136 AGRICULTURE 0:N^ THE RHINE. 



breadth of 20 feet, so that each slope has a breadth of 

 10 feet. The ridges are 60 feet in length. Stakes are 

 driven at the openings of the transversal cuts, which are 

 levelled, and the draining conduit must then be marked 

 out and stakes fixed at the points. The fall does not 

 exceed 1 foot in a length of 63 feet. With the aid of 

 the last stakes parallel cuttings are made in a transversal 

 direction from the draining conduit in the direction of 

 the distributing channel, but stopping at some distance 

 short of the latter. The bottom of these cuttings is 

 sloped, being 5 inches higher than the level of the 

 draining conduit. The cuttings divide the ridges and 

 serve as drains. Between them the ground is raised in 

 the middle so as to slope towards each draining canal, 

 the upper part of the ridge being kept high enough to 

 carry an irrigating canal which takes the water at the 

 level of the distributing canal, and carries it with a slope 

 of 5 inches to the draining canal. When this canal is 

 full and overflows, the water runs into the lower cutting, 

 and thence into the lower drain, in the bottom of which 

 there is also a slope of 6 inches. 



At the lower end of every ridge the surface presents 

 the appearance of a triangle. 



Irrigation icith broad Ridges. 



In a meadow laid down near Keppel with broad 

 ridges, the water in the brook that supplies the main 

 canal is scanty in summer, and is applied to turning the 

 wheels of some steel-works. The main canal is 4 feet 

 broad, 1^ foot deep, and has a fall at bottom of ^ inch in 

 soft. 



