730 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



4440. A vr-ry complete piece of trrtgattonifig. 686.) was formed for the Duke of Bedford, by Smith at 

 ristley. Tlie water is supphed from a brook (a), to a main feeder, with various ramifications {b, b) ; the 



CbG 



surface is formed into ridges (c, c), over which the water flows, and is carried off by the drains in their 

 furrows {d, d), to the main drains {e, e), and to the brook at different places (/, /). There are bridges 

 (g) over the main feeders, small arches over the main discharging drains [h), and three hatches (). 

 4441. As an example qf catch-work watering^ we may refer to a case {Jig. 687.), given in a recent work 



by John Brown. {Treatise on Irrigation, 1817.) In this the field of operations being on the steep side of a 

 hill, a main carrier is led from the sluice {a), directly across the declivity {b), and lateral feeders (c) taken 

 out from it at regular distances. These feeders have stops of turf, at regular distances (rf), by which 

 means the water is dispersed. After watering a space of from twenty to forty feet in breadth, it is again 

 collected by the small drains in the furrows, and returned lower down to another feeder. The advan- 

 tage of this method, Browne observes, " relates more materially to the sides of hills, and to porous soils 

 that are by some thought incapable of being watered. The chief point is to get the water to the highest 

 level possible; and in case the soil be porous, one main carrier only will require puddling, in order to 

 prevent the water from sinking away : when that is done, no difficulty whatever is found in taking it in 

 small streams vertically, or directly down the slope (c\ and putting stops {d) to arrest its progress occa- 

 sionally, which will throw it on each side ; and when those stops are placed one above another, it will 

 have the effect of spreading the water on the land, somewhat similar to a fan when extended. The 

 stops need only be sods or turfs, one laid lengthways in the gutter, and one across it, which may be raised 

 or lowered according to the declivity : these sods or turfs will require probably a small wooden peg to 

 fasten them at first ; and by the time the land requires a second watering, the roots of the grass will have 

 sufficiently fastened them ; and they need not be removed, unless occasionally for the purpose of watering 

 any separate part below, when the stream may be too small to water the whole piece at once; and the 

 small cuts for conveying the water will be less expensive in cleaning, not being so liable to choke np as 



