21 



ing it ; when we shall come to estimate, duly, the su- 

 perior profit of "a little farm well tilled," over a 

 great farm, half cultivated and half manured, over- 

 run with weeds, and scourged with exhausting crops, 

 we shall then fill our barns, and double the winter 

 feed for our cattle and sheep by the products of these 

 waste meadows. 



There was in England, another mode of improve- 

 ment, most important, instances of which he had 

 seen, and one of which he regarded as the most beau- 

 tiful agricultural improvement, which had ever come 

 within his observation. He meant irrigation, or the 

 making of what is called water meadows. He had 

 first seen them in Wiltshire, and was much struck 

 with them, not having before understood, from read- 

 ing or conversation, exactly what they were. But 

 he had afterwards an opportunity of examining a 

 most signal and successful example of this mode of 

 improvement on the estates of the Duke of Portland, 

 in the North of England, on the borders of Sherwood 

 forest. Indeed, it was part of the old forest. Sher- 

 wood forest, at least in its present state, is not like 

 the pine forests of Maine, the heavy hard wood for- 

 ests of the unredeemed lands of New Hampshire and 

 Vermont, or the still heavier timbered lands of the 

 West. It embraces a large extent of country, with 

 various soils, some of them thin and light, with beau- 

 tiful and venerable oaks, of unknown age, much open 

 ground between them and underneath their wide- 

 spread branches, and this covered with heather, lich- 

 ens and fern. As a scene to the eye, and to the 

 memory by its long existence, and its associations, 



