24—1846.] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
397 
that by constant watering the level of the meadow is 
raised in time, for the soil swells in consequence of the 
accumulation of roots and the addition of particles of 
humus, as well as from the depth to which vegetation 
is promoted. When the surface reaches the level of 
the water-course from which it is irrigated, it becomes 
necessary to break up the meadow and to lower its surface. 
he mode adopted either to alter the level or to regu- 
late the unequal surface of a meadow, is not to plough 
up the ground and crop it with corn or Potatoes, although 
one would expect to obtain rich returns, especially of 
Oats, from alay of 16 or 20 years’ standing. The sods 
on the surface are pared off with a peculiar kind of 
narrow spade 2 feet 24 inches deep. Strips are pre- 
viously cut in the surface with the axe, and the strips 
when rolled up are carried on a stick passed through 
the middle of the roll. One man usually marks the 
Strips, two pare them from the surface, and a fourth 
rolls them up. These rolls are recommended in the place 
of squire or oblong cuttings ; amongst other advan- 
tages they insure a sufficient quantity of sod to cover 
the field when it is levelled. If the turf be cut off in 
small pieces, the quantity often proves somewhat defi- 
cient. The beginning is generally made with those 
parts of the meadow which being highest have the 
greatest quantity of ground to spare, and with those 
which are hollow and require filling up. The turf being 
removed the ground below is dug up and carried from 
the’one to the other. Care is, however, taken by good 
meadowers not to carry away the soil that lies immedi- 
ately under the turf paring. Of this a portion is re- 
Served to form the bed on which the turf is to be relaid. 
The ground transferred from one place to another is 
taken from the subsoil, unless the good ground be very 
eep. When the level of the whole meadow has to be 
lowered, the stuff taken from the subsoil that becomes 
useless must be carted and thrown away. 
“ Where the surface, at a sufficient depth under the 
chief water-course, still offers a fall of 1-36th of the 
length of the meadow, and there is plenty of water, the 
Meadow is laid down in what at Siegen is called the 
terrace mode of irrigation (Hangbau). 
* If the slope is less, and there are marshy spots, the 
meadow is laid down with narrow ridges. 
road ridges are used where water is not abundant 
at all times, and the ground free from marshy spots, but 
commanding little fall. Where these peculiarities of 
Site and command of water are observed, the yield of a 
Water-meadow on an average is the same in all three 
Systems of laying down. The first cut is made about 
idsummer, and on good soils gives 3 tons of excellent 
hay to the morgen, or 43 tons to the aere. The after- 
Brass yields about half as much. On average soils the 
Yield may be estimated for the neighbourhood of Siegen 
at 3 tons to 34 tons per acre. With retentive subsoils 
the meadows yield below the average. It is customary 
ln autumn to drive the cows on the meadows, their 
Weight being supposed useful in treading down the sur- 
face, which has a constant tendency t» swell and grow 
Over the level of the irrigating canals. These meadows 
furnish in autumn pasturage, and in summer the cows 
are driven into the ‘Hauberg.’ In the morning and 
evening some green fodder is given them in the stables. 
In winter hay, straw, and chaff, mixed up and boiled 
With Potatoes, Carrots, or Beet-root, form the usual 
fodder. 
. * Terraced Meadows.—In the meadow that is des- 
tined to be laid down on the terrace plan, the water- 
course being carried over the highest part, the level of 
the distributing eanal must be marked by a stake driven 
near the centre, Another stake driven at the lowest 
extremity of the field must mark the level of the drain- 
ing conduit—the terraced meadow being supposed to 
have a breadth of 6 Prussian roods of 10 feet, and is 
divided into four beds each li roods in breadth. The 
channels, laid parallel to the ‘distributing channel, are 
Supplied with water from the distributing canal by 
Means of transversal cuttings. It may seem simpler to 
let the water at once run over the whole surface from 
the distributing canal ; but experience has shown that 
the richest Grass springs nearest to the canals, although 
the reason why there shou d be a difference where there 
water enough to flood the whole surface is not very 
apparent, By increasing the number of canals the fer- 
M prineiple is more equally distributed, and 
i Traces of 6 roods in length by 14 in breadth are found 
9 be the most advantageous size for ensuring the best 
Yield of Grass. If the level of the beds be found after 
oy years’ watering to be raised too much, the canals 
d each be carried a foot or two higher up the slope, 
k e old cuttings being closed and covered with the turf 
aken out of the new ones. 3 
xd The sluice cuttings in the dam of the upper water- 
ù urse are 5 inches wide, and their bottom is sloped, 
pee at the upper end 6 inches higher than the level 
E the chief water-course, The irrigating canals are 
inches broad and 4 inches deep. The transversal 
cuttings are of the same dimensions. 
