252 



NEW ENGLAND l-" A R M £ R 



FEB. 17, 1S36. 



(ForUie New Ensland Failijor.) 

 IRRIGATION, 



J5v Hon. John W. Lincoln. 



Mr Fkssf.nden: — Sir, It was with deep tegi-et 

 that 1 read in the Albany "Cultivator," fur Jaiiii- 

 Aij, the following editorial notice: '^Irrigation. 

 We have refrained from recommending this 

 branch of itnprovement, because'onr climate does 

 not require it, and because it is too expensive for 

 our scale of husbandry. Irrigation is essential 

 in southern climates, as Egypt, Italy, Spain, &c. 

 v^liire rain seldom falls in summer, and where the 

 heat is great and unremitting. With us, drains 

 are far more essential to take off the excess of 

 water than to flood our lands. Systematic irriga- 

 tion is very expensive, requiring the surface to be 

 perfectly graduated, so that water may be com- 

 pletely taken ofl^, as well as sjiread over the sur- 

 face at [ileasure." 



I have regretted it, because I considered the 

 statement founded in error, and having the sanc- 

 tion of that distinguished agriculturist. Judge 

 Buel, I believed it was calculated to do much in- 

 jury, inasmuch as it might prevent many farn)ers 

 from using the means within their control of ma- 

 king nnic!i iu)provement on their land, whi(di in 

 many situations might be done at very inconsider- 

 able expense. Having denied the orthodoxy of 

 (he opinions expressed in relation to irrigation by 

 that skilful farmer, the principal editor of the 

 " Cultivator," who possesses so much general 

 ftgricnitural information, and whose opinions have 

 been found so uniformly correct, it will be exjiect- 

 o<l that 1 should offer some strong reasons to jus- 

 tify my disbelief Having assumed the burden of 

 proof, I hope to adduce such testimony as will 

 satisfy him that I have at least some foundation 

 tor my doubts, if I fail to convince him that he 

 may, in this instance, be in an error. 



I wouW firpt ask his attention to " The English 

 Improver, or « new suney of husbandry, discovering 

 to the kingdovie, that some land, both arrable and pas- 

 ture, may be advanced double or treble ; other land to 

 a Jive or len-fold ; and some to a twenty-fold improve- 

 ment ; yea, some now not worth above one or two shil- 

 lings per acre, be made thirty or forty, if not more ; 

 clearly demonstrated fro7n principles of sound rtawn, 

 ingenuity, and late but most certain reall experiences. 

 Held forth under six pieces of Improvement, frst, by 

 plating or watering such lands as are capable thereof 

 Sec. By Walter Blith, a lover of Ingenuity.^' 

 Printed in 1640. 



On page 22, he says: " but if either thy land 

 be gravell, or of a sound, warm sandie, or mixed 

 nature, and any whit desceniling, then any run- 

 ning streame will have a gallant operation. The 

 warmer, ligliter and sounder is the iand, the great- 

 er is the advantage. These particulars discovered, 

 out of question thou hast a wonderful advantage 

 before thee, especially if thou hast any great length 

 and quantity of land along the IJiver, or liy a great 

 roade way side, or else hast any gfiod. land floods 

 fVoni great townes or cities, make as much of 

 these advantages, and apprize them as thy lands, 

 for though hereby thou canst make thy lands no 

 more, yet thou mayst make them so much better, 

 almost as thou canst desire. 



"Suppose some man of great credit should say 

 Sir, you have two hundred acres in such a place, 

 what if I should lay you a hundred more in the 

 middust of tlicm ? He would wonder at it, yet 



because of the credit of him that s()ake it, he 

 doth not wholly disdaine it, and if it could be 

 done lie deserved thanks for it, but he doth doe it 

 really thoutjh not in kind, that advartceth or im- 

 proves the lam] but one third Jiart, that makes two 

 acres as good as three, much more he that makes 

 one as good as three, or five, or ten, as before this 

 watering bnsinesse be done, shall clearely appeare, 

 and so I descend to the working out the same. 1 

 had forgot another sort of land, which is your 

 boggy quagmiry land, no lesse capable of a 

 mighty improvement, if it fall under the opportu- 

 nity of floating. 



" And so doe hut a little consider of the way 

 of both, fitting thy land to thy water, and thy wa- 

 ter t" '''y land, with the truest, naturalest, and pro- 

 perest seasons for bringing it on and taking it off, 

 and thou shall see an admired issue." 



On page 27, he says: "For this seriously ob- 

 serve, that the water running trickliug among the 

 grasse and upon the earth, leaving her thicke- 

 nesse, soyle, or filth, which I call richnesse, among 

 the grasse, and upon (lie earth, and itself runneth 

 away into the drayning trench, and troubles thee 

 no more, and so the goodnesse of the water is as 

 it were riddled, screened^ and strained out into 

 tlie lands, and the leanesse slideth away with it." 



