882 



THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. 



BOOK IX. 



the West of England. It is suited to meadow and pasture lands that 

 lie on a steep declivity, or on the side of a hill. This method is 

 denominated catch, because, when the whole is watered at once, the 

 water is carried up to the main cut or feeder, and, having attained 

 the top of the piece of ground, floats over the uppermost pitcher, 

 or panes, and is caught in or falls into the floating gutters which 

 distribute it from one pitch to another, until at length it reaches the 

 bottom of the field, where it is received into a drain made for the 

 purpose of carrying it off, or conveying it to other lauds situated on 

 lower levels. In this method of watering, fewer channels are necessary 

 than in the one previously detailed ; and these are made as nearly in 

 parallel lines below each other as the bank will permit. 



In the plan, fig. 379, of a catch meadow, selected from Mr. Wright's 



Fig. 379. Plan of Catch-Water Meadow. 



*' Art of Floating Land," the lateral, horizontal, feeding gutters, which 

 distribute the water over the first and second pitches, are represented 

 as shut by sods or stones, consequently they appear dry. The whole 

 body of water is indicated as passing down the main feeder into the 

 lowest floating gutter, whence it reaches the bottom or third pitch, and 

 is thence received into the drain at the bottom of the meadow, to 

 be returned by it into the natural channel. 



When the whole is to be floated at once, the obstructions are. taken 

 from the lateral floating gutters, other obstructions being in the mean- 

 time placed in the main feeder, immediately under the floating gutters, 

 in order to force the water into them. In obstructing the main cut or 

 feeder, care must be taken not to stop it entirely. A part of the water it 

 contains should always be allowed to escape in it to the lowest panes 

 or pitches ; for, supposing the main feeder to be entirely shut under 

 the feeding gutter (g I), so that the whole is made to run over the first 



wrote on the theory and practice of water-meadows, confining liis remarks chiefly to the 

 details of establishment and arrangement. He carefully distinguished between the water 

 meadows of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, and Dorset, and the catch- 

 meadows of Somerset and 'Devonshire, and pointed out that the catch-meadow is as cheap 

 as the water-meadow is expensive to form. 



