( 132) 
A third kind; compounded of the two others, is 
sometimes seen in Europe, where the water, after be- 
ing employed in irigating the sides of hills, is. 
brought upon flats for the purpose of inundation, or 
more generally for that of forming reservoirs, from 
which it may again be raised by machinery, such as 
the noria of the Moors, or the hydraulic ram of 
Montgolfier, &c.(1) 
II. Of Artificial Meadows. 
We have seen that natural meadows abound in 
plants. either useless or pernicious; and that. it is 
among the principal labors of agriculture to eradicate 
these, and to substitute for them others of greater 
product or better quality. It was probably this pro- 
cess that first suggested the idea of artificial mea- 
dons, or those com; osed only of plants of our own 
choosing, and alternating with grain or root crops. 
And it cannot be doubted, but that if the grasses se- 
lected be good in themselves, adapted to the soil and 
carefully cultivated, we thus arrive at the highest 
possible degree of perfection, of which this branch of 
the art is susceptible; because, besides having only 
wholesome and nutritive forage, we double its quanti- 
1y, and at the same time, put the soil in a state to give 
us a series of good subsequent-crops. 
France claims the credit of having been the first to 
discover the value, and introduce the practice, of this 
new system ; and it may not be amiss to collect some 
(1) Whoever may have occasion to study the two subjects, (draining and irrigation) 
either separately or in connexion, cannot do better than to consult the Hydraulic Ar- 
chitecture of Bellidor, the Hydraulics of Dubuat, M. de Ourche’s General Treatise 
on Meadows, Defue on the embankments of Holland, and Richardson’s Agricyl- 
ture, 
