On Irrigation. 277 



Rich loams produce the largest crops, even though the 

 waters be not of the first quality. Peat-bogs, when proper- 

 ly drained, will likewise yield good crops ( 4 * 3 ). Irrigating 

 adhesive clays is expensive, and the beneficial effects from it 

 do not soon appear ; but it is evident, from a meadow near 

 Longleat, that even this sort of land may, by good manage- 

 ment, be thus rendered more fertile; and it is well known, 

 that some of the best meadows in Gloucestershire, and at 

 Woburn, are upon a clayey substratum ( 424 ). 



Barren slopes may be advantageously improved under the 

 catch-work system; and in this way, much land, at present 

 covered with heath, furze, or broom, may be rendered pro- 

 ductive of hay, or valuable grasses. The most suitable soils, 

 however, are those of a sandy or gravelly nature ; more es- 

 pecially when they can be irrigated by muddy streams, the 

 sediment of which corrects their excessive openness. In- 

 deed, by means of the warm and rich waters, of a low, fer- 

 tile, and populous district, impregnated with mud, and con- 

 taining animal and vegetable manures, almost any soil may 

 be converted into a rich meadow. 



The bottom 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 water is 

 abundant, a soil, not six inches in depth, is quite sufficient 

 to produce large crops. 



Effect of Climate. The process of irrigation, seems to be 

 attended with much more beneficial effects, in warm, than in 

 cold climates. The difference of the seasons between Glou- 

 cestershire, in England, and Aberdeenshire, in Scotland, 

 produces very important consequences. The latter is usu- 

 ally 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 be obtained in 

 England ; and thus one of the principal objects of irrigation, 

 (feeding ewes and lambs in spring), is thought to be unat- 

 tainable. Nor will the application of water produce two, 

 much less three crops of hay in Scotland, as it does in 

 North America. The advantages of water-meadows, how- 

 ever, are important, independent of spring feed ; more espe- 

 cially when the catch-work system can be adopted, as the 

 expense of that process is inconsiderable. 



