304 FORM NEW WATEP^D-^I^AD". 



ing and manuring with sand, gravel, earth, chalk, 

 marie, &c. ; but they are by far the most ex- 

 pensive to irrigate, and \vhen done, unless very 

 well executed indeed, yield the worst hay. Thej 

 are best watered, and in many cases, only to be 

 watered advantageously, by ploughing them into 

 broad and highly arched ridges ; the delivering 

 trenches to be on their crowns, and the drains in 

 their furrows. But the profit of irrigating drj 

 slopes of sand and gravel, &c. and poor dry ling 

 moors, is immense; the expence is comparatively 

 trifling, and the improvement beyond conception : 

 such lands may be raised from 2s. or 3s. an acre, 

 to 40s. or 50s., while the flat meadows maybe 20s. 

 before the undertaking begins, and may not, when 

 ended, be worth more than the, others, though 

 effected at ten times the expence. I once found a 

 friend in the full speculation of watering some mea- 

 dows which were worth 25s. an acre, and just 

 ready to set a man to work, who ought to have 

 known better. I thought by my eye, that the 

 water (the quantity very limited) might be b 

 employed on some dry arable land above the mea- 

 dows, but further down the vale. I took the levels, 

 and found it as I conjeeUired : the plan was 

 adopted, and I hav heard, that the under- 



taking was remarkably profitable. The meadow at 

 Six-mile Bridge, in Hampshire, which lets for above 

 5l. an acre (a gravel at 1<> . ' : '<'), u'a> 



formed at little other expence than converting a 

 ditch into a carrier; i:or was the conduct of tlu*. 

 water, when I saw it, convct by any means. 



12th, 



