306 MAY. 



til! some experience has been had, that the quan- 

 tity of Water is sufficient for the meditated work. 

 As this is (warping alone excepted) the greatest of 

 all improvements, it is deserving of the greatest 

 consideration and study of the water and land be- 

 fore a beginning is made. I should recommend, in 

 the first instance, the employment of a professed 

 irrigator, could the young farmer possess knowledge 

 fenough to ascertain the skill of such a man ; but I 

 have lately seen such gross blunders made in Nor- 

 folk by such an one, on the farms of four or five 

 persons, and yet highly recommended, and com- 

 ing from Gloucestershire, that I really think a man 

 may just as well trust to himself, with the assist- 

 ance of books, as to put any faith in men who are 

 reputed skilful only in proportion to the ignorance 

 of those who employ them. In the cases to which 

 I allude, this ignorance was unpardonable ; for as 

 they discovered that he drew out all his works 

 \vithout the assistance of a spirit-Jevel, they ought 

 tc have dismissed 'him. Not that such a man can- 

 not -make improvements; no one can ' well con -v 

 trive to bring water on to land without improving 

 it ; but to pay 4l. or 5l. or perhaps much^more, per 

 acre, for using a small quantity of water to" some 

 advantage, when the same might be used elsewhere 

 to the greatest, is, comparatively speak ing,-- throwing 

 money away. If the following observations are care- 

 fully attended to, they will, Ttrust, enable any man 

 'to operate for himself in most of the cases that can 

 occur,' and witfra certain degree of sagacity, in all. 



