38 ON IRRIGATION OF LANDS. 



DAVID GRAY'S STATEMEiNT. 



TO Tlin C031.MITTEE O:; FARMS. 



Gentlemen — 



The farmers of Essex having been repeatedly 

 called upon for experiments in Irrigation, or the turning of water 

 from its natural course, so as to overflow land that would other- 

 wise for the most part remain dry ; I will detail with as much 

 minuteness as my recollection will permit, the result of some 

 experiments by which I have been fully compensated for my 

 trouble. 



My first experiment some eight or ten years since, satisfied 

 me that crops on grass land might be very much improved by 

 irrigation ; and although 1 did not immediately apply myself to 

 the improvement of my lands in this way, I have almost every 

 year made some additional improvements, and although I could 

 never make v/ater run up hill, 1 have found it would run almost 

 any other v/ay, and have now on my farm four several pieces 

 containing in the whole about two acres, annually manured with 

 no other trouble than giving a few simple directions, and nature 

 does the Vv'ork and finds materials too. In the Autumn of 18i28, 

 the course of a brook was changed so as to overflow half an acre 

 or more of upland mowing adjoining a piece of meadow, which 

 never was plowed, being enclosed with tlie meadow it was mowed 

 every year, and produced a few hundreds of infeiior fodder which 

 hardly paid for making, in fact the land seenied of but little use, 

 but to hold the meadow and pasture together which it lay be- 

 tween. In 1829 the crop vras but little increased in quantity, 

 but the field presented a more green and thriving appearance, 

 and the grass thickened at tlie bottom. In 1830 the crop of 

 grass was estimated to be that of the preceding year ; and the 

 present year 1831, there was a very visible increase on the last 

 year's crop. The water tliat l;as enriched this land is simple 

 brook water, not having tb.e advantage of the wash from the 

 road or buildings ; or any other source that would tend to enrich 

 it ; and the land is so situated as to be very inconvenient to get 

 manure to it. 



