Ay AMERICAX FARMER L\ EXGLAXD. 



increase the growth of grass equal to a top-dressing of thirty 

 (thirty bushel) loads of dung. 



We may judge somewhat from these facts and opinions of 

 practical men, whether, in any given circumstances, we can afford 

 to construct the dam, channels, gates, sluices, etc., by which we 

 may use this method of fertilizing our meadows. There are 

 millions of acres in the United States that could be most readily 

 made subject to the system. The outlay for permanent works 

 might often be very inconsiderable, and the labor of making use 

 of them, after construction, would be almost nothing. The cost 

 of conveying manure, and its distribution by carts and manual 

 labor, is a very important item in the expenditure of most of our 

 eastern farms ; and, though this is felt less here, where labor is 

 cheaper, we may obtain many economical hints with regard to it 

 from British practice. Fields distant from the farmstead, and 

 hill-lands not easily accessible, should nearly always be enriched 

 by bone, guano and other concentrated manures ; of which a man 

 may carry more on his back than will be of equal value with 

 many cart-loads of dung, or by some other means which will dis- 

 pense with long and heavy transportation. I have obtained in- 

 creased crops, with a saving of some hundred dollars a-year of 

 expenditure, in this way. 



Different streams vary in their value for irrigation. The 

 muddiest streams are the best, as they generally carry suspended 

 a great deal of the fertile matter of the land through which they 

 have flowed ; often, too, road-washings, and other valuable drain- 

 ings, have been taken along with them, and these are caused to 

 be deposited upon the meadow. A perfectly transparent fluid 

 will often, however, have most valuable salts in solution ; and I 

 noticed that most of the Wiltshire streams were peculiarly clear, 

 reminding me of the White Mountain trout-brooks. It is said 

 that streams abounding in fish, and which have abundance of 



