220 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



height to cany it quite above the highest and driest part of the 

 field. 



I describe these preliminary proceedings with some particu- 

 larity as to the details, because they embrace the most important 

 part of the })rocess. Witliout those examinations, I should 

 hardly have known from which end of my field the water would 

 run, although the fall was abundant when it was made available. 

 Judging from my own somewhat limited experience and 

 observation in these matters, I think that even a superficial 

 examination by the aid only of a common level, will show that 

 there are many farms in our county where irrigation can be 

 successfully practiced with trifling expense compared with the 

 benefits, though the owners now look on the object as impracti- 

 cable for such localities. There are but few farms that have 

 not some facilities for irrigation,if they are sought for and made 

 available. In some cases the sources whence water may be 

 obtained are not on the land most requiring it, but by a small 

 amount of labor a head may be raised where a supply is found 

 in swamps or ponds, and by channels it may be conveyed to the 

 places where it is wanted. It is not unusual to see water car- 

 ried for miles along the sides of mountains and hills for the 

 purpose of irrigation, in countries where the benefits of the 

 process are duly appreciated. Here, we often see a brisk stream 

 of pure water running through a dry pasture in a crooked 

 channel. In many cases, if proper attention were given, it 

 could without much expense be dammed and carried along the 

 bead of the descent and spread over the whole or a great portion 

 of the pasture during several of the spring and fall months, and, 

 perhaps, by opening the springs, a supply might be obtained 

 that would continue through the summer. 



The eye, without any instrument, is not in all cases sufficient 

 to show whether the ground is level or otherwise. It is often 

 more apt to mislead than to afford a correct guide in regard to 

 the surface of the land. Sometimes the raising of the source 

 from which water is to be taken for irrigation, changes the course 

 of streams. On a part of my own land where I first made the 

 attempt to irrigate, the water in some of the channels ran east ; 

 but a change in the source causes them to run directly west, in 

 the same channels. 



