198 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER 



materially injured, or entirely destroyed ; he has- 

 tens, iherelore, to open his water-courses. There 

 are some soils in the vicinity ol' Standen in Berk- 

 shire, however, of eo porous a quality, they need 

 not any drains to empty ilie water-courses ; and, 

 in fact, in many instances, the farmer does not 

 even require them: after a few hours all the 

 water is absorbed by the soil ; and yet these lands, 

 with hardly six inches of mould above the gravel, 

 are amon^rst the ricliest of water-meadows; the 

 roots of the grasses penetrate readily into the 

 gravel, and the earliest and sweetest grasses are 

 produced on them. 



Almost any description of grass will flourish 

 under proper management in water meadows. 

 Those whose soils consist of peat resting on sand 

 or on sandy loam, with a substratum of chalk or 

 gravel, generally produce the meadow foxtail 

 (^Alopecurus pratensis,) the brome-grass (^ro??ius 

 arvensis,) and the meadow- fescue (Festucapra- 

 tensis,) on the tops and sides of the ridges. The 

 furrows and sides of the drains are usually tenant- 

 ed by the creeping-bent, the hard (eseue, the 

 rough stalked meadow grass, and the woolly soft 

 grass. In those water meadows, whose soil con- 

 Bisis of a sandy loam on a clay subsoil, the chief 

 grasses are commonly the creeping-rooted soft 

 grass, crested dog's-tail, the meadow barle)', and 

 the sweet-scented vernal grass. But some grasses 

 change their appearance in a very remarkable 

 degree, when exposed under favorable circum- 

 stances to the influence of the flood waters. This 

 fact is strikingly exemplified in the case of two 

 small meadows situated at Orcheston, six miles 

 from Amesbury in Wiltshire, denominated from 

 their great produce, "the long grass meads." 

 *' These," says Davis, " contain together only two 

 acres and a half, and the crop they produce is so 

 immense, that the tithe hay oflhem was once sold 

 for five guineas." Much discussion took place 

 amongst the Wiltshire (armers, as to the nature 

 of the crop of these meads, before it was at last 

 shown that the greatest part of their herbage 

 consisted of nothing else than the black couch, 

 or couchy-beni, the jigrostis stolonifera, one ol' 

 the worst of the grasses or weeds which haunt 

 the poor, ill-cultivated arable soils. 



It is a very general, as well as correct conclu- 

 sion of the English farmers, that the grass and 

 hay of water-meadows is not so nutritious as that 

 of the permanent pasture lands. The difference, 

 however, is not so great as is commonly supposed. 

 The late Mr. George Sinclair determinated this 

 experimentally, and he is no mean authority with 

 regard to all that relates to the grasses. 



He obtained from the rye grass (^Lolium pe- 

 renne,^ at the time of flowering, taken from a 

 water meadow that had been fed off with sheep 

 till the end of April, of nutritive matter, seventy- 

 two grains; and from the same weight of this 

 grass, taken from a rich old pasture, which had 

 been shut up for hay about the same time, ninety- 

 two grains. From the same grass from the mea- 

 dow, that had not been depastured in the spring, 

 one hundred grains. And from tlie same grass, 

 from the pasture which had not been led off, one 

 hundred and twenty grains. All the grasses, in 

 fact, where their growth is forced by the applica- 

 tion of either liquid or solid manures, are found to 

 contain nutritive matter in diminished quantities 

 —this, loo, was determiaed by Sinclair. From 



four ounces of a very rankly luxuriant patch of 

 rye-grass, on which a large portion of cow dung 

 had been deposited, he obtained of nutritive mat- 

 ter, seventy-two grains. From the same quantity 

 of the same grass, growing on the soil which 

 surrounded this luxuriant patch, he obtained one 

 hundred and twenty-two grains. 



And in a second trial, the same species ofgrass, 

 on a soil entirely destitute of manure, afforded, of 

 nutritive matter, ninety-five grains. On the same 

 soil, excessively manured, the grass afforded only 

 filly grains. In these experiments, the plants 

 were of the same age, and were examined at the 

 saaie stage of their growth. (Hortus Gram. 

 384.) 



With regard to the construction and manage- 

 ment of water meadows, there are many practical 

 works of the highest authority to which the farm- 

 er has ready access, and, in the following ob- 

 servations, therefore, I shall merely very briefly 

 paraphrase (he accounts given by Mr. Davis and 

 others, of the practice of irrigation in the southern 

 counties. In this, hovvever, even since the time 

 that Davis wrote, Ih^re has been a great and 

 steady improvement. The land is belter levelled, 

 the slopes more evenly preserved, the water-way, 

 aqueducts, and hatches, better constructed, and 

 in many of the more recent improvements in the 

 valley of the Itchefi in Hampshire, the eliding- 

 water doora are regulated by a cogged wheel 

 turned with a moveable winch, so as to render 

 them safe from alteration during the absence of 

 the meadow-keeper. 



The management of the Wiltshire and Hamp- 

 shire water-meadows, as well as it can be briefly 

 described, is as follows : — In the autumn, the 

 after-grass is eaten off' quite bare, when the 

 manager of the mead (provincially the drowner) 

 begins to clean out the main drain, and the main 

 carriage, and to " right up the works," that is, 

 to make good ail the carriages and drains which 

 the cattle have trodden in, so as to have one tier 

 or pitch of work ready for drowning. This is im- 

 mediately put under water, whilst the drowner is 

 preparing the next pitch. 



In the flowing meadows this work ought to be 

 done, if possible, early enough in the autumn to 

 have the whole meadow ready to catch the first 

 floods after Michaelmas ; the water, being the first 

 washing of the arable land on the sides of the 

 chalk hills, as well as the dirt from roads, is then 

 thick and good ; and this remark as to the supe- 

 rior richness of the flood waters, is one that is 

 commonly made in Berkshire and other parts of 

 England. The length of the autumtjal watering 

 cannot be precisely stated, as much depends upon 

 situations and circumstances; but if water can be 

 commanded in abundance, the custom is lo give 

 meadows a " thorough good soaking at first," 

 perhaps for a fortnight or three weeks, with an 

 intermisifion of two or three days during that pe- 

 riod : and continue for the space of two Ibrtnights, 

 allowing an interval of a week between them. 

 The works are then made as dry as possible, to 

 encourage the growth of the grass. This first 

 soaking is to make the land sink and pitch close 

 together, a circumstance of great consequence, not 

 only to the quantity, but to (he quality of the 

 grass, and particularly to encourage the shooting 

 of new roots, which the grass is continually form- 

 ing, to support the forced growth above. 



