USE OF SPRINGS. 105 



and fed to cattle, for the present costly practice of pastur- 

 ing. Nevertheless it is not necessary that pasturing be 

 abandoned, for irrigation is as applicable, to a large ex- 

 tent, to pastures as to meadows. 



The details of the methods here alluded to will be 

 treated of in a succeeding chapter. 



H A P T E E XI. 



THE USE OF SPRINGS FOR IRRIGATION. 



Springs are one of the sources from which water for 

 irrigating meadows is most frequently procured. They 

 are often situated advantageously, so that the water may 

 be circulated by gravity over the land on a lower level. 

 It is possible in many cases to reach the actual source of 

 the spring at a point several feet above that at which it 

 naturally issues from the ground. A vast number of 

 springs really furnish a much larger supply of water 

 than is suspected. Usually they are allowed to satu- 

 rate the surface and escape into the subsoil by numerous 

 hidden channels, which in the aggregate would fur- 

 nish a respectable stream. By proper economy in using 

 the water, a very small stream may be made to irrigate a 

 field of considerable extent. It is by using water in drib- 

 lets that many springs are wasted. A stream yielding one 

 quart per second may have its water wholly swallowed by 

 the thirsty soil within 200 feet of its source, when by ar- 

 resting the flow and accumulating it in a reservoir, which 

 may be discharged at intervals by automatic arrange- 

 ments, the water may be made to escape in a volume 

 four times as large, and sufficient to cover eight times 

 the surface. 



