278 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



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from sun-burning. Some careful pastoralists manage 

 their pastures so that the sun never reaches the earth 

 because the grass is never eaten down bare. Animals 

 are kept off in spring till the grass has a good start, and 

 afterward the amount of stock turned to pasture is so 

 proportioned that the grass is always a little ahead of 

 the beasts grazing it. 



Making Water Meadows. In England and the con- 

 tinent of Europe the effect of irrigation of meadow- 

 land is well understood, and there when it is possible 

 grasslands are arranged to be irrigated. I have seen in 

 England water meadows so old that each little ditch 

 bringing irrigation water was situated on the summit 

 of a little ridge, whence the water flowed gently in every 

 direction. The ridge effect was the result of countless 

 grains of sand and silt, brought by water through the 

 long years that it has run in these meadows, deposit- 

 ing in the entangling grass blades and among the roots, 

 thus steadily building the soil each year a little higher. 

 It seems the practice in these meadows to allow the water 

 to flow in almost continuous stream, though it is so 

 distributed that only a trickle goes out at each point 

 where it is diverted. The yield of grass obtained from 

 these meadows is large, so that they commonly bring 

 rentals of 3 and more per acre, whereas, common 

 meadow land may bring no more than i. I have seen 

 no water meadows in America comparable to these of 

 Europe since here irrigation is almost altogether confined 

 to the arid West, and is given chiefly to alfalfa, though 

 along the eastern slopes of the Sierras in California and 

 Nevada I have seen irrigated pastures of bluegrass and 



