654 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



4048. Cutting the new channel is merely a work of manual labor ; being attended 

 with no other difficulty than what may arise from the expense, which will depend on the 

 size of the river, the nature of the ground to be cut through, and the value of labor 

 in the given district. It is mostly to be ascertained with sufficient accuracy by previous 

 calculations. (See 3082.) 



4049. The size of the netv cut may be small, compared with that of the old channel. 

 For the current of floods, by carrying off the earthy particles with which they come in 

 contact, will soon enlarge it. It is nevertheless right to give ample room in the new 

 channel, lest the first flood should prove high, and, by bursting its bounds, force its way 

 back to its former course. 



4050. u4 new river course requires to be carefully attended to, during a few years after 

 it is opened, to see that its channel preserves its straightness, and that no breaches are 

 made or threatened in its banks. Considering the uncertainty of extraordinary floods, 

 it cannot be said to be out of danger in less than three years ; hence it becomes prudent, 

 when a work of this nature is contracted for, or undertaken to be done by measurement at 

 an estimated price or prices, previously agreed upon (as it generally oughtj, that the un- 

 dertaker should agree to preserve tiie straightness of the channel, and uphold its banks, 

 during that or some other time fixed upon ; and to deliver them up at the end of the term, 

 in the state and condition specified in the contract. 



4051 . A case of straightening the course of a river is given in The Code of Agriculture. 

 The Waters, which in their crooked course were formerly almost stagnated, now run at 

 the ordinary rate of the declivity given them. They never overflow their banks. Cattle 

 can now pasture upon those grounds in which they would formerly have been swamped. 

 The surface of the water biing now in general four, and sometimes six feet, below that 

 of the adjacent fields, this cut serves as a general drain to the whole valley ; so that three 

 hundred acres of meadow may be converted into arable land ; sixty acres of moss may be 

 improved into meadow ; and five hundred acres of arable land are rendered of double 

 their former value, (p. 319.) 



Chap. Ill, 



Of Irrigation or the Improvement of Culturable Lands and Farmeries, by the Means of 



Water. 



4052. The improvement of lands by water is of three kinds : irrigation, or the appli- 

 cation of water to the surface of the soil, and especially of grass lands, as a species of 

 culture ; warping, or the covering the soil with water to receive a deposition of earthy 

 matter ; and the procuring or preserving of water by wells, reservoirs, and other means, 

 for the use of farmeries, live stock in the fields, or the domestic purposes of the farmer 

 or cottager. 



Sect. I. Of Irrigation or the Preparation of the Surface of Lands for the 2)rofitable 

 Ajiplication of Water. 



4053. Irrigation in its different forms may be considered an operation of culture as 

 well as of permanent improvement. It is accordingly in many cases effected by tenants, 

 but always, as in the case of improving wastes, in consequence of extraordinary encou- 

 ragement from the landlord, by long leases, money advanced, or other advantages. 



4054. The application of water to the surface of lands for the purpose of promoting 

 vegetation has been practised, as we have seen (180.), from the earliest ages in warm 

 countries. It is an essential article for the culture both of the cereal and pasture grasses, 

 and indeed of most herbaceous crops in all the tropical climates, and even in a great 

 degree in the south of Europe. In the greater part of Italy and Spain, few crops are raised 

 without being irrigated ; and even in the south of France, potatoes, maize, madder, and 

 sometimes vines^ and orange trees, fas at Hieres,) have water applied to their roots, by 

 furrows and other gutters and trenches formed on the surface. The system of watering 

 grass lands was revived in Italy in the ninth century, and seems to have been practised 

 in a few places in Britain from the time of the Romans; there being meadows near 

 Salisbury which have been irrigated from time immemorial. In 1610, the public atten- 

 tion was called to it by Rowland Vaughan, in a work entitled, " Most improved and 

 long experienced Water Works; containing the manner of summer and winter drowning 

 of meadow and pasture, by the advantage of the least river, brook, fount, or water mill 

 adjacent ; thereby to make those grounds {especially if they be dry) more fertile ten for 



