190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



The harm resulting to mowing-fields from fall feeding comes 

 largely from the compacting of the ground's surface by the 

 tread of the cattle. 



As before inthnated, strong, drying winds not infrequently 

 rob exposed elevations of their moisture, to the very great 

 injury of their herbage. A practicable remedy for this evil 

 may be often found in belts of trees, so placed as to break 

 the force of the winds and deflect them to a course above 

 and beyond the parts affected. These will also sei-ve to pro- 

 tect the grass roots by preventing the blowing away of the 

 snow in winter, whereby large tracts of ground are often 

 left bare. 



There is another remedy for drought which is sometimes 

 practicable, particularly in hilly and well-wooded localities. 

 I allude to irrigation, which, properly conducted, is an abso- 

 lute specific, as it insures moisture at all times and to any 

 extent. 



I am aware that irrigation is seldom practiced in New 

 England, and that one who advocates it is liable to be 

 regarded as possessed of lunatic ideas, Avhich, however, are 

 entirely harmless so long as no money is risked upon them. 

 Yet in Europe, in northern Africa, in India, and in the 

 western part of our own country, it is very common. 



We have as yet hardly begun to study the value of our 

 water resources. Until recently those only have been re- 

 garded as of much account which had sufiicient power to turn 

 a mill wheel. But recently they are being looked upon from 

 a domestic and sanitary stand-point, and the farmer ought to 

 go still further and examine them as agricultural agencies ; 

 investigating their channels and volumes, both above and 

 below ground. Thousands of Italian farms are made peren- 

 nially fruitful by the streams descending the southern water- 

 shed of the Alps, and the celebrated " Marcite," or winter 

 meadows, are often irrigated by springs alone. It is time 

 for us to wake up to the fact that it is a reckless waste to 

 allow the thousands of New England brooks to flow idly and 

 uselessly through our pastures and meadows, all the way 

 from their remotest sources amid the mountains, to the great 

 resounding sea. 



So far, the few eff'orts at irrigation in New England which 



