80 



for it has l)een ascertained that the tender foots anfl 

 leaves of grass, covered in winter or in the Iteginning 

 of spring- hy water, are often saved from frost, and 

 are many degrees warmer than the temperature of 

 the air above. While wafer is frozen above the grass, 

 tlie soil beneath is comparatively warm, and the 

 moisture, penetrating deeply into the soil, becomes 

 a source of nourishment and coolness to the plants in 

 f^ummer, and prevents those bad eifects which often 

 arise from a long continuance of dry weather. There 

 is no soil, nor situation, nor climate, in which Avater- 

 ing grass land may not be serviceable. The banks 

 of streams occasionally flooding it, in eveiy pait of 

 the world, are found to call forth the richest grass. 

 One thing alone is every where necessary — that the 

 land must be drained, either by nature or art. Sandy 

 or gravelly soils are the best suited to irrigation, as 

 the effects upon them are more powerful and imme- 

 diate than vipon cold clayey soils. Poor land, when 

 once improved by irrigation, is put into a state of 

 perpetual fertility, without any occasion for manure, 

 or troiible of weeding, or any other material expense. 

 It becomes so productive as to yield the largest bulk 

 of hay, and al)undance of the best grass for ewes and 

 lambs in spring (often very early, when it is doubly 

 valuable,) and for cows and other cattle in the au- 

 tumn of every year. Moiintain land, and all such as 

 abounds in rushes, heath, and such coarse plants, are 

 also greatly improved by irrigation. 



I shall conclude this Number with a ffw necessary 

 hints as to the season and manner of watering. Win- 

 ter, or the early part of spring, (not summer, as you 

 might imagine) is the time for irrigating, the way of 

 doing which is to keep water passing over the surface 

 of the land with a brisk current, not so rapid as to 

 wash away the soil, and yet in sufficient quantities to 

 cover and nourish the roots, but not so much as to 

 hide the shoots of the grass. A little experience 

 alone is required, in ordinary cases, as to regiilating 



