1 9 * STATISTICAL SURVEff'-JQ 



the water to co*'er the ground, and, if it can be douc, 

 to prevent its being covered to too great a depth. The 

 land fhould, at particular times, be laid dry, to give the 

 grafs air, and to prevent its roots from being deftroyed 

 by the water, which muft in fome degree ftagnate 

 upon it. The only objection I ever heard to this mode 

 of improving land, arofe from the idea of its making 

 tfce produce of inferior quality ; but this is a point not 

 decided, and depends greatly on the time you cut the 

 hay of watered meadows; for the crop being fo much 

 greater than on any other ground, it will, if fuffered to 

 remain long unmown, fpoil at the bottom, from its 

 weight and clofenefs, whereas, if taken earlier, being 

 more full of fap, it will of courfe make more nutri- 

 tious food. But the benefits are numerous; for when 

 the land is once put into a courfe for irrigation, it is 

 the cheapeft, as well as the moft certain mode of im- 

 proving it ; it is the mode, in which grafs will be pro- 

 duced at a period in fpring when it is particularly va- 

 luable, at which time it may be fed without injuring 

 the crop of hay; it has this peculiar advantage, that 

 its manure is acquired, and brought to it at thofe times 

 the land is totally unfit for conveying manure ,of any 

 other kind; and to fum up all, fo far from robbing any 

 other land for its fupport, it is a continual and increaf- 

 ing fund of richnefs, from the fupply it affords to cat- 

 tle of all kinds, that convert it into manure, with which 

 other lands may be improved; thus not only rejecting 



every 



