442 TRANSACTIONS - OF THE 



iiig crops, the waters as they descend carry down soluble matters 

 to the roots of plants, and as the soil drys the water re-ascends 

 and distributes the saline ingredients through the surface soil. 



I once had a piece of land that was not too cold, warm, wet, 

 dry, heavy, light, sandy, or clayey, and yet would not produce a 

 cropj notwithstanding all the manure put on it still remained 

 entirely unproductive. I then carefully underdrained it, plowed 

 it, and left it for a winter, the next spring sowed oats, and harvested 

 seventy bushels from an acre, analyze it and found an abun- 

 dance of copperas; this the water carried off through the drains, 

 and thus freed a poison soil from those noxious substances that 

 would have lingered in it to the end of time. 



Remember that water irrigation will produce the most benefi- 

 cial results on thoroughly drained land, where the liquid, after 

 the irrigation has ceased, can immediately find a proper outlet ; 

 the same benefits are derived from the draining of irrigated land 

 as from that of your arable fields. The sub-soil and soil are 

 cleansed and released from the poisonous matters they may contain, 

 and the soil is likewise completely aerated. 



The Duke of Bedford receives in money value from twenty- 

 five acres of irrigated land, twelve hundred and fifty dollars per 

 annum. 



The Craigentinny meadows, formerly worthless, now rent for 

 one hundred dollars per annum per acre. Other meadows neai:, 

 the above, worthless twenty-five years since, now valued at three 

 thousand three hundred dollars per acre. 



Mr. Harvey's farm, near Glasgow, containing 400 acres, 

 now cuts sixty tons of grass per acre in six months, and the whole 

 cost of steam engine, pumps, underground iron main pipes, and 

 iron distributing pipes was only seven thousand two hundred and 

 fifty dollars. 



The Myer Mill farm, in Ayrshire, containing four hundred acres, 

 cost of engines, &c. seven thousand nine hundred and thirty dol- 

 lars, cuts seventy tons of grass per acre in six months. Canning 

 Park cuts fourteen and a quarter feet thick of grass in seven 

 months. Dundaff' farm, forty acres, irrigated by gravitation, un- 

 derground iron mains, gutta percha hose, and jet pipe, cut and 

 cured 80 stocks of hay last year. 



The Duke of Portland, Nottinghamshire, has three hundred 

 acres, irrigated by catch-meadow, gravitation and other gutters, 

 previously worth one dollar per acre per annum rent, now worth 

 sixty dollars rent. 



