404 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 7. 



a larger quantity of manure, but, from preventing 

 the possibility of stagnation, will prevent the 

 growth of rushes and other aquatic plants. The 

 expense of levelling and forming this meadow 

 was £7 per acre, 



The next operation was to form the lawn, con- 

 taining twenty-five English acres, into catch-work 

 irrigation; (plan 2.) which was done by making 

 the feeders parallel with the slope of the ■ 

 and equidistant from each other; the whole so ar- 

 ranged that not one of the works is seen from the 

 house. As the greater portion of the ground was 

 very unlevel, the most of the turf was lifted and 

 the land ploughed, not only to facilitate the level- 

 ling, but to loosen the sub-soil, before replacing 

 the turf. Amongst the numerous improvements 

 made in the art of irrigation, loosening the sub-soil 

 is one of the greatest; and I have not the least 

 doubt, that by merely moving the soil, and laying 

 the sod down again, it will make a great improve- 

 ment on grass land of any kind. 



The land of this meadow, before being watered, 

 was worth £3 10s. per acre; the expense of level- 

 ling and formation, £5 per acre. The produce of 

 1824 was as follows: — spring feed for two hundred 

 ewes and lambs, from the 7th of March to the 

 1st of May, making seven weeks, at 5d. each per 

 week, £29 3s. 4d.; the crop of hay three hun- 

 dred stone per acre, valued at 8d. per stone, £250; 

 the aftergrass at 20s. per acre, £25 — making up- 

 wards of £12 per acre. The quality of the hay 

 is equal to that of any clover hay in the king- 

 dom.* 



Between this meadow and the first mentioned 

 are two other meadows, composed of nothing but 

 moss; indeed they are formed where the people 

 formerly digged their peats. The one, containing 

 nine and a half acres, is regularly formed with the 

 spade into bed-work of sixty feet wide; and the 

 other, eleven and a half acres, into a catch-work 

 meadow. Their value, before being watered, was 

 only 25s. of yearly rent per acre, but the average 

 crop of hay since they were watered is two hun- 

 dred and fifty stone per acre, besides aftermath. 

 The expense of levelling and forming was £ 3 

 10s. per acre. 



Mr. Menteath's views do not stop here, for he 

 has other tracts of mossy land lying farther down 

 the rivulet, of equal extent, and equally capable of 

 being irrigated by means of catching the same 

 water again. For this purpose, twenty-five acres 

 have been levelled with the. spade, and formed 

 into bed-work meadow, and laid down with such 

 grass as is calculated for the reception of water. 

 Not only the last mentioned twenty-five acres, but 

 twenly-one acres more of the Closeburn meadows, 

 are composed of nothing but moss, which had 

 been improved by means of levelling, paring,burn- 

 ing, and liming very strongly, and working it with 

 the greatest possible care, before it was laid down 

 to grass. But although the crop of grass, for the 

 first two or three years, was tolerably good, it was 

 not so great as might have been expected, com- 

 pared with the expense that had been laid out on 

 the land; for which reason the proprietor was de- 

 termined to try the effects of irrigation, which last 

 experiment has been most satisfactory, the land 



The second crop of hay that was cut from these 

 meadows in 1826, was sold for £4 10s. per English 



acre. 



producing, since the application of water, double 

 what it ever did before in its most productive state. 

 Few people are aware of the great improvement 

 grass land, composed of moss, is capable of re- 

 ceiving, by a mere wetting in dry seasons; for the 

 greater part of improved moss gets so very po- 

 rous, that the roots of the grasses are more ex- 

 posed in dry weather than they arc in any other 

 soil; therefore, wherever water can be brought to 

 run over the surface of grass land that has been 

 lately reclaimed from moss, if only lor a few hours 

 at a time in dry seasons, the evil will not only be 

 remedied, but a plentiful crop of hay and grass 

 will he the result. 



To obtain a sufficient supply of water for irri- 

 gating those extensive meadows, the proprietor 

 has been obliged to make new watercourses, to 

 bring the water from different rivulets, situated be- 

 tween three and four hundred feet above the level 

 of the meadows, and at a distance of more than 

 three miles.* These operations have been attend- 

 ed with considerable expense; but when we con- 

 sider that, by these means, he has not only the 

 advantage of a regular and abundant supply of 

 water for winter irrigation, but is thus also enabled 

 to give an occasional wetting to two hundred 

 acres of other pasture land at pleasure, which is 

 certainly of the greatest consequence to a proper- 

 ty, such expense has not been misapplied. 



I should by no means do justice to this interest- 

 ing subject, if I did not mention that the proprie- 

 tor's views, from the very commencement, were 

 both winter irrigation of his meadows and partial 

 wetting of his pasture fields; therefore, to be ena- 

 bled to receive the greatest benefit from those 

 streams of water, a field of twelve acres was 

 levelled, in 1S26, by lifting the turf; and, after 

 loosening the sub-soil and levelling the surface, 

 the turf was laid down again. The expense of 

 this operation was £3 per acre; and, by means of 

 a few catch-work feeders, the whole field can be 

 partially watered at pleasure. 



The proprietor is so confident of the superior 

 advantage of this new branch of husbandry, that 

 he is determined to prosecute the plan to a consi- 

 derable extent. 



Part of the water used in irrigating the above 

 meadows, runs through a considerable extent of 

 land which has been improved by the present pro- 

 prietor from black or heathy ground, (moor pas- 

 ture,) whereof eight hundred acres were pared 

 and burnt; and the whole, with a large extent of 

 oilier land, has been very strongly limed, which 

 accounts, in a great measure, for the good effects 

 of the water.! 



William Loch, Esq. of Rachan, being desirous 

 of having an irrigated meadow quite complete in 



To insure a full supply of water, for giving the 

 meadows and pasture land a wetting in dry seasons, 

 Mr. Menteath has made an additional reservoir, ex- 

 tending over more than fifty acres. 



tMr. Menteath is determined to prosecute the sys- 

 tem of irrigation, on a scale of two hundred acres, on 

 a property he has lately purchased in Ayrshire, lying 

 on the north bank of the river Nith; for which purpose 

 he has air !ady agreed with the tenants for part of the 

 land, for commencing operations with the plough, and 

 laj ing the whole down in a regular form, which, when 

 finished, will be the most regular and complete range 

 of water meadows in Great Britain. 





