VEGETATION OF MEADOWS AND PASTURES 71 



many cubic centimetres the soil will soak up. If the soil is dry it 

 will be found that it takes up about one-half of the water that was 

 poured into the empty vessel, and the bubbles of air can be seen 

 coming out on the surface as the soil gets thoroughly soaked. 

 Roots cannot penetrate into a waterlogged soil, on account of the 

 want of air. It follows that in a season of drought, when the level 

 of the ground water will be altered, that plants whose roots do 

 not extend below the surface will suffer, perhaps even die, from 

 want of water ; whereas in a thoroughly drained soil they would 

 have penetrated some three feet, and would therefore suffer less 

 from the drought. Drainage also increases the temperature of 

 the soil. The attention paid to drainage is of comparatively 

 recent date in many districts. Up to the end of the eighteenth 

 century, what is known as the " open-field " system existed. In 

 Traill's Social England an open-field farm in Wiltshire is thus 

 described: " In shape it was generally long, narrow, and oblong, 

 hemmed in between the downs and the stream, and often stretch- 

 ing three miles in length. At one end stood the cluster of mud- 

 built, straw-thatched cottages, each with its yard, or small 

 pasture, for horses, calves, or field oxen. In the lowest part of 

 the land, if possible along the banks of the stream, lay the per- 

 manent meadows. These were fenced off in strips and balloted 

 for by the tenants, and held in separate ownership from Candlemas 

 or from Lady-Day to Midsummer Day or hay harvest. As soon 

 as the grass was mown and the hay carried, the meadows once more 

 became open common pasturage, and so remained till they were 

 once more allotted and put up for hay. Beyond the meadows 

 lay the three great tillage fields. Each of the three fields was 

 cut up into acre, or half-acre strips, divided from each other 

 by narrow, rough, bush-grown balks of unploughed turf. The 

 complete holding of each village was so distributed that each man 

 had a third of his holding in each of the three fields. Drainage was 

 impossible, for if one man drained his land or scoured his courses 

 his neighbour blocked his outfalls. . . . The scab was rarely 

 absent from the common fold, or the rot from the ill-drained 

 field" (vol. v. pp. 102-105). 



The celebrated grazier Bakewell was one of the first to 

 irrigate his meadows about the middle of the eighteenth 



