148 



Draining, Irrigation and Warping. 



Vol. IX, 



off their younjT stock on tlie poorest food. 

 This is not right; for if ever animals require 

 the best of food and plenty of it, it is when 

 they are young and growing. They will 

 not grow into good shape or size if half 

 starved or stinted of their food. I have 

 heard some farmers boast of the small quan- 

 tity of food on which they have carried their 

 stock through the winter. Our pride would 

 be to see how well we could carry their 

 through the winter. "An animal well win- 

 tered is half summered." One good cow 

 full fed, is worth more than three half 

 starved ones; I am aware that high feeding 

 of milk cows on grain, is not generally be 

 lieved to be profitable, but I am satisfied 

 that by feeding them on roots in the winter, 

 the cows would give milk nearly the whole 

 year, and their calves would be much more 

 valuable. 



If cows are ever allowed to fall very low 

 during winter, in vain shall we hope to ob- 

 tain an abundant supply of milk by bringing 

 them into high condition in the summer; 

 for if a cow be lean at the time of calving, 

 no management afterwards will ever bring 

 her to yield for that season, any thing like 

 the quantity of milk that she v.ould have 

 done, had she been all the winter in a high 

 condition. 



The immense importance of providing for 

 cows a full supply of ricli and succulent 

 food, and such as they relish, to the extent 

 of their appetite, has been demonstrated by 

 many examples of very large products of 

 milk, butter and cheese, from cows so sup- 

 plied. The following statement from an 

 English publication, is a further illustration 

 of the fact. " A farmer some years since, 

 kept eighteen cows upon a common, and was 

 often obliged to buy butter for his family. 

 The common was enclosed, — whicli deprived 

 the farmer of his pasture — and the same per- 

 son supplied his family amply with milk and 

 butter from four cows well kept.'''' 



Draininsr, Irrigation and Warping. 



Much of what has been done is entirely 

 out of sight ; whole fields, thousands and 

 thousands of acres of land, have been un- 

 derdrained by pipes and channels, spreading 

 themselves like beautiful net-work under 

 the surface, taking off all the surplus moist- 

 ure, and converting cold, unfruitful, and un- 

 sightly morasses into productive and beauti- 

 ful fields. It would be curious, if it were 

 possible, to approximate the argount of this 

 work which has been done; but there are no 

 means even of framing a reasonable conject- 

 ure. It undoubtedly embraces hundreds of 

 thousands of acres, and much more is inj 



progress, since, important and indispensable 

 as moisture is to vegetation, nothing can be 

 more prejudicial than a superabundance of 

 water, and especially stagnant water. Of 

 the different modes of draining I shall speak 

 hereafter at large. It is a subject of great 

 importance and utility, and requires to be 

 treated in the fullest and most exact man- 

 ner. The next great improvement that I 

 have witnessed in England, is in the fen- 

 country of Lincolnshire and Cambridge- 

 shire, where vast territories, embracing 

 many thousands of acres, have been, it may 

 almost be said, created, that is, redeemed 

 from the sea, fortified by strong and exten- 

 sive embankments, and now rendered as 

 fertile and productive as any lands which 

 can be found upon the island. These lands, 

 likewise, are kept drained by immense steam 

 engines, which move with an untiring power, 

 and accomplish this mighty work with ease. 

 In other cases, in Lincolnshire, another pro- 

 cess is going on, here denominated warping, 

 by which, on the banks of the Humber, im- 

 mense tracts arc enclosed, the tide shut in, 

 and compelled to leave its rich deposit, thus 

 forming, likewise, the richest meadows. 

 Still another process is in progress, by 

 which the crooked course of a river is 

 straightened, its channel deepened by its 

 own new current, and rendered navigable, 

 and, by the erection of artificial banks, the 

 soil within them continually raised, and hun- 

 dreds of acres, where so recently the fish, 

 at high water, sported with impunity, are 

 rescued from the sea, and covered with 

 thriving flfocks of cattle and sheep. In 

 Yorkshire, not only are various processes of 

 redeeming and improving land going on, 

 but the curious process of removing, by the 

 aid of steam maciiinery, the rich deposit 

 from the bed of a river, whose current has 

 been diverted from its natural course; and 

 this deposit, after being taken out, is laid, at 

 not an inordinate expense, on a peat bogf 

 hitherto unproductive and worthless. By 

 judicious management, it is spread on the 

 land to the depth of eight inches, and the 

 covering proceeds at the rate of five acres 

 per day. In Nottinghamshire, a most splen- 

 did improvement has been effected in turn- 

 ing the course of a small river, so as at plea- 

 sure to irrigate several hui^dred acres of 

 land, which were formerly poor and com- 

 paratively unproductive, but now yield the 

 most abundant crops; and in Staffordshire, 

 the same results have been reached, not by 

 a river, but by collecting the springs, and 

 forming a grand reservoir, from which the 

 water is carried over extensive fields, which 

 are thus irrigated at pleasure. — Cohnan''s 

 Agricultural Tour. 



