'34 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



III. 



It is also practised in Lincolnshire, where it was introduced by the advice of the late 

 engineer Rennie, after the completion of a public drainage at Boston. 



Sect. III. 



Artificial Means of Procuring JVater far the Use of Live Stock. 



4463. Water is supplied by nature in. most parts of the British isles, and retained with 

 little art both at farmeries and in fields. There are exceptions, however, in different 

 districts, and especially in chalky soils, gravels, and some upland clays. In these cases 

 water is procured for cattle by some of the following means : By conducting a stream 

 from a distant source, as in a work of irrigation ; by collecting rain-water from roads, 

 ditches, or sloping surfaces, in artificial ponds, or reservoirs ; by collecting it from the 

 roofs of buildings, and preserving it in covered cisterns ; by sinking a well, or a pipe, 

 either in the field or the farm-yard ; and by artificial springs. 



4464. An artificial stream will in most cases be found too expensive an operation to 

 be undertaken for the supply of drinking-water for live stock ; but this purpose may 

 frequently be combined with that of watering lands or driving machinery. In the 

 North Riding of Yorkshire, there is a tract extending for many miles entirely destitute 

 of water, except what flows along the bottoms of the deep valleys by which it is in- 

 tersected ; and little relief could consequently be afforded, by streams thus distantly and 

 inconveniently situated, to the inhabitants of the uplands, or their cattle. About the 

 year 1 770, a person of the name of Ford devised the means of watering this district, 

 by means of rills brought from the springs that break out at the foot of the still loftier 

 moorland hills that run parallel to, and to the north of, this tract, in some instances at 

 the distance of about ten miles. The springs he collected into one channel, which he 

 carried, in a winding direction, about the intervening space, according to its level, and 

 along the sides of the valleys, until he gained the summit of the arid country which he 

 wished to supply with water ; and when this was accomplished, the water was easily 

 conveyed to the places desired, and also to the ponds in all the fields, over a considerable 

 tract of ground. 



4465. Collecting rain-water from roads, ^c. in ponds or drinking pools. Formerly, it 

 is probable, something of this art was practised throughout the kingdom : most villages, 

 and many old farmsteads, have drinking pools for stock, which appear to have been 

 formed or assisted by art. In strong-land grazing districts, pits have evidently been 

 dug, to catch the rain-water fortuitously collected by furrows and ditches, or by land- 

 springs. On the chalk hills of the southern counties, the art has been long esta- 

 blished, and continued down to the present time. 



4466. An improved practice was introduced on the wolds or chalk hills of Yorkshire bv Robert Gardner, 

 of Kilham, which gained an establishment towards the end of the last century, and has spread rapidly 

 over the adjacent heights, with great profit to the country. In every dry-land situation, it may be 

 practised with high advantage to an estate, and is well entitled to attention. 



4467. The mode of constructing these collecting ponds is described in The Annals of Agriculture (vol. vi.), 

 and illustrated by a section, {fig. 688.) The ground plan is circular, and generally forty or fifty feet in 



f-oo diameter, and the excavation i.s not made 



" deeper in the centre than five feet. This 



excavation being cleared out, a layer of 

 clay (rt, b, c) sufficiently mosstened, is to 

 be carefully beaten and trod down into a 

 compact and solid body of about the 

 thickness of a foot. Upon this a layer of 

 quicklime, of one inch or upwards in 

 thickness, is finely and uniformly spread. Next is another layer of clay of about one foot in thickness {d), 

 which is to be trodden and rammed down as the former. Upon this are spread stones or coarse gravel 

 (e), of such thickness as may prevent the pond receiving any injury from the treading of cattle, which 

 would otherwise break through the body of the clay and lime, and by so doing let out tlie water. After 

 this, the pond will remain five feet deep and forty-five feet in diameter ; the size they are usually made. 



4468. Brick-clay is by no means required for the ponds; any earth sufficiently tenacious to bear 

 beating into a solid compact body, though not approaching to a pure clay, will answer the purpose very 

 well. 



4469. The preferable situation to mahe the pond is a little valley, or at the bottom of a declivity, or 

 near a high road, in which situation a stream of water may be brought into it after sudden showers or 

 thaws, the object being to get it filled as sool as possible after it is made, that the sun and winds may not 

 crack the clay. If it is not likely to be filled soon, some straw or litter must be spread over it ; but in 

 general, after it is once filled, the rains that fall in the course of the year will keep it full, no water being 

 lost otherwise than by evaporation and the consumption of cattle. 



4470. The whole excellence of the pond depends upon the lime : care must be taken to spread it regularly 

 and uniformly over the surface of the lower bed of clay. It is well known that ponds made of clay alone, 

 however good its quality, and whatever care may be bestowed in the execution, will frequently not hold 

 water : these, with the above precautions, rarely fail. By what means the lime prevents the loss of water 

 is not exactly known : one of these two is probably the cause : either the lime sets like terrace into a 

 body impervious to water ; or its causticity prevents the worms in dry weather from penetrating through 

 the clay in search of the water : certain, however, it is, that, with lime thus applied, ponds may be made 

 in sand, however porous, or on rocks, however open, in neither of which situations are tliey to be depended 

 upon when made with clay alone. On this mode of making ponds for the use of live stock, there are 

 several circumstances of the process more fully detailed in The Rural Economy of Yorkshire. 



4471. In constructing ponds in loamy soils, all that is necessary is to coat the bottom over with clay or 

 loam to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, and then to puddle or work this well with water till it 

 becomes a homogeneous layer impenetrable to that element. If clay or loamy earth cannot be obtained, 

 any earth not very much inclined to sand may be substituted, but it will re<^uire mgre labour in puddling. 



