ADVANTAGE OF WINTER IRRIGATION. 119 



county, and the Wiltshire cheese is a staple product in 

 the markets of the country. 



But it is drouth, and not heat alone, that is fatal to 

 the growth of grass, and which sears it as the breath of 

 a furnace. Heat and moisture develop vegetable growth 

 most abundantly. Without declaring that irrigation is 

 to revolutionize our husbandry, it is only necessary to 

 refer to the abundant opportunities which exist here for 

 enterprise in this direction, to be assured that a vast 

 change for the better would occur if it were brought into 

 general use. It is a mistake to suppose that an irrigated 

 meadow depends solely upon the use of water during 

 the Summer months. On the contrary, wherever it is 

 possible to be done, it is by application of water during 

 the Winter season, or from the Autumn to the Spring, 

 that the crop gains an accumulation of strength which 

 enables it to pass through the Summer in safety, giving 

 several crops in that season. Not that Summer irrigations 

 are not useful or necessary, but that they are of less vol- 

 ume and of less continuance. 



The chief advantage of this system is the accumulation 

 of fertility made during a period when otherwise the 

 ground is wasted by rains, and denuded of soil and soluble 

 matter that it is not in a condition to spare. The meadow 

 is made the place of deposit for a large portion of the 

 matter of which other lands, not so improved, are de- 

 prived by rains and floods, and if the whole of the waters 

 of the streams could be arrested and made to give up 

 their burden, the whole of the value lost by them would 

 be regained, and none escape to the sea or the estuaries of 

 the rivers to form future lands of the richest character. 

 The opportunities for producing grass upon water mead- 

 ows in the Southern States, where Winter irrigation is 

 possible, and where the river flats are extensive and nu- 

 merous, are many and great, and the advantages in this 

 direction are too important to be neglected.^ 



