806 [Assembly 



use of water, holding in solution so many valuable foreign matters. 

 Ask twenty farmers, if so many can be found in the State of New 

 York, who are in the habit of irrigating their lands, how they account 

 for the fertilizing effects of the water, and they will probably all 

 give you a different reason. One will say it makes the land cool, 

 another that it keeps the grass warm, another that it protects the roots 

 from being cut by frost, another that the teraierature of lands irriga- 

 ted in winter, remains generally at 40°, w'hich is favorable to the 

 roots of grass, &c., &c. If such were the case, one species of water 

 would suffice for the wants of all, and it would be equally valuable 

 to the last who irrigated with it, as the first. This is not the case. 

 The water as it passes, deposits its chemical ingredients, and soon 

 becomes totally deteriorated. This fact was proved in England. A 

 gentleman owning a farm upon a small river, used its waters for the 

 purpose of irrigation, and derived immense benefit, being able to cut 

 several crops of grass from ground only yielding one good crop be- 

 fore. A farmer residing on the same stream above him, determining 

 to benefit himself by his example, formed water meadows and used 

 the water before it reached the lower farm. The consequence was 

 a depreciation of more than two-thirds in the yield of grass obtained 

 by the latter. The well managed water meadows in England, yield 

 on an average, three crops of grass in a season. Whereas, as I stated 

 in the last meeting of the Club, Earl Moray, near Edinburgh, Scot- 

 land, obtained six crops of grass, worth $244 per acre, by the use 

 of street water. It is unsafe to irrigate any land which has not de- 

 scent sufficient to permit the water to run freely off, or is not porous 

 enough to admit of rapid drainage. If for example, your land con- 

 sists of a level tenacious clay, by irrigation you injure it materially, 

 ly, make it cold, and render it unfit for cultivated crops. Such lands 

 should be under drained, subsoil-ploughed, and then if possible, irri- 

 gated. The desire of the cultivator is, that his lands may become 

 dry very soon after the water is drawn off, in order that the atmos- 

 pheric air may enter the earth and perform its all-important duties. 

 It after all exerts all the most useful and extensive influence upon 

 vegetation; the more therefore the agriculturist stirs the ground about 

 his crops, the more he will be benefited by their increased luxu- 

 riance. 