4 Irrigation by Means of Narrow Ridges.—lu a 
eau irrigated on the System of narrow ridges, the 
Water-course, with the sluice cuttings through its dam, 
[co the same as in the terraced meadows. The distri- 
uting canal is kept horizontal, and is 12 feet broad and 
i inches deep. The meadow is measured and divided 
mto equal portions, the best size for which is between 
ud 25 feet. Each bed or ridge is supposed to have 
10 
out and stakes fixed at the points. The fall does not| Rhine. In the districts more remote from the thorough- 
of tl lati 
exceed 1 foot in a length of 63 feet, With the aid of 
the last stakes parallel cuttings are made in a trans- 
versal direction from the draining conduit in the direc- 
tion of the distributing channel, but stopping at some 
distance short of the latter. The bottom of these cut- 
tings 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 tlie 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 with 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} feet deep, and has a 
fall at bottom of 4inch in soft. The dam is 3 feet 
broad, and the sluiced cuttings through it are each 
J foot broad. The horizontal distributing canal is 2 feet 
broad and 3 foot deep. The ridge-cuttings that issue 
from it are 90 feet long; at the mouth they are 13 feet, 
and 1 foot broad, with a depth of 5 inches. The width 
of each ridge is 60 feet, consequently each bed or slope 
is 30 feet broad. 
“Jn order to diminish the size of the intervals be- 
tween the cuttings transversal canals are carried across 
the beds. The drain-cuttings have a fall at the surface 
of only 3 inches, but at bottom of 5 inches, being 
4 inches deep and 8 inches broad, and 6 inches deep and 
1 foot broad. In this meadow the chief drain serves as 
a distributing canal for a meadow situated below and 
adjacent to it. In a meadow laid out by M. Vorlünder 
in such a manner as to combine the terrace plan applied 
to the more elevated part with the narrow ridge system, 
the drain canals serve as distributing canals for the 
meadows situated below them. In a large meadow 
near Keppel, by a skilful adoption of the various modes 
of laying down the surface, the same water is carried 
over eight different plots of land in succession. 
* The proper time for cleaning out the ditches and 
canals is late in the autumn, when the cattle are no 
longer driven to the meadows. day is fixed by the 
overseer of the meadows by which all the canals have to 
be cleaned out under a certain penalty. Then it is that 
the principal watering for the year takes place. If there 
has been heavy rain and the irrigating brooks are 
muddy, the water is not let on to the meadows until it 
begins to get clear. Too great a sediment fills up the 
canals and leaves unequal, deposits on the surface that 
mar the labours of the meadow-owner. In the autumn 
no fear is entertained of the meadows being overwatered. 
The great point sought to be accomplished is that the 
flow of the water shall {everywhere be perceptible, and 
that none remains stagnant in any part.. In the bogin- 
ning of winter when the frost sets in the water is kept 
off the land. If the weather is open and rain falls, the 
water may be turned on again. 
“Spring is the season that demands the farmer’s 
care. In mild rainy weather the irrigation may be con- 
tinued ; bat after floods, as in the autumn, the water 
must be allowed to settle. When the sun grows power- 
ful the irrigation must cease altogether. In March aud 
April a little moistening is allowable ; but in these ard 
the following months the water may only be spread 
during the night. In the middle of June occasional 
night watering does good, but none is let on for four 
weeks previous to the hay harvest.” 
In reference to the general charaetor of the Farming 
on the Lower Rhine, Mr, Banfield has these remarks : 
From Cleves to Cologne in a straight line is about 
70 miles; from Aix-la-Chapelle to Hagen in West- 
phalia, the base of the triangle we have measured, is 
nearly 100 miles. Our triangle is therefore equivalent 
and having its apex either at the extremity of the Isle 
of Wight, or in a northern direction at Coventry. Yet 
how different an appearance do the two English dis- 
triets here marked out present from the portion of 
Germany with which we would compare them! Good 
high roads and navigable rivers traverse the German 
as the English districts, and afford them the advantages 
of trade. The population is nearly equal in density, 
and in abundance of iron and cheapness for the general 
consumer there is no great disparity. To the most 
unpractised eye, however, it must be evident that in the 
English districts more wealth is acquired in the year 
than in the German. The crops are more abundant, 
the outlay of capital is repaid sooner, the prices of pro- 
duce are all higher in England than on the Rhine. Let 
us go into the details of the comparison. 
