WAT 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



WAT 



/95 



and circumstances of the ground, enjoy the full benefits of 

 air aud water. Practice has proved, that there is no better 

 method than keeping the water passing over the surface of 

 the land with a brisk current, but not sufficiently swift to 

 wash away the soil, yet in sufficient quantity to cover the 

 roots, without overflowing the shoots of the grasses : hence 

 appears the nicety of adjusting thu quantity of water, and 

 that one main drain, to bring the water on the upper side of 

 the land, and another on the lower side to take it away, will 

 not be adequate to all the purposes of such an accurate 

 regulation. If the space between the tipper channel or main 

 feeder, and the lower one or main drain, should be wider 

 than is necessary for the due adjustment of the water, so that 

 every part of the space may have enough of the water pass- 

 ing over it, and no part too much, then that space must be 

 divided into smaller spaces by intermediate drains, which 

 may catch and re-distribute the water. These, and the 

 ground capable of being watered in this way, have that term 

 applied to them, as they catch and collect the water to re- 

 distribute it; and in well-formed lands are never made more 

 than eight or ten yards apart. As the water is brought by 

 the main feeder upon the higher side of a piece of ground, 

 which slopes towards the main drain, and down which slop- 

 ing surface the water will very readily run, to persons un- 

 acquainted with watering, it does not at first sight appear 

 necessary to make such a number of intermediate catch- 

 drains ; but it is proved by experience, that however regular 

 the slope of ground may appear to the eye, the water will 

 find a number of irregularities, force itseff into gutters or 

 channels, and defeat the purpose of watering, in the hollow 

 places by an excess, and in the higher ones by a want, of 

 water. It is always necessary, before entering upon execu- 

 tion, to consider fully whether the stream of water to be 

 made use of, will admit of a temporary weir or dam to be 

 formed across it, so as to keep the water up to a proper 

 level for covering the land, without flooding or injuring other 

 adjoining grounds; or if the water be in its natural state 

 sufficiently high without a weir or dam, or to be made so by 

 taking from the stream higher up, more towards its source, 

 and by the conductor keeping it up nearly to its level, until 

 it comes upon the meadow or other ground. And still fur- 

 ther, whether the water can be drawn off from the meadow 

 or ground in as rapid a manner as it is introduced. It is 

 essentially necessary to possess a full and complete command 

 of the water; and therefore the best mode is to construct 

 good works in the first instance. Temporary means of 

 making dams and hatches to divert the water from its usual 

 channel, may serve to try an experiment : but every land- 

 owner greatly mistakes his own interest, who has recourse to 

 such temporary expedients; because it is frequently more 

 difficult to repair than to renew upon large streams, where 

 the foundations are often destroyed, or very much injured. 

 The same principle holds good 'upon smaller streams, and 

 even in the feeders and drains of watered land. Wherever 

 the channels are so contracted as to make a fall, or much 

 increase Uie rapidity of the stream, it is constantly disposed 

 to wear away the sides of the channel, or to undermine the 

 dam. The repairing these defects will require land to be 

 dug away, and wasted each time, besides loss of labour. 

 Hence it will be eventually cheaper to make all such works 

 of masonry. The works 'being thus well constructed, and 

 the water under full command; the next object is to ensure 

 an equal distribution, and prevent wasting-. For this purpose, 

 no part of the land, either in the bed or catch-work mode, 

 should be so formed as to be floated or watered directly from 

 the main feeder, but all the main feeders should be kept hitch 

 -VOL. it. 132. 



enougli to discharge the water into the small feeders with 

 considerable velocity, and through a narrow opening. The 

 motion of water is said to be truly mechanical, and requires 

 a great deal of ingenuity, and a perfect knowledge of lines 

 and levels, to make it pass over the grounds in a proper 

 manner. Each meadow or portion of land requires a dif- 

 ferent design, unless the cultivator can incur the heavy ex- 

 pense of pairing off banks, and filling up such hollows as" may 

 be necessary to reduce it to some regular method, the con- 

 struction to be varied according to the nature of the ground, 

 this constitutes the difference between the watered meadows 

 or lands of Berkshire, and those of Devonshire ; the latter of 

 which are upon small streams carried round the sides of tin: 

 hills chiefly in catch-work ; the former are near large rivers 

 and boggy ground, being thrown up into ridges to create a 

 brisk motion in the water ; and also for the essential purpose 

 of drawing off the superficial moisture which might prejudice 

 the grasses, when shut up for feeding or mowing. Where 

 there is much floating to be done with little water, or ratlin 

 where the great fall of a small stream will admit of its being 

 carried over a great quantity of ground, and used several 

 times, it is desirable to employ it in that way, though that is 

 not a perfect model for watering land; but if it answer the 

 purpose of a coat of manure, it will amply repay the expanse. 

 In all cases, losing fall is wasting water. All the drains of 

 watered meadows or lands require no greater declivity than is 

 necessary to carry the water from the surface ; therefore the 

 water should be collected and used again at every three feet 

 of the fall, if it be not catch-work. It is sometimes difficult 

 to do this in bed-work lands ; but where the upper part of 

 the- land is catch-work, or in level beds, and the lower part 

 not too much elevated, it may be done. By collecting and 

 using the water again in the same piece of ground before it 

 falls into the brook or other course, a set of hatches is saved, 

 and it is unnecessary to be very particular in getting the 

 upper part into high ridges, since that part of the land near 

 the hatches generally becomes the best, and the lower end 

 of the field being often the wettest or most boggy in its 

 natural state, requires to be thrown up the highest. If thr: 

 land be of a dry absorbent nature before floating or watering-, 

 it will not require to be thrown up into high beds. It has 

 been suggested, that if grass-land, of the heavier kind, could 

 be ploughed in such a manner as to set the two furrow-slides 

 or fods in a leaning position against each other, with the 

 grass sides outwards, the roots of the grasses would be per- 

 fectly dry all winter: the shoots would have the full benefit 

 of the sun, and great advantage from mutual shelter. Upon 

 wet land, this ploughing should be performed in the direction 

 in which the water runs. If the ground ploughed in this 

 form before winter, could be watered towards the spring, so 

 as to give it a good soaking, it might be pressed down again 

 to a level surface with a heavy roller. If these narrow riders 

 also were crossed with level trenches at every forty, fifty, or 

 one hundred yards' distance, according to the fall of thr 

 ground ; and these trenches made to communicate with other 

 main tre/iches, which should run up or down the slope, and 

 supply or discharge the contents of those which are horizon- 

 tal, such ground might be laid dry or wet at pleasure : and 

 it is supposed land so shaped might be floated or watered all 

 winter with stagnant water, to its great benefit, and probably 

 in the spring too, if the water be changed at frequent and 

 proper periods ; for it would only remain in the furrows, 

 where there could be little or no vegetation, and the newly 

 loosened soil of the ridges could not fail to absorb sucii 

 moisture as would promote the growth of the grass without 

 any danger of putrefaction. The levels must be taken before 

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