324 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



and there is considerable knowledge and skill required 

 in the manager of such meadows. As it has been 

 remarked, " It is not an easy task to give an irrigated 

 surface the equal slope required for the overflow of 

 water. It is very necessary for the irrigator to have 

 a just idea of levels ; a knowledge of superficial forms 

 will not be sufficient. Few people, unacquainted with 

 the art of irrigation, and the regulation of form which 

 the adjustment of water requires, have any idea of the 

 expense of modelling the surface of a field." 



This art is understood and practised to a wide extent 

 in England, and the herbage here produced is more 

 varied, close, and fine, than in any southern country, 

 while it is more rich and vigorous than in the coun- 

 tries lying farther north. Our climate, the number of 

 our rivers, and the fertile districts through which they 

 flow, cause the hay and herbage to be of superior 

 quality. Many of the streams used in irrigation are 

 so rich in animal and vegetable substances, that they 

 manure the land as well as water it. There is a species 

 of irrigation where liquid manure is applied to the land, 

 in the same way, instead of water, being distributed 

 and carried off" in the same manner. Attention to this 

 kind of irrigation is increasing, and will greatly pro- 

 mote the productiveness of the land. 



Another kind of irrigation is that called warping. 

 Muddy water is brought into a field, and is allowed to 

 remain until it has deposited its sediment, when it is let 

 through the sluices. The turbid water at the mouths 

 of rivers, where the tides and the fresh water meet, is 

 well adapted for this purpose, where circumstances are 

 favourable. Such is the case on the estuary of the 

 Humber, where the water is carried several miles inland, 

 and will deposit in the course of a single season about a 

 foot of the richest soil 



The useful effects of irrigation decrease as we go north- 

 ward. The rivers themselves are less favourable, and 

 flow through a less cultivated country. Their banks are 



