e56 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



experiments of an able chymist, and by the extraordinary growth of grasses in Pristley 

 meadow, in Bedfordshire, that ferruginous waters are friendly to vegetation, when pro- 

 perly applied. (Smithes Observations on Irrigation, p. 28.) Lead or copper never does 

 good, and it is well known, that waters of that description, after they have been brought 

 into tields, by levels cut at a considerable expense, have again been diverted, and suffered 

 to flow in their original channels. Waters that are impregnated with the juices that flow 

 from peat-mosses, are considered by many not worth applying to the soil. It is objected 

 to them, that they are soon frozen ; that they convey no material nutriment ; and 

 that they are commonly loaded with such antiseptic substances, as will retard, instead of 

 promoting vegetation. (Dr. Singer s Treatise, p. 579.) It is urged, on the other hand, 

 that a want of sufficient slope in the meadow, or of proper management in regard to the 

 water, may have occasioned the disappointments experienced in some cases, when bog- 

 waters have been applied. (^Derbyshire Report, \o\. ii. p. 463.) 



4060. The advantages of watering lands must, in a material degree, depend on the 

 climate. It is evident that the benefit to be derived from this process in Sweden for 

 example, where the summers are short, must be greatly inferior to what it is in Lom- 

 bardy where grass grows all the year ;^ and much less in Perthshire, where grass ceases 

 to grow for at least three, and often four months in the year, than in Gloucestershire or 

 Ireland, where its growth is not interrupted above a month or six weeks, and sometimes 

 not at all : most grasses vegetating in a temperature of 33 or 34 degrees. Still, however, 

 as the most luxuriant pastures are found on lands naturally watered, both in Sweden and 

 Perthshire, it would appear worth while to imitate nature in cold as well as warm 

 countries. According to many writers on the sulyect, the benefits attending watering 

 in England, are immense. In Davis's Survey of Wiltshire, it is calculated that 2000 

 acres of water meadow will, on a moderate estimate, produce in four or five years, 

 10,000 tons of manure, and will keep in permanent fertility 400 acres per annum of 

 arable land. 



4061. Watering poor land, especially if of a gravelly nature, is stated in The Code 

 of Agriculture to be by far the easiest, cheapest, and most certain mode of improving 

 it. " Land, when once improved by irrigation, is put in a state of perpetual 

 fertility, without any occasion for manure, or trouble of weeding, or any other material 

 expense. It becomes so productive, as to yield the largest bulk of hay, besides abun- 

 dance of the very best support for ewes and lambs in the spring, and for cows and other 

 cattle in the autumn of every year. In favorable situations, it produces very early grass 

 in the spring, when it is doubly valuable; and, not only is the land thus rendered fertile, 

 without having any occasion for manure, but it produces food for animals, which is con- 

 verted into manure, to be used on other lands, thus augmenting, in a compound propor- 

 tion, that great source of fertility." Were these advantages more generally known, or 

 more fully appreciated, a large proportion of the kingdom might become like South 

 Cerney, in Gloucestershire, where every spring, or rivulet, however insignificant, is 

 made subservient to the purpose of irrigation, fertilizing, in proportion to its size, either 

 a small quantity, or a large tract of land. (^Gloucestershire Report, p. 280.) 



SuBSECT. 2. Of the Implements made Use of in Watering Lands; and of the Terms of 

 Art peculiar to Works of that kind, 



4062. The principal instrument made use of in the preparation of lands for watering, 

 is the level, different descriptions of which have already been given. The level is neces- 

 sarily employed to take the level of the land at a distance, compared with the part of the 

 river, &c. whence it is intended to take the water, to know whether it can or cannot be 

 made to float the part intended to be watered. It is found very useful in undertakings 

 of this nature, especially when on a large scale, though the workmen too frequently 

 dispense with the use of it, bringing the water after tliem to work by. In drawing a 

 main they begin at the head, and work deep enough to have the water to follow 

 them ; and in drawing a tail drain they begin at the lower end of it, and work upwards 

 to let the water come after them. The level should, 

 however, be made use of as being more certain and 

 correct. Brown, an experienced irrigator in the west 

 of England, recommends a level (^fig- 522 a), which 

 when not in use may be closed (b) like a walking 

 stick. There is also a compass level (fig. 523.), which 

 may be used in the same way. 



4063. A line and reel, and a breast-plough, or turf 

 spade (fig, 250.), are likewise absolutely necessary. The 

 use of the two former are well known ; but as the line 

 is mostly used in the wet, it should for this purpose be 

 larger and stronger than those employed in gardening. 

 The turf spade should be of the best description, being '- ^ ^ 

 principally employed in cutting turfs for the sides of the channels. 



