312 MAY. 



trifling, and the improvement beyond conception >. 

 such lands may be raised from 2s. or 3s. an acre, 

 to 40s. or 50s., while the flat meadows may be 20s. 

 before the undertaking begins, and may not, when 

 ended, be worth more than the others, though 

 effected at ten times the ex pence. I once found a 

 friend in the full speculation of watering some mea- 

 dows which were worth 25s. an acre, and just 

 ready to set a man to work, who ought to have 

 known better. I thought by my eye, that the 

 water (the quantity very limited) might be better 

 employed on some dry arable land above the mea- 

 dows, but further down the vale. I took the levels, 

 and found it as I conjectured : the plan was adopt- 

 ed, and I have since heard that the undertaking 

 was remarkably profitable. The meadow at Six- 

 mile Bridge, in Hampshire, which letts for above 5l. 

 an acre (a gravel at 10s. before watering), was 

 formed at little other expence than converting a 

 ditch into a carrier ; nor was the conduct of the 

 water, when I saw it, correct by any means. 



12th, In viewing therefore, the lands below the 

 grand carrier, our operator should choose, for his 

 first works, those fields, the soil or state, or value 

 of which are the most promL-ing for working a 

 great improvement, and these will be the dry 

 arable slopes, or poor dry pastures. And if he has 

 a choice, let him begin with one which joins his 

 carrier, and mark the lower spot, side or corner of 

 it where the water may best have its issue, having 

 worked over its surface ; and at that spot 



taking 



