AGRICULTURE. 



cattle titan sheep or calves, as others 

 would do extreme injury, by poaching 

 the ground with their fort, and spoiling 

 the trenches. The barer the meadows 

 are fed towards the close of April, the 

 At'ier clearing, they should ha\ i: 

 a week's watering 1 , with a careful atten- 

 tion to every sluice or drain. 



With respect to the application of floods, 

 a general rule, of no slight importance, is, 

 that the fanner should avail himself of 

 them whenever the grass cannot be used, 

 us the sand and mud brought down by 

 them increase and enrich the soil; but that 

 lie should avoid them when the grass is 

 long, or soon to be cut, as in flat countries 

 it is frequently spoiled by them, and much 

 of the matter which they bring down, 

 sticking to the grass, renders it peculiar- 

 ly unpleasant to cattle, which have been 

 known in some instances rather to starve 

 than use it. 



So great is the importance of irrigation, 

 hat governments would be fully justified 

 in giving facility to undertakings for con- 



hiding it on an extensive plan. The fer- 



ility, or, in other words, the national 

 wealth, capable of being derived from 

 the application of cold water, which is at 

 present allowed to flow uselessly away, to 

 the purposes of agriculture, is well wor- 

 thy the attention of the enlightened and 

 benevolent statesman. In the neighbour- 

 howl of the cities of Milan and Lodi, Mr. 

 Young observes, that the exertions in ir- 

 rigation are truly great and even astonish- 

 ing. " Canals are not only numerous and 

 uninterrupted, but conducted with great 

 .skill and expense. Along the public 

 roads, almost every where, there is one 

 canal on the side of the road, and some- 

 times there are two. Crossones are thrown 

 over these on arches, and pass in trunks 

 of brick or stone under the road. A very 

 considerable one, after passing for seve- 



.il miles by the side of the highway, sinks 

 under it, and also under two other canals, 

 carried in stone troughs a foot wide. The 

 v .irii-ty of directions in which the water is 

 carried, the ease with which it is made to 

 flow in opposite directions, and the ob- 

 stacles which are overcome, are objects 

 of admiration. The expense thus em- 

 ployed in the twenty miks from Milan to 

 Lodi is immense ; and meritorious as ma- 

 ny undertakings in England are, they sink 

 to nothing in comparison with these truly 

 great ami noble works. So well under- 

 stood is the value of water in this country, 

 that it is brought by the farmer (who has 

 the power of conducting it through his 

 neighbour's ground, for a stipulated sum. 



and under certain regulations, to any dis- 

 tance that m:t\ suit him; from a canal of a 

 certain si/.e, at so much an hour per u eck, 

 and even from an hourdown to a quarter, 

 The usual price for an hour per v. 

 perpetuity is fifteen hundred livres." 



.Manure, fjc. 



Ingenious theories have too often, in 

 agricultural treatises, usurped the place 

 of recitals of attentive and patient expe- 

 rience. To the latter, the judicious rea- 

 der will ever bend his attention with plea- 

 sure and advantage, rejoicing that, while 

 the systems of men are seen to vanish, 

 one after another, in rapid succession, like 

 the waves of the ocean, the course of na- 

 ture is constant, and may be depended 

 upon through all generations and ages. 

 Of all the expenses incurred by the hus- 

 bandman, none so rarely disappoints its 

 object as that which he employs in ma- 

 nures. The use of lime in this connec- 

 tion has been long decidedly established. 

 It reduces to mould all the dead roots of 

 vegetables, with which the soil abounds. 

 Its useful operation depends upon its in- 

 timate mixture with the land; and the 

 proper time therefore to apply it is, when 

 both are in that pulverized state in which 

 this union can be best completed. If 

 left to be slaked by humid air, or casual 

 rain, it is seldom perfectly reduced to 

 powder. The proper method is, to place 

 it in heaps on the ground on which it is 

 intended to be spread, to slake it there 

 with a due quantity of water, and after- 

 wards to cover it with sod, to preserve it 

 from the rain. If long slaked, however, 

 before it is spread, it runs into clots, and 

 becomes less operative for its purpose j 

 besides which, it loses in such circumstan- 

 ces its caustic quality, on which account 

 it should be brought home as short a time 

 as possible before its intended application. 

 Lime should not be permitted to lie all 

 winter on the surface of the ground after 

 being spread, for a similar reason, as also 

 because it is washed down into the fur- 

 rows ; and on the sides of hills the whole 

 is apt to be carried off' by the winter tor- 

 rents. It should be spread, and mixed 

 with the soil immediately before sowing. 

 The quantity to be laid on depends upon 

 the nature of the lands, which, if strong, 

 will easily bear a hundred bolls per acre, 

 \\ hile thin and gravelly ones will require 

 only thirty or forty, and upon meadow 

 ones fifty or si.\t\ will he found sufficient. 



Marl is valuable as a manure in propor- 

 tion to the quantity of calcareous earth 

 which it contains, which in some instan- 



