452 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



fNo. 8 





tem, without mentioning the astonishing effects 

 produced by the common sewer water of the city 

 of Edinburgh and other towns; but, were I to 

 omit these interesting improvements, I should, by 

 no means, do justice to the subject. 



Immediately below the town of M ay bole, in 

 Ayrshire, a considerable extent of grass land, be- 

 longing to Quentin Kennedy, Esq., was partially 

 irrigated with the common sewer water of that town, 

 but, owing to the water beingimperfectly distributed 

 over the suriace, the crops of hay and grass were 

 very irregular. To obviate this delect, the pro- 

 prietor caused the works to be remodelled under 

 my direction, which, as will be seen from the sub- 

 joined letter, has been completely successful.* 



Alexander M'Laurin, Esq. of Broich, was the 

 first who collected the common sewer water of 

 CrieiT ibr irrigation. Mr. M'Laurin's meadow is 

 regularly laid into catch-work beds. The soil is 

 very porous, with a gravel sub-soil: the supply of 

 water is very little, which makes the manage- 

 ment difficult, the water being obliged to be 

 changed from place to place very often. For the 

 first two or three years, the irrigation did not suc- 

 ceed according to expectation, which made ihe 

 proprietor think something must be wrong in the 

 management. He therefore took (he charge of 

 changing and regulating the water himself, which 

 completely confirmed his opinion that the fault lay 

 altogether in ihe manager, for he has had no rea- 

 son to complain ever since. The cops of grass 

 and hay are constantly equal to his most sanguine 

 expectations, being generally from three hundred 

 and fifty to four hundred stone of hay, of the besi 

 quality, per acre. 



Edinburgh has many advantages over the 

 most of her sister cities; the huge supply of ex- 

 cellent spring waier is one of the greatest bles- 

 sings to her numerous inhabitants, boih in respect 

 to household purposes and keeping the streets 



*"Loc/ilands, 3rd March, 1332. 



"Sir — It is with great pleasure I report to you the 

 state of the meadow grounds in this quarter, which un- 

 derwent the operations suggested by you. The con- 

 vertionof the piece of ground in Bogton, occupied by 

 myself, into water meadow, has completely succeeded, 

 and realized your best expectations. From a piece of 

 rough moss land, which previously yielded not more 

 than fifty stones, it now produces not less than two hun- 

 dred stones of hay per acre of good quality; and will, 

 I am confident, continue to increase both in quality 

 and productiveness. The other and adjoining portion 

 of meadow has also, by means of the drainage, been 

 greatly improved in the quality as well as the quantity 

 of the grass. Again, as to the piece of ground in the 

 adjacent farm of Dangcrland, which was drained by 

 your directions, the improvement in the quantity and 

 the quality of its grass has not been less than on the 

 piece of Bogton above alluded to. And, finally, the 

 old meadows of Tannock and Dangerland, in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood, the produce of which, previous 

 to the drainage which you directed, was in many parts 

 coarse and husky, now yield grass of a very improved 

 quality. I consider that this last improvement is also 

 to be attributed to the regulated mode of putting on 

 and taking off the water prescribed in your instruc- 

 tions. I am confident that the whole improvements on 

 these grounds will amply repay all the expense. 

 I am, dear Sir, 



Yours truly, 



JAMES KENNEDY." 



clean, as well as irrigating the extensive meadows 

 situated below the town, by the rich stuff which 

 it carries along in a state of semi-solution, where 

 the art of man, with the common sewer water, 

 has made sand hillocks produce riches lar superior 

 to any thing of the kind in the kingdom, or in any 

 other country. 



By this water, about two hundred acres of grass 

 land, ibr the most part, laid into catch-work mea- 

 dow, are irrigated; whereof one hundred and thir- 

 ty belong to W. II. Miller, Esq. of Craigintinny, 

 and the remainder to the Earls of Haddington and 

 Moray, and other proprietors. The meadows be- 

 longing to these noblemen, and part of the Crai- 

 gintinny meadows, or what is called the old mea- 

 dows, contain about fifty acres, and have been ir- 

 rigated for nearly a century. They are by far the 

 most valuable, on account of the long and contin- 

 ual accumulation of the rich sediment left by the 

 waler; indeed the water is so very rich, that the 

 tenanis of the meadows lying nearest the town 

 have found it advisable to carry the common 

 sewer waier through deep ponds, into which the 

 water deposiies part of the superfluous manure be- 

 fore it runs over the ground. Although the lorma- 

 tion of these meadows is irregular, and the man- 

 agement very imperfect, the effects of the water 

 are astonishing; they produce crops of grass not 

 to be equalled, being cut from lour to six times a 

 year, and the grass given green to milch cows. 



The grass is Jet every year by public sale, in 

 small patches of a quarter of an acre and up- 

 wards, and generally brings from £24 lo £30 per 

 acre per annum. In 1820, part of the Earl of 

 Moray's meadow fetched £57 per acre per an- 

 num. 



About forty aces of Ihe Craigintinny lands 

 were formed info calch-work water meadow be- 

 fore the year 1800, which comprises what iscalled 

 Eillieside Bank old meadows, and is generally let 

 at from £20 to £30 per acre per annum. In the 

 spring of 1821, thirty acres of waste land, called 

 the Freegate Whins, and ten acres of poor sandy 

 soil, were levelled and formed into irrigated mea- 

 dow, at an expense of £1000. The pasture of 

 the Freegate Whins was let, previously to this 

 improvement, for £40 per annum, and the ten 

 acres for £60. They now bring from £15 to 

 £20 per acre per annum, but may be much im- 

 proved by judiciously laying out £200 more in 

 better levelling that part next the sea, and car- 

 rying a larger supply of water to it, which might 

 be easily done without prejudice to the other mea- 

 dows. 



This, perhaps, is one of the most beneficial ag- 

 ricultural improvements ever undertaken; for the 

 whole of the Freegate Whins is composed of no- 

 thing but sand, deposited from time to time by 

 the action of Ihe waves of the sea. Never was 

 £ 1000 more happily spent in agriculture; it not 

 only required a common sewer to bring about this 

 great change, but a resolution in the proprietor to 

 launch out his capital on an experiment upon a 

 soil of such a nature. 



Since the making of the Freegate Whins into 

 water meadows, Mr. Miller has levelled and 

 formed forty acres more of his arable land into ir- 

 rigated meadow, worth, before the formation, £9 

 per acre per annum. It will only require a few 

 years before these, meadows will be as productive 

 as the former; for it is evident that the longer wa- 



