398 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 7. 



face of grass land, for the purpose of improving 

 the herbage, is a very nice operation; it requires 

 a perfect knowledge of levels and the vegetation 

 of grasses, and ought never to be intrusted to an 

 unskilful manager. Where the supply of water 

 is, in every state of the stream that supplies it, 

 sufficient for the whole or one-half of the meadow 

 at once, the management becomes pretty easy; for 

 after the works are cleaned, and the water regu- 

 lated in the autumn, the sluices should be fixed at 

 such a height as to let in the exact quantity of 

 water required, when it is allowed to run, accord- 

 ing to the state of the weather and season of the 

 year, for two, six, ten, or fifteen days, without 

 any alteration; and it will be found (unless the 

 water has carried along with it weeds, sticks, or 

 wreck of any kind) to run during that whole pe- 

 riod nearly as equally over the surface as when 

 first put on. But where the stream is small, and 

 rising and falling with every shower of rain, the 

 management becomes so much more difficult, that 

 it will require every possible attention of the irri- 

 gator to watch and change the water from one 

 part of the meadow to another, or from one bed to 

 another, according to its abundance or deficiency. 

 Such meadows are indeed generally ill managed, 

 although half an hour's work in a day would put 

 every thing to rights. Indeed, let the formation 

 of the meadow be ever so perfect, and the supply 

 of water constant and uniform, yet it is necessary 

 that the manager should survey the whole every 

 three or four days, to remedy any defect occasion- 

 ed by the collecting of weeds, &c, or by a stop 

 being washed away, which would prevent the 

 equal distribution of the water, and thereby cause 

 some places to have too much and others too little; 

 so that, in the former case, the grasses might ei- 

 ther be killed or very much injured by the o-ene- 

 ration of scum, or, in the latter, there would be 

 little or no produce of grass. 



Small streams are certainly much more at com- 

 mand than large; but if the manager, as is too of- 

 ten the case with a young practitioner, vainly en- 

 deavor to water too much ground at a time, he 

 may give one part too much water and another 

 too little; for, on the alteration of the apertures 

 and adjustment of the water, greatly depends not 

 only the quality but quantity of the crop. 



One of the greatest defects in the manao'ement 

 of irrigated meadows in this country, is the not 

 paying proper attention to freeing the ground from 

 subterraneous and stagnant water; for experience 

 shows that, wherever there is too much moisture 

 beneath the surface, or if the water lodges too 

 long upon it, the crop will always be coarse and 

 scanty. Another great error generally committed 

 is, allowing the water to run too long at a time, 

 without properly drying the ground. I know 

 some instances in this neighborhood, where the 

 ground is not attempted to be dried from the time 

 the water is put on the meadows in the autumn till 

 eight or ten days before the cutting of the hay; 

 the consequence is, that the grass is of the 

 coarsest quality, and the ground has become so 

 very boggy, that the whole crop of grass is obliged 

 to be carried by people to some other place to be 

 made into hay. Another inconvenience arises 

 from bad management, which, I am sorry to say, 

 is too prevalent in this country; that is, permitting 

 the grass to stand too long before cutting; the 

 consequence is, coarse hay, badly made, and, in 



many instances, half rotten,* before being put into 

 the stack; and, moreover, owing to the lateness of 

 the season, the aftermath is entirely lost; so that 

 the proprietor has not received half the value of 

 his meadow which he ought, to have received, if 

 the hay had been made in the proper season. A 

 water meadow, like a garden, will be good for lit- 

 tle without due attention. All dry soils require 

 more attention than moist ones; for if the water on 

 moist soils should not be so nicely regulated as on 

 sandy or dry land, the crop of grass will not be so 

 defective as on porous soils, w r here the manage- 

 ment has been neglected. I presume that all dry 

 land that has been converted info water meadows, 

 in countries where the art of irrigation is not well 

 known, and the supply of waler not abundant or 

 regular, is liable to more injury, from imperfect 

 treatment, than land of a moist nature, for plants 

 must have their food at stated times as well as 

 animals; but this cannot be ihe case with the 

 grass of a meadow where the water is irregularly 

 applied. This is undoubtedly the reason why 

 part of the water meadows on the Duke of Buc- 

 cleuch's estates in the south of Scotland have fail- 

 ed. The most of those meadows were situated 

 on the Esk, Ew r es, Yarrow, and Ettrick rivers, 

 and were generally made on alluvial soils that 

 have been formed by the overflowing of the wa- 

 ter, so that they were generally porous and dry; 

 and the country, drained by these streams before 

 entering the meadows, being mostly very poor, of 

 course the water could not be very rich, and more- 

 over, in dry seasons, in many cases, must have 

 been very scanty: when we add to the account an 

 improper management, it is impossible thatagood 

 cropshould.be produced. I have never yet seen 

 a watered meadow, let the land and water be ever 

 so poor, if the management has been any way 

 tolerable, but what has paid every expense within 

 three years; and, whatever people may say con- 

 cerning the failure of his Grace's irrigation, I here 

 venture to assert, that so long as a regular man- 

 agement was carried on, there were nocomplaints; 

 hut as soon as no pains were taken to keep the 

 meadows in proper repair, and grain getting so 

 very dear, the farmers saw the advantage of 

 breaking them up, though I believe many of them 

 have had every reason to repent of their folly. 

 Several irrigated meadows were made in different 

 parts of Scotland, about the same time as the 

 Duke's, on the same kind of soil, with water of a 

 similar quality; but as they have been otherwise 

 managed, the proprietors have no reason to com- 

 plain, but declare that their irrigated meadows are 

 the most productive part of their estates. 



Much has been said on the good and bad quali- 

 ties of water used in irrigatins; grass land, and it 

 is the favorite opinion of Mr. Smith and Mr. 

 Davis, that spring water is as efficacious as water 

 flowing through a rich country, or the washings of 

 a large town, for irrigating grass land. I would 

 here recommend to those authors, or any others 

 who are of the same opinion, to inspect the irri- 

 gated meadows which are watered by the wash- 

 ings of the city of Edinburgh, where I trust they 

 w r ould find the superiority of muddy water to that 



* I could produce many instances of* this, but the 

 most striking is to be seen (May 1828) on a farm be- 

 tween Dunfermline and the Rumbling Bridge. 



