258 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



FEB. 34, 1836. 



remove it; also to cut down the produce and 

 make it into hay. On ail thes« accounts, a supply 

 of trusty laborers, for carrying on these several 

 processes, must be provided. Nor is this ail. it 

 is likewise necessary to ascertain, whetlier there 

 are any.obstacles to the proposed improvement, 

 arising from the claim of millers, or csinal owners, 

 (which are often great im])ediments,) the inter- 

 vention of other property, or leases ^ranted to 

 other farmers on the estate. The command of 

 caf)ital adequate to the expense likely to be in- 

 curred, is alisohitely necessary. 



4th. Of the Water calculatec for Irrigation. 

 " Clear spring water, in the state in which it 

 issues from the hills, is certainly of a fertilizing 

 quality; and near the source it is usually warmer 

 than other waters, not so liable to be soon frozen, 

 and it answers better for irrigation, during the 

 severe weather in winter. From these properties, 

 there is always produced abundance of early suc- 

 culent grass, for several yards where the water 

 first runs over the land near the spring. Clear 

 spring water, may also be used longer than the 

 foul or muddy, being less apt to render the grass 

 gritty and unwholesome ; hence some give a jire- 

 ference to clean watered crops. 



" Mountain streamlets fed principally by springs, 

 are more at command than rivers, and more con- 

 venient to be directed over slopes, and are also 

 better calculated for improving grass. 



" Where river water is accessible, it is com- 

 monly loaded with many enriching substances 

 from the fertile country, and the large towns and 

 villages, through which it passes; and is thus pro- 

 ductive, not only of temporary, but of permanent 

 improvement. 



"Sea water also, where it can be employed for 

 that purpose, or made use of within embanked 

 marshes, is applicable to the purposes of irriga- 

 tion. It contains, more pspecially near the land, 

 not only animal and vegetable substances, but also 

 saline mixtures in solution. The utility of salt 

 marshes to diseased horse.s, and their acting as a 

 restorative to sheep in danger of, or infected by, 

 that fatal malady, the rot, is well known. Those 

 ideas are corroborated by an observation that the 

 meadows near the mouth of the Se\evn. where salt 

 water is thrown over thelanil hy the tide, are grazed, 

 instead of being mown, and are accounted the best 

 possible pasture for horses and cattle that require 

 rest, and spring iihysic. In regard to waters 

 much impregnated with iron, they were formerly 

 supposed totally unfit for the purposes of irriga- 

 tion ; but it is now fully proved, by the accurate 

 experiments of an able chemist, and by the extraor- 

 dinary growth of grasses in Prisley meadow in 

 Bedfordshire, that ferruginous waters are frienclly 

 to vegetation when properly applied. 



" Waters that are impregnated with the juices 

 that flow from peat masses, are considered by 

 many not worth ajjplying to the soil. It is object- 

 ed to them that they are soon frozen ; that they 

 convey no material nutriment ; and that they are 

 commonly loaded with antiseptic substances, as 

 will retard instead of promote vegetation. But 

 others are of opinion, that a want of sufficient 

 slope in the meadow, or of proper management 

 in regard to the water, has occasioned the disap- 

 pointments which have been experienced when 

 bog waters have been applied. 



5th. Or THE Soil and Subsoil. 

 " Irrigation is not restricted to any particular 

 description of soil. Land naturally wet may be 

 greatly improved by it, when accompanied by 

 drainage ; and it is equally beneficial to that 

 which is dry. 



« Rich loams produce the greatest crojis, even 

 though waters be not of the first quality. Peat 

 hogs when properly drained, will likewise yield 

 good crops. Irrigating adhesive clays is expensive, 

 and the benefits from it, do not soon appear ; but 

 it is evident, from d meadow near Lnngleat, that 

 even this sort of land may, by good management, 

 be thus rendered more fertile; and it is well 

 known that some of the best meadows in Glou- 

 cestershire, and at Woburn, are upon a clayey 

 substratum. 



"Barren slopes may be advantageously im- 

 proved under the catch-work system ; and in this 

 way, much land, at present covered with heath, 

 furze, or broom, may be rendered productive of 

 hay or valuable grasses. The most suitable soils, 

 however, are those of a sandy or gravelly nature ; 

 more especially when they can he irrigated by 

 muddy streams, the sediment of which corrects 

 their excessive openness. Indeed, by means of 

 the warm and rich waters, of a low, fertile, and 

 populous district, impregnated with mud, and full 

 of animal and vegetable manures, almost any soil 

 may be converted into a rich meadow. I'he bot- 

 tom or subsoil of a water meadow is of more con- 

 sequence than even the quality or depth of the 

 soil. A loose gravel, or bed of broken flint, with 

 little or no intermixture of earth, where that can 

 be obtained, is the most desirable subsoil. With 

 such a bottom, in seasons when wafer is abundant, 

 a soil not six inches in deiith is quite suflicient to 

 produce large crops. 