" The Experienced Farmer," by Richard Par- 

 kinson, in vol. ii. and page 63, says: "Upon the 

 whole artificial watering of meadows is a most 

 excellent improvement ; it robs no dunghill, but 

 raises one for the benefit of other lands. For if 

 a farmer can water ten acres of land, cut the 

 grass, and nse it either in stall or fold feeding, he 

 might keep perhaps forty beasts ; and by working 

 the manure made by them into a compost, and 

 applying that compost to other lands, he might 

 either have a great deal more hay for the winter, 

 or feed more cattle in the summer." 



In " The Complete Grazier," section 2d, on the 

 different modes of improving land, and under the 

 head of Irrigation, it is stated : " tliat water form- 

 ing by far the greatest portion of the sap of plants, 

 is absolutely necessary to vegetation ; hence, al- 

 though this fluid is very injurious to land when it 

 soaks into, or stagnates upon it, yet it makes a 

 very great improvement upon land, that is flooded 

 with it, where there is plenty of running water 

 that can be conveyed upon the land and drawn 

 off' thence at pleasure. 



" 'J'he system of irrigation is carried on to the 

 greatest extent in the counties of Wilts, Dorset, 

 Hants, &c. and particularly in Gloucestershire, 

 the farmers of which last mentioned county are 

 thus enabled to commence the making of cheese, 

 at least one month sooner than those of other dis- 

 tricts, who have not the same opportunity. So 

 highly, indeed, is water prized for this purpose in 

 Gloucestershire, that the privilege of keeping up 

 the water for turning corn mills, is regarded as a 

 grievance ; and those who Jiave this privilege, 

 obtain high rents for the temporary use of the 

 water. In illustration of this circumstance it may 

 be added, that on tlie river Churn, which is a 

 branch of the Thames, there are ten corn mills 

 erected on a stretch of five miles of the water's 

 coin-se, which yield annually four hundred pounds. 

 Upon the same stretch there are one thousand 

 acres of meadow, supposed to he improved by 

 irrigation to two pounds per acre of yearly rent 

 above their former value, although they are of 

 necessity but imperfectly watered from the ob- 

 struction of the mills ; thus producing a difference 



of 071C thousand six hundred pounds annual rent in 

 the different mode of using the water ! 1 1 



" Further, not only are common meadows great- 

 ly enriched, and boggy lands reclaimed by the 

 proper ap|)lication of water as already hinted, but 

 also its utility is yet more clearly evinced from 

 this circumstance, that from the uncommon for- 

 wardness of the grass, the feeding between the 

 months of March and May is worth one guinea 

 an acie ; in June one acre of water meadow will 

 yield two tons of hay, which sells, at diflTerent 

 times, from twentyfive shillings to five pounds per 

 ton, according to the quality and quantity of the 

 herbage, and the extent of tlie demand ; and the 

 eddish, or after-grass, may be valued at fifteen, if 

 not twenty shillings an acre, whether the season 

 be wet or dry. 



"Upon the whole, it is evident that irrigation 

 is not only a great improver of land, but is like- 

 wise capable of being carried on to the greatest 

 extent in almost every situation, by seizing and 

 making use of the various convenient situations 

 afforded by nature, and by calling in the aid of 

 machinery for conducting water into those situa- 

 tions where it would otherwise be im[)racticable 

 to flood land." 



In Davy's " Agricultural Chemistry," in lecture 

 7tli, it is stated, that " Irrigation, or watering land, 

 is a practice, wdiich, at the first view, appears the 

 reverse of torrefaction ; and in general in nature 

 the o|>eration of water is to bring earthy sub- 

 stances into an extreme state of division. But in 

 the artificial watering of meadows, the beneficial 

 effects depend upon many different causes, some 

 chemical, some mechanical. 



Water is absolutely essential to vegetation, and 

 when land has been covered by water in the win- 

 ter, or in the beginning of spring, the moisture 

 that has penetrated deep into the soil, and even 

 tlie subsoil, becomes a source of nourishment to 

 the roots of the plant in the summer, and prevents 

 those bad effects that often happen in lands in 

 their natural state, from a long continuance of dry 

 weather. 



"When the water used in irrigation has flowed 

 over a calcareous country, it is generally found 

 impregnated with carbonate of lime; and in this 

 state it tends, in many instances, to ameliorate the 

 scil. 



"Cominon river water also generally contains 

 a certain portion of organizable matter, which is 

 much greater after rains, than at otiler times ; and 

 which exists in the largest quantity when the 

 stream rises in a cultivated country. 



" Even in cases when the water used for flood- 

 ing is pure, and free from animal or vegetable 

 substances, it acts by causing the more equable 

 dift'usion of nutritive matter existing in the land ; 

 and in very cold weather it preserves the tender 

 roots and leaves of the grass from being affected 

 f)y frost. 



" Water is of greater specific gravity at 42 deg. 

 Fahreidieit, than at 32 deg., the freezing point, 

 and hence in a meadow irrigated in winter, the 

 water immediately in contact with the grass is 

 rarely below 40 deg., a degree of temperature not 

 at all prejudicial to the living organs of plants. 



" In 1S04, in the month of March, I examined 

 the temperature in a water meadow near Hunger- 

 ford, in Berkshire, by a very delicate thermome- 

 ter. The temperature of the air at seven in the 

 morning was 29 deg. The water was frozen 

 above the grass. The temperature of the soil 



