0\ lRRir:ATTO\. 75 



in this branch of husbandry. The reclaiming wet mead- 

 ows and swamp lands has been somewhat extensively 

 and verv successfully attended to, and premiums award- 

 ed. Of the fourteen thousand acres in the County, of 

 these waste lands, probably one thousand have been 

 fully reclaimed and made very productive lands. 



But irrigation includes improvement by adiling to, as 

 well as taking water from lands. By the judicious ap- 

 plication of water to lands, the product may be increas- 

 ed from one to three or four hundred per cent., without 

 the addition of any other material. Running water in- 

 creases vegetation, especiallj^ the grasses, while stag- 

 nant water destroys almost all kinds. It would not be 

 supposed, at first view, that the pure clear water from a 

 living fountain would have much fertilizing matter in it; 

 but it will be found that when exposed to the sun, it will 

 become impure and change to a green color sooner than 

 water taken from a stagnant pool. It w^ould therefore 

 seem that running waters contain principles which they 

 would not from their appearance be supposed to have. 

 These principles are fertilizing when suitably applied to 

 lands. 



All our interval lands bordering on streams, owe their 

 richness and value to their being frequently overflowed 

 by the freshets which swell the streams beyond their 

 common boundaries. Their fertility undoubtedly de- 

 pends, likewise, upon the deposits which these troubled 

 waters leave on the surface. But who has not observed 

 the runs and wet parts of pasture lands become green 

 the earliest in the spring, and hold so, the longest, and 

 actually afford the most feed through the year 1 There 

 does not seem to be much turbidness for deposits in those 

 rills, there must then be some fertilizing properties in 

 the water itself. Plants generally, and grasses particu- 

 larly, are composed mostly of water, the whole of which 

 is not lost in drying. 



Will it not be worth the experiment then, for those 

 who have streams and sloping land to accommodate, to 

 make the trial of diverting the water, as experience shall 

 warrant, over the adjacent lands, supplying more or less, 



