IRRIGATION. 159 



along the bottom of the glen. The profit of under-draining old 

 arable land appears trifling when compared with the profit of 

 thus forming catch-meadows, which, according to Mr. Roals, is 

 more than one pound interest for two pounds invested. The 

 two pages of this report, which state no more than Mr. Roals 

 has himself done, contain a talisman, by which a mantle of 

 luxuriant verdure might be spread over the mountain moors of 

 Wales and Scotland, of Kerry and Cannemara.&quot; 



New England, especially, and many parts of the other states, 

 are full of sites and means for such improvements j and in many 

 cases the expense and labor of levelling the land, bringing the 

 water into a body, and placing it under control, would be met 

 many times over by the profits of such improvements. 



7. EDINBURGH. I come next to speak of a system of irriga 

 tion established in Edinburgh, which I looked at with a good 

 deal of interest, where the sewerage water from the drains of the 

 city are applied to grass lands in its neighborhood, which by this 

 means are rendered most extraordinarily productive. 



The drainage water from a large portion of the city of Edin 

 burgh is collected into covered carriers and drains, and from 

 these emptied into a small stream of water, very properly, as one 

 may suppose in such case, called the Foul Bum, the term burn 

 being the Scottish name for a small stream or brook. Here it 

 passes along, in an open brook, among some flat lands, which, by 

 proper arrangements, it is made to overflow. I should state that, 

 before it reaches the places where it is thus diffused, it is received 

 in tanks, where the more solid parts are deposited. It does not 

 require any extraordinary acuteness of smell, on approaching these 

 irrigated lands, to become satisfied that the waters, even after 

 passing from the cisterns or tanks, are sufficiently charged with 

 odoriferous particles held in suspension. Indeed, in visiting 

 some parts of the old town in Edinburgh, of Glasgow, and of 

 Dundee, it is difficult to persuade one s self that the inhabitants 

 of those parts are not absolutely deficient in one particular sense. 

 Whether, with the present habits prevailing in those places, this 

 deficiency is to be considered an evil or a good, I shall not un 

 dertake to decide. 



This water, thus received, is diffused over three hundred acres 

 of land ; and these lands are rendered productive to a most extra- 



