14<5 



Irrigation. 



Vol. XL 



ers and lakes, and into the sea, might safely 

 be estimated at millions. The sewers of 

 towns and villages, alone, carry off a vast 

 amount of manure. A meadow near Edin- 

 burgh, belonging to the Earl of Moray, 

 which was watered for several years by 

 drainage from the city, yielded so heavy a 

 crop of grass that it was cut six times a 

 year, and the whole yearly crop was sold at 

 one hundred and twenty to a hundred and 

 fifty dollars per acre. 



But even throwing the manuring process, 

 strictly speaking, out. of the question, who 

 can estimate the beneficial results of judi- 

 cious irrigation, if generally applied through 

 the country, wherever running water is ac- 

 cessible ] During hot and dry summers, 

 our parched and withered grass fields, and 

 our diminished and stunted rata baga and 

 potatoe crops, might, in many situations, be 

 at once stimulated into freshness and vigor, 

 and doubtless be doubled in product. The 

 artificial improvement of supplying manure 

 to the soil, is universally practised and com- 

 mended, and considered the first and last 

 requisite in successful culture; while the 

 artificial application of water, which, unlike 

 manure, costs nothing, nor requires the la- 

 bour or expense of cartage, but is often 

 equally, if not more important, seems to be 

 nearly unknown. Why should the Yankees 

 be behind other portions of the world in this 

 particular] We do not lack proofs, sufii- 

 cient to every observing mind, even in the 

 rough and wild manner in which it is per- 

 formed by the inundation of the flats of 

 creeks and rivers, nor has such proof been 

 wanting, from the overflowing of the Nile 

 in ancient days, down to the present age of 

 the world ; but the artificial process pos- 

 sesses this eminent advantage — that while 

 the former is uncontrollable and uncontrolled, 

 the latter may be applied or withheld at plea- 

 sure, as the crop suffers from drought, or be- 

 comes injured by too heavy a flooding. 



Irrigation, like every other farm opera- 

 tion of importance, needs to be conducted 

 with care and skill. A want of judgment 

 or proper intelligence, may in some cases 

 lead to failure, or greatly lessen advantages. 



Practice has fully shown that too long a 

 continued and heavy flooding of upland plants, 

 is actually prejudicial to their growth. The 

 plants should enjoy the full benefits of both 

 air and water. There is no better way of 

 accomplishing this object than to keep the 

 water constantly passing over the surface in 

 a tolerably brisk current. It must not be so 

 rapid as to wash away the soil, nor so slow 

 as to stagnate, or to drown the plants. It is 

 only while water is in motion that plants 

 are enabled to draw from it to advantage, by 



successive fresh supplies, the nutritive sub- 

 stances it contains in solution. A farmer 

 accustomed to the appearance of plants 

 when in the most rapid and healthful state 

 of vegetation, will detect at a glance any 

 injury which an overdose of water may occa- 

 sion, when the supply should be withdrawn. 

 Excessive irrigation may also prove injuri- 

 ous where it produces a water-soaked sub- 

 soil, the remedy for which should be drain- 

 ing. Indeed, so different in nature is a 

 water-soaked and an irrigated soil, that 

 while the former injures, the latter benefits; 

 the former state resulting from a want of 

 draining, and the latter always proving 

 most eminently beneficial on well drained 

 land, where stagnant water can never accu- 

 mulate. 



I]qual success has not always attended 

 irrigation, in consequence of the different 

 quantities of enriching matter contained in 

 different streams. The most valuable, usu- 

 ally, are those which have passed through a 

 thickly populated country, and have received 

 and become saturated with different kinds 

 of waste manures. Hence the drainage of 

 sewers, and the washings of roads, are par- 

 ticularly valuable. Sometimes, however, 

 there are fertilizing substances derived from 

 the soil or the minerals it contains, which 

 may not in the least disorder the water, and 

 yet be of very important benefit. These 

 can only be known by their effects in prac- 

 tice, or by analysis. But these considera- 

 tions more particularly demand attention in 

 cool and moist climates, as in Britain, where 

 the simple application of water is unimport- 

 ant. Hence there autumn and winter irri- 

 gation is much practised, the water being 

 then charged with animal and vegetable 

 matters which have accumulated during the 

 summer. In the United States, where a 

 supply of water during drought and heat 

 is so much more essential, this difference in 

 the richness of water is not so sensibly ob- 

 served. 



In using small streams on considerable 

 acclivities, temporary means of diverting 

 the water from the main channel may be re- 

 sorted to, and there cannot possibly be a fail- 

 ure. But in larger streams, the work should 

 always be well formed at once. A good 

 permanent dam must be made, and substan- 

 tial hatches, or solid framework furnished 

 with a sliding gate, inserted. In using 

 small streams, many diverging channels 

 may be cut; in large ones this cannot be 

 done, from the cost of many large dams; a 

 single dam may therefore be used, from 

 which a main side channel should pass, to 

 be subdivided according to the circumstances 

 of the case. 