* Tt will hardly be disputed that the profit drawn from 
agriculture, as well as from other branches of industry, 
is the more conspicuous the fewer the hands are that 
divide it. Now since farming, properly so called, is 
carried on in England upon allotments varying from 
100 to 1000 acres, whereas the common limits in this 
ence in the numbers sharing the profits in both 
countries is at least as 1 to 8 or perhaps 10. We have 
readth of 20 feet, so that each slope has a breadth of 
quiete The ridges are 60 feet in length. Stakes are | 
Ñ ven at the openings of the transversal cuts, which are | 
Velled, and the draining conduit must then be marked | 
no doubt that the number of estates exceeding 1000 
acres, managed by one farmer in central England, 
exceeds the number of those above 300 acres on the 
to one leaning with its base upon London and Bath, | 
fares of trade, the prop e pop em- 
ployed in agrieulture is overwhelming as compared 
with other oceupations. Hence the low prices of pro- 
duce in good years, and the diffieulty the Germans find 
in aceumulating eapital. Where there is a superfluity 
of produce, if all produce the same, there can be no 
market. Soitisin Germany. Every man grows bis 
own bread. Who is to buy of those who produce more 
than they require for their own consumption? It is 
owing to this cireumstance, and not because the cost of 
tillage is less, that prices are so low. To raise them it 
will be necessary to open new fields of labour in trade 
and manufactures, into which many of the present 
cultivators of the land must be induced to migrate, and 
thus to leave to a smaller number the division of the 
rofits in agriculture. The gift to the peasants of the 
small lots they held, in the manner before described, 
had quite a contrary tendency, by keeping them on the 
land which they would by degrees have left. But at 
that time, and even still, the panacea prescribed in 
Germany for all widely spread discontent is to sub- 
divide the land. Unless such a measure be accom- 
panied by a multiplication of the consumers, that is to 
say, of the markets, it is not easy to see what agricul- 
turists have to gain by such a step. In Prussia it is 
estimated that three persons are employed in agri- 
culture for one engaged in trade or manufactures. 
This will explain why, with such low prices as we 
usually find quoted in Germany, there is never a super- 
abundance of corn, while prices rise rapidly on the first 
symptom of a demand from England. It will also 
account for the modes of cultivation that prevail, under 
which only a moderate yield is extracted from the land. 
That with the soil and climate of the Lower Rhine a 
far greater return might be obtained, is shown by the 
example of Belgium and England. But why should it 
be raised if there is no one to buy it! The exportation 
of Wheat to France and Belgium assumes every year a 
more constant form. It will not be long before 
England appears as a regular customer at the Conti- 
nental markets. It will then remain to be seen whether 
the more distant but more fertile districts of Poland 
will be able to furnish grain on better terms than the 
nearer plains of Germany, with their intelligent popu- 
lation. The irregularity of our demand has obliged 
countries that cannot produce without cost to leave us 
out of their calculations. 
* The next weighty consideration that presses itself 
upon us is the fact that, in the trading and manufac- 
turing districts, and on the Rhine generally, both the 
rent of land and its capital value are higher than that 
of similarly cireumstaneed land in England. We have 
endeavoured: to explain this fact from the circumstance 
that there are crops that all times assert their fuil value 
in the market of the world, such as seeds, Flax, Tobaeco, 
dairy produce, &c. Ou these the German farmer who 
works on a sufficiently large scale relies for his profit. 
Itso happens that the demand for all those articles 
must inerease when the price of corn falls, for more of 
them is consumed when bread is cheap than when it is 
dear. Thus the landlord holds the disease and its 
remedy in his own hands ; if he wishes market crops, 
as they are here called, to rise in value, he must lower 
the price of gr Ifcorn beeame so cheap that it was 
not worth growing, he would find aa immense demand 
for all other produce to indemnif; Eo 
iscelianeous. 
Cost of Wheat Culiure.—The cost of cultivating an 
aere of Wheat in two different d , the one border- 
ing on the north coast, where sea is easily obtained, 
and the other on the south coast, S:— 
South coast à ü 
1 Ploughing “ combing?* .. zu 
Harrowing, burning, and spreading ashes 
100 bushels oflime .. oe e E 
age of 25 loads of earth, and mixing with 
lime, and spreading e .. . 0 
Second ploughing .. we 
Harrowing .. .. E 
Seeds, 18 gallons 
Sowing, &c. .. 
Nor 
1 Ploughing .- | 3 
Harrowing, burning, and 
e 2 
f 10 loads of sand 
Car 
10 loads of farm-yard dun 
‘Mixing and spreading the s 
nd ploughing du 
Harrowing and sowing .. 
—Mr. Karkeck, Eng. 
Soc. Journal. 
Calendar of Operations. 
JUNE. 
The operation of warping commences in June. We extract. 
the following from a very valuable work, by a well-known 
author, “ The Farmer's Calendar," by Arthur Young ; a work 
of which another edition is much wanted :— 
* The water of the tides that come up the Trent, Ouze, Dun, 
part of Germany are from 10 to 300 acres, the differ- ny 
and other rivers which empty themselves into the great estuar; 
of the Humber, is muddy to an excess ; insomuch that in sum- 
* This accomplished by ploughing the land in such a 
nner—from 2 to 24 inches deep—that one-half of the turf is 
laid on the other half, At the end of five or six weeks this is 
well worked out, and the land is sometimes ploughed across; 
which is provincially termed “thwarting.” | 
+ The dung which is used in this district, may be termed. 
“straw dung. rom the small proportion of Turnips grown, 
few cattle are fattened, and hence the greater part of the dung, 
is of a very indifferent character. 
