AGRICULTURE. 



ic red hardly thrive with great rapidity, 

 and on which young lambs feed with sur- 

 prising advantage. Between March and 

 May, the feed of meadows, in consequence 

 of this practice, is estimated ut worth one 

 guinea per acre ; after which an acre will 

 yield two tons of hay in June, while the 

 after-math may be valued at twenty shil- 

 lings. In consequence of this manage- 

 ment, moreover, the land is continually 

 improving in quality, its herbage advan- 

 cing in fineness, the soil becoming more 

 firm and sound, and the depth of its 

 mould being augmented. It may be esti- 

 mated that in each county in England and 

 Wales two thousand acres may be increas- 

 ed in value one pound per acre, by means 

 of irrigation; a national advantage of seri- 

 ous moment, and drawing after it the great 

 improvement of other lands, and the em- 

 ploymentof many honest and industrious 

 poor. The principles on which the prac- 

 tice depends have no portion of difficulty 

 and complexity whatever. Water will al- 

 \vaj s rise to the level of the receptacle 

 from which it is derived. All streams de- 

 scending in a greater or less degree, 

 which is indicated by their smooth and 

 slow or their agitated and noisy progress, 

 it is obvious that a main or trench may be 

 Uiken from a river which will convey wa- 

 ter over the land by the side of that river 

 1 o a considerable distance below the head 

 of the main, where the river from which 

 it is taken flows greatly below it. As 

 water, however, if left to stagnate upon 

 land, does it very considerable injury, 

 instead of benefiting it, by cherishing 

 flags, rushes, and other weeds, it is requi- 

 site to ascertain, before it be introduced 

 upon any spot, that it can be easily and 

 effectually drained off. 



The muddiness of the water applied is 

 stated by some to be of little consequence, 

 and several writers have even laid it down 

 as a maxim, that the purer or clearer the 

 wateris, the more beneficial are its effects. 

 These opinions, however, appear to be 

 directly contradicted by experience ; and 

 it may be affirmed, that the mud of water, 

 particularly in some situations, is nearly 

 of as much consequence in winter water- 

 ing, as dung is in the improvement of a 

 poor upland field. Every meadow will 

 be found productive, proportionally to the 

 quantity of mud collected from the water. 

 Those meadows which lie next below any 

 village or town, are uniformly most rapid 

 and plentiful in their growth. So well 

 known is this truth, that disputes are per- 

 petually arisingconcerningthe first appli- 

 cation of water to lands ; and when mud 



is supposed to be collected at the bottom 

 of a river, or in ditches, many persons will 

 employ labourers with rakes, for several 

 days together, to disturb it, that it may 

 be carried down by the water, and spread 

 upon the meadows. The more turbid and 

 feculent the water, the more beneficially 

 it acts. Hasty and violent rains, produ- 

 cing floods, dissolve the salts of the cir- 

 cumjacent lands, and wash from them con- 

 siderable portions of the manure, which 

 naturally or factitiously had been depo- 

 sited on them. Water from a spring de- 

 pends in no small degree for the quantity 

 of nutriment it affords to vegetables, on 

 the nature of the strata over which it 

 passes. If these be metallic, or consisting 

 of earth partaking of the sulphuric acid, 

 it may be really injurious. But that which 

 passes over fossil chalks, or any tiling of 

 a calcareous nature, will highly promote 

 the process of vegetation. That which 

 has run along way is, almost always, pre- 

 ferable to what flows over land immedi- 

 ately from the spring. 



In mid-winter great attention should b^ 

 appliedtokeepingwateredlandsheltered 

 by the waterfrom the rigour of nightfrosts: 

 but during the whole winter it should 

 be withdrawn once in every twelve days, 

 to prevent its rotting and destroying tit- 

 roots of the grass. Every meadow should 

 also be attentively inspected, to preservc- 

 the equal distribution of the water over 

 it, and to remove obstacles arising from 

 the influx of weeds and sticks, and other 

 similar causes. In the month of Febru- 

 ary particular caution is requisite. If the 

 water be suffered to remain many days 

 together upon the land, a white scum, ex- 

 tremely pernicious, is the consequence ; 

 and if the land be exposed, without dry- 

 ing during the course of the day, to one 

 severe night frost, the herbage will often 

 be completely cut off. Both these causes 

 of injury must be carefully avoided. A- 

 bout the middle of February half the 

 quantity of water previously used will be- 

 better than more, all that is requisite now 

 beingto keep the ground moist and warm, 

 and to hasten the progress of vegetation : 

 and in proportion as the weather become? 

 wanner the quantity introduced should 

 proportionally be diminished. An import- 

 ant maxim in the application of water is, 

 to bring it on as plentifully as possible, 

 but to let it pass off by a brisk and nim- 

 ble course, as not only its stagnation is 

 injurious, but by indolently creeping over 

 the land, it is of much less advantage than 

 when passing off quickly. The spring 

 feeding ought never to be done by heavier 



