M E A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



M E A 



97 



a hay-crop: six weeks are usually sufficient for the growth of 

 the crop; it seldom requires eight; and there have been in- 

 stances of great crops being produced in five. The hay of 

 water-meadows being frequently large and coarse in its nature, 

 it is necessary to cut it young; if made well, it then becomes of 

 a peculiarly nourishing milky quality, either for ewes or dairy 

 cows. The water-meadows are laid up for a second crop in 

 some instances; but this is only usual when hay is scarce: 

 not that it is supposed to hurt the land, but the hay is of 

 that herbaceous soft nature, and takes so long time in drying, 

 that it is seldom well made. It is usually of much greater 

 value to be fed with dairy cows, and for that purpose a flush 

 of after-grass, so early and so rank, will be precisely of the 

 same comparative service to the dairy, as the spring feed has 

 been described to be for ewes and lambs. The cows remain in 

 the meadow till the drowner begins to prepare for the winter 

 watering. Water-meadows are reckoned to be perfectly safe 

 for sheep in the spring, even upon land that would rot sheep, 

 if it was not watered; but in the autumn the best water-mea- 

 dows are supposed to be dangerous. But the circumstance 

 is rather an advantage than a disadvantage to this district, 

 as it obliges the farmers to keep a few dairy cows, to feed 

 the water-meadows in autumn, and to provide artificial 

 grasses, or other green crops, for their sheep during that 

 period. From what has been so repeatedly urged, on the 

 necessity of making water-meadows dry, as well as wet, every 

 reader must have inferred the advantage of having them, if 

 possible, on a warm absorbent bottom. The bottom or sub- 

 soil of a water-mead, is of much more consequence than the 

 quality or the depth of the top soil; not but the lands on 

 peaty or clay bottoms may be considerably improved by 

 watering; and there are many good water-meadows on such 

 soils, but they are not so desirable, on account of the difficulty 

 of draining the water out of them, and making them firm 

 enough to bear treading. A loose gravel, or, what perhaps 

 is still better, a bed of broken flints; with little or no inter- 

 mixture of earth, wherever it can be obtained, is the most 

 desirable bottom. As to those meadows which cannot be 

 flowed, there should be the same care taken to weed 

 and roll them as the water-meadows; as also never to let 

 heavy cattle graze upon them in winter when they are wet, 

 for the cattle will then poach them, and greatly injure the 

 grass; therefore these should be fed down as soon as possible 

 in the autumn, before the heavy rains fall to render the 

 ground soft; and those pastures which are drier, may be 

 kept to supply the want of these in winter; and where there 

 are not cattle enough to eat down the grass in time, it will 

 be much better to cut off what is left, than to suffer it to rot 

 upon the ground, for that will prevent the grass from shooting 

 early in the spring; but where people have not cattle enough 

 of their own to eat down the grass in time, they had much 

 better take in some of their neighbours', than suffer their fog, 

 as it is called, to remain all the winter. When these mea- 

 dows are fed in the autumn, the greater variety of animals 

 are turned in, the closer they will eat the grass; and the 

 closer it is eaten, the better the grass will come up the fol- 

 lowing spring; and if during the time the cattle are feeding, 

 the meadows be well rolled, the animals will eat the grass 

 much closer than they otherwise would. Those persons who 

 are best skilled in this part of husbandry, always dress their 

 meadows every other, or at least every third year, without 

 which it is vain to expect any good crop of hay; but the 

 generality of the farmers are so much distressed for dressing 

 to supply their corn-land, as not to have any to spare for their 

 meadows; they are therefore content with what the land will 

 naturally produce, rather than take any part of their manure 



from their arable ground. But this is a very imprudent 

 piece of husbandry, for if land is to be annually mown for 

 hay, it cannot be supposed that it will produce a good crop 

 long, unless proper dressings are allowed it; and when land 

 is once beggared for want of manure , it will be some years 

 before it can be recovered again. See Pasture. The scour- 

 ing of ditches, mud of ponds, and almost any earth, form 

 good dressings for meadow lands, if suffered to lie, and well 

 turned over. These, together with alternate mowing and 

 feeding, will in general keep meadows in heart, without rob- 

 bing the arable land. DRAINING. The draining of land 



is another great improvement, for though meadows which can 

 be overflowed produce a much greater quantity of herbage, 

 yet where the wet lies too long upon the ground, the grass 

 will be sour and coarse, and so overrun with rushes and flags 

 as to be of small value. Cold stiff clays are most liable to 

 this, where the water cannot penetrate, but is contained as 

 in a dish; so that the wet which it receives in winter con- 

 tinues till the heat of the sun exhales it. The method of 

 draining such lands is to cut several drains across them 

 where the water lodges; and from these cross-drains to make 

 others, to carry off the water to ponds, brooks, or rivers, 

 in the lower parts of them. These drains need not be made 

 very large, unless the ground be very low, and so situated 

 as not to be near any outlet; in which case large ditches 

 should be dug at proper distances, in the lowest part of the 

 ground to contain the water; and the earth which comes out 

 of these ditches, should be spread on the land to raise the 

 surface. But where the water can be conveniently carried 

 off, under-ground drains should be made at proper distances, 

 which may empty themselves into the large ditches. The 

 usual method of making under-ground drains, is to dig 

 trenches, and fill the bottoms with stones, bricks, rushes, or 

 bushes; covering them over with the earth dug out of the 

 trenches. But when there is a flood, these drains are often 

 stopped by the soil which the water brings down. The best 

 method of making these drains is, to dig the principal ones 

 three feet wide at top, sloping them down for two feet in 

 depth, where there should be a small bank left on each side, 

 upon which cross-stakes or bearers should belaid; and below 

 this set-off, an open drain should be left, at least one foot 

 deep, and ten or eleven inches wide. Smaller drains of six 

 or seven inches wide, and the hollow under the bushes eight 

 or nine inches deep, should be cut across the ground, to 

 discharge the water into the large drains. The number and 

 situation of these must be in proportion to the wetness of the 

 land, and the depth of earth above the bushes must be pro- 

 portioned to the intended use of it; for if the land is to be 

 ploughed, the drain must not be shallower than fourteen 

 inches, but for meadow land, one foot will be enough : for 

 when the bushes lie too deep in strong land, they will have 

 little effect, the ground above binding so hard as to detain 

 the wet on the surface. The drains being dug, the larger 

 sticks of the brush-wood should be cut out, to pieces of six- 

 teen or eighteen inches in length, to lay across upon the side- 

 banks of the drain, at about four inches' distance; and the 

 smaller brush-wood, furze, broom, heath, &c. should be laid 

 lengthwise pretty close over these, with rushes, flags, &c. 

 on the top of them, and then the earth to cover the whole. 

 Such drains will continue good many years, and the water will 

 find an easy passage through them. Where there is plenty 

 of brush-wood, they are made at an easy expense; but where 

 brush-wood is scarce, they are very chargeable. In this case 

 cuttings of willow or black poplar might be planted in moist 

 places, which would furnish brush-wood for this purpose in 

 four or five years. In countries where there is plenty of stone, 



