SECRETARY'S REPORT. 291 



piece for the same length of time, and tliis alternate flowing is 

 continued at intervals through the season, that is till it becomes 

 impracticable from frost and snow. The irrigation of October, 

 November and December, is thought to be most beneficial to 

 land. When the streams are swollen by the melting snows, 

 they are not let on. After March the land is usually left dry 

 rather longer intervals than in the fall. 



After the first grass is cut for green fodder in April or the 

 first of May, the water is immediately turned on for two or 

 three days, and so after the first hay crop in June and the second 

 in August. The last crop cut in September or October is also 

 used for fodder and not made into hay. Cattle are never turned 

 upon irrigated meadows. Thus four crops of grass are cut, 

 and in very good seasons five. They prefer soft or rain water, 

 to that from the melting of snow and the glaciers. If allowed 

 to flow over too large an extent of land its value is diminished. 

 Many will not irrigate during the full moon as they say the 

 grass is weakened and the color affected. Careful experiment, 

 they say, has proved this. In very hot weather in summer the 

 water is not left on by day but only during the night. Water 

 which will dissolve soap is good, and the water of good trout 

 streams is excellent for the purposes of irrigation. The growth 

 of water-cresses and other plants at the bottom of a stream is 

 another favorable indication of the quality of the water, but 

 brooks that deposit any calcareous substance on their banks or 

 where petrifactions are found are bad. To make an even sur- 

 face the subsoil is frequently removed with great labor, the 

 surface mould replaced, and what is taken out allowed to have 

 the air, freeze and thaw for some months, when it is mixed with 

 the manure. They know the subsoil possesses very considerable 

 absorbent properties taking up ammonia from the atmosphere 

 and really making, after some time, a pretty good top-dressing. 



Those who adopt this system of irrigation think they cannot 

 irrigate too much. The greater the fall, the quicker the water 

 runs, the quicker the grass grows. They generally keep 

 irrigating as late as possible till there is danger of freezing 

 solid. Fields which cannot be irrigated are top-dressed witli 

 solid manure in the fall, and if they havn't enough to go over the 

 whole they apply liquid manure while the snow is on the ground. 

 In the farm-yard are tanks which collect all the liquid, which is 



