W A T 



W A T 



' her by tlae pumps, or to abandon her by the boats as foon 

 as poflible. 



Water, To Make. See Make. 

 W ATEK- Machine. See Machine. 

 j "W AtER-Mead or Meadow, in jlgriculture, a term ap- 

 I plied to that fort of meadow or other inclofed low ground, 

 I which is capable of being improved and kept in a conilant 

 iftate of fertility and produftivenefs, by means of water from 

 fome adjoining river, brook, or ftream, being thrown and 

 jcondufted over it in the winter or other proper feafon. This 

 imanner and beneficial praftice of forming meadows has pre- 

 I vailed locally for fiich a very great length of time in different 

 [parts of the country, cfpecially in Wiltfhire, Gloucefter- 

 |!hire, and Devoiifhire, that it is extraordinary that it has 

 not been generally adopted and introduced into other dif- 

 trifts, where it is equally capable of being had recourfe to 

 iwithout great difficulty, and where it may be equally ad- 

 (vantageous and proper. This negleA has been afcribed by 

 a late intelligent writer to a deficiency of information among 

 farmers in general, in regard to the nature and management 

 of the bulinefs, and particularly in what relates to the nature 

 lof levels, and the means of adjufting them in different cafes. 

 ;Thefe circumftances, it is fuppofed, have confined it to 

 the weftern diftrifts and parts of the kingdom. Other 

 Icaufes may, however, have operated in this way, as the 

 ifaciHties afforded by the fituations of the lands in general, 

 the numerous rivulets and ftrcams always ready at hand for 

 the purpofe, and many others of the fame nature. 



It is neceflary that water-meadows fliould have fuch a 

 form, either by nature or art, as that this fluid may be 

 capable of flowing over their furfaces in a rapid manner, in 

 [order to produce and promote the early and quick growth 

 'of the grafs in a healthy ftate. It is effentially neceffary, 

 too, to their perfeft fuccefs and completenefs, that there be 

 at all feafoiis a full command of the water, as well as of the 

 ' means of diftributing it to every part of them, and of dif- 

 charging it in a complete manner, whenever it may become 

 requiiite. See Watering Z-a?;;^. 



As to the advantages to be derived from meadows of this 

 kind, they are very confiderable, not only in the vaftly in- 

 'creafed quantities of hay which they afford, but alfo in the 

 point of early fpring food for ewes and lambs, as well as in 

 many other refpefts and particulars. 



It may be obferved, that from the grafs of water-meadows 

 ' being fo very forward in the months of March and April, 

 it is in general fed down or paftured in the fpring with 

 iheep ; and to thofe farmers wlio keep them for breeding or 

 I fattening, becomes almoft invaluable, from the great fear- 

 city of green food at fuch a period ; but that after being 

 flooded in the latter end of the laft of thefe months, they 

 are moftly (hut up for hay in the fummer. 



And the after-grafs is eaten off in autumn by neat cattle, 



it being confidered as very pernicious and dangerous for 



flieep to paflure on water-meadows at that feafon. A re- 



I markable inftance of its fatal effefts is ftated by the writer 



' of the Correfted Account of the Agriculture of the County 



; of Sufiex. Eighty ewes from Weyhill fair were turned 



j into fome field adjoining a watered meadow : a fcore of 



, them broke into the meadow for a night, and were taken 



1 out in the morning, and kept till lambing ; when they pro- 



; duced twenty-two lambs, all of which lived, but every one 



\ of the ewes died rotten before May-day. The remaining 



I I'lxty made themfelvcs fat, nor could a rotten fliecp be dlf- 



1 nwred amongft them. It is an extraordinary tadt, it is 



i.iid, though not eafily accounted for, that the grafs of 



j watered meadows (hould be (o nouridiing to fhecp in the 



I fpring, and yet have fo deftrudive an effed. on them in the 



autumn. The fad feems, however, to be well and indif- 

 putably eftabhfhed. It may probably depend upon the 

 grafs being in a more foft and loofe watery itate of produc- 

 tion in the autumn than what it is in the vigorous growth of 

 the fpring. See Tath and Water-TW/Zi. 



By the author of the " Treatife on Watering Meadows," 

 it is advifed that no (heep, except thofe that are jufl fat, 

 fhould ever be fuffered, even for an hour, in watered mea- 

 dows, as they will infallibly rot them at any other feafon 

 than the fpring, but efpecially if made from low, boggy, or 

 fwampy ground ; but that it is not fo, when made from 

 dry heathy land. Others, however, think it dangerous on 

 all, and therefore always to be avoided. 



It cannot be doubted but that on farms of this nature, 

 where it is convenient to have three or four meadows that 

 can be watered, they will be found particularly advan- 

 tageous ; as, while neat ftock are eating the firit, it is faid, 

 the fecond will be growing, the third becoming dry, and 

 the fourth under water : by which an extenfive fyflem of 

 feeding and producing of dry fodder may be carried on. 



It is noticed by Mr. Smith, in a late effay on thefe kinds 

 of meadows, that even a fmall piece of this fort of meadow, 

 which will produce an early crop of fpring feed at the very 

 time of the greateft preCTure of fcarcity, and when the tur- 

 nips ought to be off the ground, muff be much more valu- 

 able to a poor arable farm than can eafily be imagined by 

 any one who has not witneffed the great utility derived from 

 them, in many parts of Wiltfliire. What, but for the 

 water-meadows, could enable the Wiltfliire farmers, it is 

 allied, to bring to market a much greater number of fheep, 

 and that at an earlier feafon than can be produced from any 

 other county in the kingdom ? The water-meadows have 

 unqueltionably a great fhare in doing this. 



They afford there, it is faid, an early fupply of grafs for 

 the forward or early breed of lambs, on which they begin 

 to feed them about the middle of March, having previoufly 

 withdrawn the water from them, and laid them perfedly 

 dry. It is obferved, that on a good crop of grafs of this 

 kind, it has been faid, that five hundred couples may be fed 

 on an acre for one day. The praftice is to hurdle out, 

 daily, fuch a portion of the ground as is neceffary, leaving 

 a few open fpaces in the hurdles, through which the lambs 

 may feed forward on the frefli grafs. The hours they are 

 fullered to feed on this grafs, in luch cafes, are from about 

 ten o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, when 

 they are generally folded on the contiguous barley fallows, 

 or lands in preparation for that crop. This is a praftice 

 or fort of management, too, which is fuppofed to have a 

 great advantage, in confequence of its manuring a part of 

 the farm without the dunghill. The manure, however, in 

 fuch cafes, is drawn from, and at the lofs of fuch mea- 

 dows. 



The writer of the Correfted Report of the Agriculture 

 of the County of Middlefex mentions a remarkable inftance 

 of the beneficial and fertilizing effefts of water in thefe mea- 

 dows, as occurring in the early part of the autumn of 1796, 

 when fuch grafs lands as had not had the advantages of 

 water, as in thefe cafes, were nearly burnt up. A clofe of 

 about twenty acres, which liad been watered in this way, 

 had, it is faid, a moft luxuriant after-grafs of from fix inches 

 to a foot in depth ; and a neighbouring inclofure of near 

 forty acres afforded fupport for three months to forty-feven 

 liories and bullocks, all which throve very well. And 

 another cafe of the fame nature is recorded, in which forty 

 acres employed in this way were found equal to the fupport 

 cf five hundred Wiltfhire ewes, from the middle of the 

 month of March to the firft of May, or about fix weeks ; 



and 



