NO. 22. 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



343 



and garlic, and many other weeds so inju- 

 rious to the dairy, are lessened or wholly de- 

 stroyed by irrigation. The practice which 

 prevails in our country of draining the lands, 

 with a view to get rid of the water, as though 

 it were a nuisance, is attended with injurious 

 consequences, particularly in a dairy farm. 

 Cattle and live slock of most kinds requiring 

 free access to water in dry warm weather, 

 and the quantity drunk is much greater than 

 most people imagine ; for milk cows, it ought 

 to be clean and cool, if possible, during sum- 

 mer: very few dairy farms in the neighbor- 

 hood of the city, are as well provided as they 

 ought to be in this respect. 



Strangers, particularly those from France 

 and Germany, in passing through our part of 

 the country, while they see much to admire 

 in the management of our farms, must be 

 struck with surprise at our neglect, I might 

 say contempt, of those beautiful streams of 

 water with which almost every farm is sup- 

 plied. In the rapid progress of agricultural 

 improvements, the uses to which they might 

 be applied, seem to have been overlooked : 

 the time however is approaching, when they 

 will be carefully improved, and their skilful 

 management rank among the chief cares of 

 the husbandman. 



Among the means that might be devised for 

 improving the produce of the dairy and gar- 

 den, and rendering their supply regular and 

 constant, irrigation stands pre-eminent. Lands 

 may be manured, and judiciously divided, the 

 exact time of planting may be known, the 

 best kind of seeds, the best cattle and stock 

 may be provided, but in a drought these avail 

 nothing: " when the ground is parched, and 

 the clouds give no rain, the hopes of the hus- 

 bandman lie prostrate." 



A copious stream of pure water issuing 

 from an elevated source, is of inestimable 

 value to the farmer, if properly managed ; 

 but like every other valuable article, it re- 

 quires great skill in using it to the best ad- 

 vantage. In Europe, much ingenuity and 

 talent have been employed on the subject of 

 irrigation ; the engines for raising water, 

 canals for conveying it, and the time and 

 manner of spreading it over the ground, have 

 been studied with great care and brought to 

 great perfection. In this country we have 

 much to learn ; facts might be collected in 

 abundance to prove, that much good has been 

 efTected by it, and it would also be easy to 

 show, that much evil has arisen from its ne- 

 glect. 



Whenever irrigation comes to be success- 

 fully used, it must be first under the direc- 

 tion of men experienced in the art; water 

 used at an improper time or in a slovenly 

 manner does more harm than good. I re- 

 member to have seen a few acres of meadow. 



over wliich spring water was judiciously 

 spread, produce three crops of good hay in 

 one summer : the water was collected in a 

 pond, and passed rapidly over the ground at 

 stated periods. The best method of water- 

 ing gardens and orchards, is unknown in this 

 country, although it has been partially and 

 successfully tried in some instances within 

 my knowledge. The nature of our climate, 

 and the increasing demand for fruits and 

 vegetables of good quality in our market, 

 will compel our farmers to study and practice 

 irrigation from the same necessity, which 

 forty years ago compelled them to learn the 

 best method of collecting and using manures. 

 In miny parts of the country a strong pre- 

 judice exists against irrigation, lest it should 

 by increasing soakage and evaporation injure 

 and destroy the mills. This I think is a 

 mistake, for the absorption would go to re- 

 plenish the springs, and the evaporation 

 would soon descend in showers: nothing ie 

 lost; the greater the surface of water ex- 

 posed to evaporation in any country, the 

 greater and more frequent will be the show- 

 ers. I take it therefore to be sound reason- 

 ing, that irrigation would increase, rather 

 than diminish the streams of water. 



[Mr. H'8 description of Ihe country jn the vicinity of 

 our city, is, with but few e.vceptions, regietfully true; 

 and, as he alleges, " great and important changes" 

 must take place, adapted to the demands inducid by a 

 growing population, accelerated by circumstancts now 

 in incipient progress. l.iet grain, and the hitherto 

 common commercial articles of this kind, be brought, 

 in ever so great abundance, from distant places, the 

 lands within reach of indispensable and perishable 

 supplies, must be devoted to the dady wants of a large 

 city ; and most of them cannot be brought from great 

 distances. The objections, unreasonably fostered by 

 theoretical forehoders, that the lands near the city, 

 will depreciate when remote supplies of field culture 

 glut our markets, are contrary to all experience in 

 Europe, and will so be found tiere. The most encou- 

 ragili2/ac(4 could be produced, to prove that cities and 

 population increase, and towns grow into cities, as 

 the means of subsistence are in plenty. Those means 

 are neces'^arily in demand, as cities e.xtend, and popu- 

 lation, of course, increases; the one stimulating and 

 inducing the other. It can be indubitably shown, by 

 inconlestible evidence, that lands in the immediate 

 nfiahbourhood of such cities, rise in value, with a ra- 

 pidity which sets at nought all specious adverse antici- 

 pations. 



R. Pet ers. ] 



Radishes. 



This root being liable to be eaten by worms, 

 the following method of raising them is re- 

 commended in the Farmer'' s Assistant: 



"Take equal quantities of buckwheat bran 

 and fresh horse dung, and mix thern well 

 and plentifully in the soil by digging. Sud- 

 denly after this, a great fermentation will be 

 produced, and great numbers of toad stools 

 will spring up in forty-eight hours. Dig the 

 ground over again, and sow the seed ; and 

 the radishes will grow with great rapidity, 

 and be free from the attacks of insects. They 

 will grow uncommonly large." 



