MAY. 313 



taking his station, let him examine what field is so 

 situated as to take the water next. If the declivity 

 is at all steep, any may do ; but if gentle, it may 

 be necessary to conduct it diagonally to some dis- 

 tance, before a field is found low enough to receive 

 it ; for let our operator have it in his attention, 

 that he is to conduct the water thus first taken till 

 its final exit into the bed of the river, whence it 

 can no more be taken by him, before he meddles 

 with any other work. In some cases it might be 

 more profitable immediately to water other fields 

 nearer the carrier, but as the water used in the 

 first field would in that case run to waste before it 

 arrived at the river (especially if the tract to be 

 watered be of any extent), and as it is beneficial 

 to plan what is to be done with all water taken, in 

 its whole course from the carrier to the river's bed, 

 it is much better to finish with it before a fresh 

 \vork is opened. 



On gentle slopes of country this plan will gene- 

 rally make it necessary to conduct the water by a 

 line of fields diagonally across the slope of the 

 country. To illustrate this, reference may be had 

 to the annex eel Plate. 



Here (l), is the river; (2), the grand carrier ; 

 (3), the field first watered ; (4), the field watered 

 after the first; (5 and 6), ditto, in succession; 

 (7, 9 the prhe d'eau; (8), a sluice to throw the 

 \vater into the field where first used; (10), final 

 exit of the water. But in this respect variations 

 may be as many as the forms which a tract of 



country 



