123 



Who, let me ask, would venture to re- 

 commend it to a farmer, first to construct 

 the expensive works of a meadow, and 

 then to search for water for the use of the 

 meadow ? Rather let every one be advised 

 to use to effect the water which he has 

 already in his power, than to lose time in 

 subterraneous researches after an inferior 

 species of this element. The failures in 

 irrigation, which Mr. Smith so often 

 laments, if they any where exist, have 

 their origin in some such cause as the 

 above, that is, in forming meadows for 

 floating, without having first secured a 

 supply of water. I have found a dispo- 

 sition of this kind too frequently occupy- 

 ing the minds of sanguine agriculturist^^ 

 and tending to mischief 



Page 20, Mr. Smith speaks of the An- 

 tiquity of Irrigation ; and says, " the 

 • " practice 



