726 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTUllE. 



Part III. 



4103. Slout large waterproof boots, having tops so as to draw up half the length of the thigh, are 

 indispensable ; they must be large enough to admit a quantity of hay to be stuffed down all round the 

 legs, and be kept well tallowed, to resist the running water for a length of time. 



4404. The terms 7nade use of are various : 



4405. A wear is an erection across a river, brook, rivulet, main, &c., made often of timber only, some- 

 times of bricks, or stones and timber, with from two to eight or ten thoroughs (oi)enings) to let the water 

 through, according to the breadth of the stream. Its height is always equal to the depth of the stream 

 compared with the adjacent land. Its use is, when the liatches are all in their proper places, to stop the 

 whole current, that the water may rise high enough to overflow tlie banks, and spread over the adjoining 

 land ; or, by stopping the water in its natural course, to turn it through mains cut for conveying it another 

 way, to water some distant lands. 



4406. A sluice {fig. 6S3. a, b) is made exactly as a wear, only it has but one thorough ; for if there are 

 more than one, it becomes a wear. 



683 



4407. A trunk is a covered sluice, being a necessary construction in all cases where two streams of 

 water are to cross each other, to serve as a bridge for that stream which is to pass over or under the 

 other. 



4408. A carriage is a sort of small wooden or brick aqueduct, built open, for the purpose of carrying 

 one stream over another, and is the most expensive conveyance belonging to the business of watering. 



4409. A drain sluice, or drain trunk, signifies such as are placed in the lowest part of a main, as near 

 to the head as a drain can be formed, and situated low enough to drain the main, &c. It is placed with 

 the mouth at the bottom of the main, being let down into the bank ; and from its other end a drain is 

 cut to communicate with the nearest trench-drain. It is a contrivance to carry off the leakage through 

 the hatches when they are shut down, to convey the water to other grounds, or to repair the main, &c. 



4410. Hatches {fig. 683. c) are floodgates, variously constructed. A particular kind, which has about 

 a foot to take off, so as to permit the water to flow over that much of the hatch where it appears to be 

 useful in irrigation, has been employed, but is not found to answer. They are best when made whole. 

 They may be made of any timber, but oak and elm ai-e the best. 



4411. Head main is a term used to signify a ditch drawn from the river, rivtilet, &c. to convey the water 

 out of its usual current to water the lands laid out for that purpose, through the means of lesser mains 

 and trenches. The head main is drawn of various breadths and depths, according to the quantity of land 

 to be watered, to the length, or to the fall or descent of the land it is cut through. Smaller mains are 

 frequently taken out of the head main, at, or nearly at, right angles, to which they are usually cut. They 

 are much smaller than the head main, and this constitutes the only difference. The use of both the 

 large and small mains is to feed with water the various trenches which branch out into all parts of the 

 meadow. These smaller mains are by some called carriages, but improperly, for it is confounding them 

 with the open trunk, called by that name, as seen above. 



4412. The trench is a narrow shallow ditch, for conveying the water out of the mains to float the land. 

 It ought always to be drawn in a straight line from angle to angle, with as few turnings as possible. It 

 is never made deep, but the width is in proportion to the length it runs, and the breadth of the pane 

 between it and the trench drain. It narrows gradually to the lower end. 



4413. The trench drain is cut parallel to the trench, and as deep, when necessary, as the tail drain water 

 will admit. It ought always to be cut, if possible, so as to come down to a firm stratum of sand, gravel, 

 or clay : if the latter, a spade's depth into it will be of great advantage. Its use is to carry away the water 

 immediately after it has run over the panes from the trench. It need not be drawn up to the head of the 

 land, by five, six, or more yards, according to the nature of the soil. Its form is the reverse of the 

 trench, being narrower at the head, or upper part, and gradually wider, till it comes to the lower end 

 and empties itself into the tail drain. 



4414. The tail drain is a receptacle for all the water that nms out of the other drains, not so situated 

 as to empty themselves into the river ; and therefore it should run nearly at right angles with the 

 trenches, but, in general it is drawn in the lowest part of the ground, and used to convey the water out 

 of the meadow where there is the greatest descent. This is generally found in one of the fence ditches j 

 for which reason a fence ditch is mostly used, at once fencing the meadow and draining it. 



4415. A pane qf ground is that part of the meadow which lies between the trench and the trench drain, 

 and is the part on which the grass grows that is mown for hay : it is watered by the trenches, and 

 drained by the trench drains, consequently there is one on each side of every trench. 



4416. A way pane is that part of the ground which, in a properly watered meadow, lies on that side of 

 a main where no trenches are taken out. It is watered the whole length of the main over its banks, and 

 a drain runs parallel with the main to drain the way pane. Its use is to afford a road for conveying the 

 hay out of the meadows, and prevent the teams from crossing all the trenches. 



4417. A bend is a stoppage made in various parts of those trenches which have a quick descent. It is 

 formed by leaving a narrow slip of greensward across the trench, where the bend is intended to be, cutting 

 occasionally a wedge-shaped piece out of the middle of it. Its use is to check the water, and force it over 

 the trench into the panes ; for if it were not for those bends, it would run rapidly on in the trench, with- 

 out flowing over the land as it passed along. The great art of watering meadows consists in giving to 

 every part of each pane an equal quantity of water. 



4418. A gutter is a small groove cut out from the tails of those trenches, where the panes run longer at 

 one corner than the other. Its use is to carry the water to the extreme point of the pane. Those panes 

 which are intersected by the trench and tail drains meeting in an obtuse angle, want the assistance of 

 these gutters to convey the water to the longest side ; and when, from insuflScient levelling, some parts 

 of the panes lie higher than they ought, a gutter is drawn from the trench over that high ground, 

 which otherwise would not be overflowed. Without this precaution, unless the flats were filled up 

 (which ought always to be done when materials can be had), the water would not rise upon it : and 

 after the watering season was past, those places would appear rusty and brown, v/hilst a rich verdure 

 would overspread the others ; at hay-time, also, the grass in those places would be scarce high enough 



