched. 



I shall conclude this part of my subject with the remarks of 

 Philip Pusey, Esq., M. P., which are always deserving of the 

 highest attention, and which are as applicable to many parts of 

 the United States as to those places to which they immediately 

 refer. 



&quot; I have known Mr. Roals s farm for many years. It stands 

 alone on the summit of the wild Exmoor range of mountain 

 land. If any one asserted, that, for a trifling outlay, he could 

 enable heath-covered steeps to rival, in produce and value, the 

 old grazing grounds of Northamptonshire, he would be regarded 

 as a dreamer. But if any owner of moors will visit Somerset, or 

 North Devon, he will ascertain the literal truth of the statement, 

 as I did five years ago. All that is required is a streamlet tric 

 kling down the mountain side, or a torrent descending rapidly 



