WATER MEADOWS. 



85 



level with the main feeders, and the bottoms or 

 drains on a level with the lower exit of the wa- 

 ter, or a little above it. To form these beds 

 most expeditiously, if the ground is already in 

 g-rass, the sod may be pared oft' and relaid after 

 the l)eds are formed, by which means the grass 

 will be sooner reestablished ; bitt except in very 

 heavy soils, where the grass is some time in 

 taking root, the easiest and cheapest way is to 

 plow the land two or three times towards the 

 centre, and dig out the drain with the spade : 

 the earth out of the drains, and that which is 

 taken out of the upper trench or feeder, may be 

 spread over the bed to give it the proper slope. 

 A roller, passed over the bed in the direction of 

 its length, will lay it even ; and, the seeds of 

 grasses being sown over it, the water may be 

 let on for a very short time to make them spring. 

 As soon as the grass is tv,o or three inches 

 above ground, a regular flooding may be given, 

 and in a very short time the sward will be com- 

 plete. Instead of sowing seed, tufts of grass cut 

 from old sward may be spread over the newly- 

 formed beds, and they will soon cover the 

 ground. The Italian ryegrass, which has been 

 lately introduced into this country from Lom- 

 bardy and Switzerland, grows so rapidly, that if 

 it be sown in Febraary. or as soon as the snow 

 and frost are gone, it will afford a good crop to 

 food off in April, or to mow for hay by the be- 

 ginning of May ; and after that it may be cut 

 repeatedly daring the Summer. But where the 

 soil is good and the water abundaift, good natu- 

 ral grasses will spring up \vithout much sowing, 

 and soon equal the old water-meadows. 



It seems essential to the fonnation of a good 

 water-meadow that the bottom be porous and 

 free from stagnant water ; hence under-draining 

 is often indispensable before a water-meadow 

 ean be established ; and a peat-bog, if drained 

 and consolidated, may have water canned over 

 its surface, and produce very good herbage. If 

 the soil is a very stiff clay, draining is almost in- 

 dispensable where a water-meado^v is to be 

 made. The more porous the soil, the less depth 

 of water is required, ■which is not obvious at iirst 

 sight ; but the clay lets the water run over the 

 surface without soaking into the roots, whereas 

 the porous soil is soon soaked to a considerable 

 depth. The water mu.st therefore be longer on 

 the clay than on the sand or gravel, to produce 

 the same effect. If the water is properly ap- 

 plied, all kinds of soils may be converted into 

 fertile vi^ater-meadows. On very stiff clays, a 

 coat of sand or gravel, where it can be easily 

 put on, will greatly improve the herbage. It 

 should not be plo%sed in, but laid on the surface 

 two or three inches thick : chalk will also im- 

 prove the herbage. 



The usual time of letting on the -water on wa- 

 ter-meadows is just before Christmas, and it 

 may continue to flow over the land as long as 

 the frost lasts : in mild weather it may be turned 

 off during the day and put on again at night un- 

 til the frost is gone. The grass will soon begin 



to grow, and be ready to be fcd off. When thia 

 is done, the water is immediately let on for a 

 short time, and turned off again to allow the 

 ground to diy after a few days' flooding, and 

 the water is let on again at short mtervals. The 

 warmer the air is, the shorter time must the wa- 

 ter be allowed to cover die meadows. As soon 

 as the grass is five or six inches long, it must be 

 left dry entirely till it is mown or fed off. In 

 Summer the floodings must be very short, sel- 

 dom more than twenty-four hours at a time, but 

 frequent. Thus a gi-eat weight of grass may be 

 obtained, j'ear after year, without ajiy manure 

 being put on the land — care being taken that, 

 where the surface is not quite even, the hollows 

 be filled up with earth brought from another 

 place, or dug out of the drain, if that should be 

 partially filled up -with the soil which the water 

 has can-ied into it. We alluded before to a case 

 where water may remain a considerable time 

 on the land without injui-y ; this is when there 

 are inundations from rivers, which rise above 

 their beds in Spring, and cover the lo-w mead- 

 ows which lie along their banks. In this case 

 the gi-ass, which had not yet spi-ung up, is pro- 

 tected from the cold ; and, if there is a deposit 

 from the water, there is a considerable advan- 

 tage. But, ^vhen it subsides, it must be made 

 to run off" entirely, without leaving small pools, 

 by which the grass would invariably be injured. 

 Small ditches or channels are usually dug, by 

 which all the water may ran off, unless where 

 the subsoil is very porous, or the land is ■well 

 under-drained, which is seldom the case in the.se 

 low meadows, for the drains would be apt to be 

 choked by tlie earthy deposit from the water. 

 These inundations can sometimes be regulated 

 by means of dykes and flood-gates, in which 

 case they partake of the advantages of irriga- 

 tion, and also of that depo.sition of fertilizing 

 mud which is called warping. [^^''ARPING.] 



The preceding plan (Fiir. 1) will explain 

 what has been briefly said respecting the differ- 

 ent modes of iragating land. A A is a river, 

 \vhich has a considerable fall, and then flows 

 through a level plain. A considerable channel 

 is cut at B, where there is a rapid fall over a 

 natural or artificial dam. This channel is car- 

 ried round a hill and supplies a series of chan- 

 nels, C, C, C, placed below each other, forming 

 catch-work along a declivity. A portion of the 

 ■water goes on to D, where it supplies the feed- 

 ers of a regular set of ridges, or beds, made as 

 before described, from which the ^vater retm-ns 

 into the river by a main trench, into which all 

 the drains run. 



On the other side of the river, where the 

 slopes lie somewhat differently, there are seve- 

 ral examples of catch-^work, the black lines rep- 

 resenting the drains ■which receive the ■water 

 after it has flowed over the surface and carry it 

 into the river below. It is evident that all "the 

 feeders are nearly horizontal, to aUow tlie water 

 to flow over their sides. 



Fi^. 2. 



r^. 2 is the eection of catch-work, a, a, are the feeders ; 6, the drain ; c, c, c, c, intermediate 

 channels which act as feeders and djains. 



(193) 



