280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



A mail from Aberdeen exhibited a model of a system of 

 irrigation at the show of the Royal Agricultural Society at 

 Battersea Park. It consisted of a system of pipes perforated 

 with very fine holes, laid over the surface of the land at inter- 

 vals of about sixty feet, more or less, according to the pressure at 

 the main cistern. It is self-acting, and may be applied in the 

 distribution of clear water or of liquid manures, in the form of 

 showers. It will operate constantly, if necessary, both day and 

 night. It is easy to see what facilities this would give in a hot, 

 dry season. But experiments made in 1860 and 1861 show the 

 most astonishing results. 



The first year, 1860, from the first week in May to the first 

 week in October, seven crops of grass were cut, making eleven 

 tons of dry hay per acre. This was with water simply taken 

 from a river, hi 1861, from the last week in April to the first 

 week in September, six crops were taken off, making more than 

 nine tons, per acre, of dry hay. A light dressing of super- 

 phosphate, mixed with nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia, 

 was applied after every second crop, to give the crop a push, 

 and they kept the grass in full growth throughout the season. 



The material of his pipes is composition lead, of a permanent 

 and durable character, and claimed to be worth about ten dol- 

 lars per acre as old pipe. The whole cost of mains, distributing 

 pipes, and all, per acre, is about seventy-two dollars. 



To me, previous to seeing this fertile country of Lombardy, 

 made fertile wholly by its admirable system of irrigation, the 

 results that I had frequently read of, — seven, eight and nine 

 cuttings a year, — always appeared chimerical, but after travelling 

 through the length and breadth of the watered district, I am 

 prepared to believe that an enormous quantity of grass can be 

 cut from it. Another thing has impressed me strikingly here, 

 and that is, that the Italians understand tlie period at which 

 grass should be cut to make tlie most of it, better than we do. 

 I nowhere saw grass allowed to stand even into blossoming ; it 

 was cut in a very green and succulent state, when full of its 

 sweet young juices. In hundreds of instances, perhaps thou- 

 sands, I saw men and women, more IVcquently the latter, 

 mowing grass less than six inches high, often less than four, 

 and very often, and in many countries, cutting grass that our 

 farmers would never think of cutting. So careful and so saving 



