SLOPING SURFACES. 131 



with sheets of water almost approaching the character of 

 cascades, and the level meadows appearing as lakes. 



It is by the use of the most liberal supply of water, 

 when the conditions] are favorable, that we can cause to 

 pass over a given surface, the greater quantity of nitrogen, 

 phosphates, and other valuable matters, contained in the 

 water and needed by the soil. Irrigation of meadows is 

 thus seen to be by no means a simple drenching of the 

 soil by stagnant water ; but, on the contrary, the bringing 

 into active contact with the soil of the largest possible 

 quantity of water surcharged with fertilizing gases, salts, 

 and organic matter. 



When the surface slopes, the arrangements of ditches 

 and drains should be made to suit the slope. If the slope 

 is in only one direction, the water can readily be made to 

 flow down the slope from the head to the foot by a system 

 of gates from the canal which passes along the upper 

 part of the meadow. At the foot the water passes into 

 a drain and escapes into the stream, or it is carried from 

 the drain beneath the dividing bank into the next section, 

 and made to flow over the surface of that, as it has al- 

 ready done over that of the previous section. Where the 

 slope is not more than one foot in 100, a considerable 

 depth of water may be maintained upon the surface, as 

 the flow is greatly retarded by the grass. Where the 

 slope is greater than this, the construction of a water 

 meadow must be abandoned, but a modification of it may 

 be used, and a meadow upon which a current of water 

 may be flowed from head to foot without any series of 

 water furrows, may be made and laid out upon the general 

 plan of the true water meadow. But to flood the surface 

 in case of frost would be impossible or injurious, because 

 of the great depth of water that would be required, and 

 Winter irrigation would be either injurious or full of risk. 

 So long as the slope does not much exceed 1 in 100, the 

 meadow may be laid out as a water meadow, if other cir- 