" Effect of Clhtiate. — The process of irrigation 

 seems to be attended with more beneficial effects, 

 in warm than in cold climates. The difiiireuce of 

 the seasons between Gloucestershire in England 

 and Aberdeenshire in Scotland, produces very im- 

 portant consequences. The latter is usually about 

 five weeks more backward than the former ; hence 

 it is hardly possible to get such early crops of 

 spring grass in the districts of Scotland, as are 

 easily to he obtained in England ; and thus one of 

 the principal objects of irrigation (feeding ewes 

 and lambs in spring) is considered to be unattain- 

 able. Nor will the application of water produce 

 two, and sometimes even three crops of hay in 

 Scotland, as it does in North America. The ad- 

 vantages of water meadows, however, are inqior- 

 tant, independent of spring feed ; more especially 

 where the catch-work system can lie adopted, as 

 the expense of that process is inconsiderable. 



6th. The Expense. 



" This inust vary according to the nature of the 

 work. Where the catch-work system is practica- 

 ble, in favorable situations, the farming may be 

 done at ten shillings per acre. This fact is, in 

 many cases, decisive in favor of this natural and 

 simple mode, which requires also much less water, 

 and often answers fully as well as flat flooding. 



" The ex[)ense of bed ivorlt, as it is called, is, 

 however, considerable. If the ground to be flood- 

 ed be smooth on its surface, or in regular ridges, 

 and if the water can easily be brought to the 

 meadow, with a temporary weir, supposing tlie 

 extent to be almost twenty acres, it may be done 

 at from £5 to £10 per acre; but if the land 



be of large extent, with an irregular surface f 

 if a large conductor, and a proper weir shall be 

 required, with hatches both in it and also in the 

 feeders ; and if the aid of a professional person 

 to lay out, and oversee the work be necessary, 

 (which is generally the case) the expense will 

 vary from £10 to £20 per acre. Nay, in Wilt- 

 shire, where they are anxious to have their mead- 

 ows tbrmed in the most perfect manner, with that 

 regularity which the nice adjustment of water 

 demands, the expense per acre has amounted to 

 £40." 



(To be continued.) 



Fdf.l. — Among fanners "it is a very common 

 practice to have their fuel, where fire-piari's are 

 used, chopped ready for burning, in the woods; 

 and when inten<led for the stove, it is in the same 

 place cut into three or four feet wood, as the case 

 may be, and then at the house sawn into proper 

 lengths for burning. Wood, in many parts of our 

 country, is already an iinjjortaut article, and is 

 rapidly becoming so in all, since most of our land 

 holders and farmers are more anxious to destroy 

 trees than to plant them, appearing to be ecpially 

 insensible to their beauty and their value. In this 

 state of things is it not a decided waste of means, 

 for a farmer to get his wood in the manner above 

 described ? We thhik it is ; and though reasons 

 identy as blackberries might be adduced, we shall 

 content oureelves with one. In cutting wood, 

 when on a tree of two feet in diameter, the chop- 

 per, if he imderstands his business, will, at com- 

 mencing on a log, take out a chip, or calf as it is 

 called, of from sixteen to eighteen inches in length. 

 This, wliere the logs are cut of the average length 

 of three feet, will cut up into chip's at least one 

 fourth of the wood, and these in most cases are 

 left where they fall, to rot. Now every housewife 

 knows, that when wood is drawn in what is called 

 sled lengths, or logs of twelve feet, and these are 

 cut up in the wood yard of the house, that the 

 chips furnish a very valuable and convenient part 

 of her fire wood ; and every farmer knows, that 

 though when cut in this way many chips will he 

 fine and unfit for burning, yet they are fiir from 

 being lost, quickly rotting when scraped into heaps, 

 and when drawn and spread upon his land fur- 

 nishing manure of a most valuable kind. That 

 the farmer should get his year's supply of wood in 

 the winter there can be no doubt. It can then be 

 much easier drawn ; his teams have then little 

 else to do ; labor can be procured at a cheaper 

 rate; and what is more than ail the rest, wood 

 when drawn and cut fit for use in the winter, is 

 lar more valuable than when cut in the summer, 

 when the resinous juices of the tree are dissolved 

 in the sap, or employed in the formation of leaves. 

 Another thing in getting wood should not be for- 

 gotten — if in the winter, only wood is got to last 

 till. winter comes again, green must necessarily he 

 used during the cold weather, at a very great loss 

 of fuel, and expenditure of comfort. On the first 

 day of March, there should be fuel enough in the 

 wood-house or yard, to furnish an ample supply 

 until that day comes round again ; and then far- 

 mers would complain less of cold houses and 

 chilled fingers, and the industrious housewife feel 

 less temntation to lecture her spouse on the evils 

 of green wood and sniokey chimnies. — Geneset 

 Fanner. 



Plaster is composed, in 100 parts, of lime 33.0, 

 sulphuric acid 44.8, and water 21.2. 



