GARDEN IRRIGATION. 301 



have resulted from an inefficient and unsystematic kind of irriga- 

 tion. A small experiment, made by myself, with Indian corn, 

 resulted in a great growth of stalk and in unhealthy malformed 

 grain.* 



Irrigation is of the least advantage upon heavy clay soils, and 

 of the greatest upon light sandy loams with gravelly subsoils. 

 It is very desirable that the construction of the soil should be 

 such that the water may gradually and somewhat rapidly filter 

 through it ; and it is considered of great importance, when the 

 water is drawn off after the flooding (drowning is the local term), 

 that it should be very completely removed, leaving no small 

 pools upon the surface. Stagnating water, either above or be- 

 low the surface, is poisonous to most plants. 



I may remind those who have a prejudice against new prac- 

 tices in agriculture, that irrigation was practiced as long ago as 

 the days of the patriarchs. In this part of England it has been 

 in use since about the beginning of the seventeenth century, at 

 which time an agreeably-written book on the subject was publish- 

 ed by one Rowland Vaughan, Esq. The account of the way 

 that he was first led to make systematic trial of irrigation, and 

 the manner in which he proceeded, is amusing and instructive : 



" In the month of March I happened to find a mole or wont's nest raised 

 on the brim of a brook in my meade, like a great hillock 5 and from it there 

 issued a little streame of water (drawn by the working of the mole), down a 

 shelving ground, one pace broad, and some twenty in length. The running 

 of this little streame did at that time wonderfully content me, seeing it 

 pleasing greene, and that other land on both sides was full of moss, and 

 hide-bound for want of water. This was the first cause I undertook the 

 drowning of grounds. 



" Now to proceed to the execution of my worke : being perswaded of the 

 excellency of the water, I examined how many foote fall the brooke yielded 



* I have seen extensive fields of maize irrigated, on the Rio Grande, and scarcely any 

 is grown except by irrigation in the valley of that river. 



