WATERING OF LAND. 



to the notion of forming them in an artificial manner. The 

 general want of good pafture-grounds in the high lands of 

 this county might, it has been fuppofed, be a great induce- 

 ment to improve fuch watery valley-tracks, which mull ever 

 have difplayed the moll pleafing and interefting appear- 

 ances of early and luxuriant vegetation and growth. 



However, in whatever way the praftice originated in this 

 country, it is unqueftionably a method that is deferving of 

 the attention of the land proprietor and the farmer in a very 

 high degree. 



It has been ftated by different writers on the praftice of 

 watering land, that the mod proper qualities of the grounds 

 for being watered, are all thofe which are of a fandy or gra- 

 velly friable open nature, as on fuch the improvement is not 

 only immediate, but the effeAs produced more certain and 

 powerful than on other kinds of them. There are alfo 

 fome ftrong adhefive four wet lands, which are alfo capable 

 of being improved by watering. 



There are ftill fome other forts of lands, as thofe which 

 contain different kinds of coarfe vegetable produftions upon 

 their furfaces, fuch as heath, ling, rufhes, boggy and other 

 aquatic plants, which may likewife be much improved by 

 watering. It fhould, however, be conftantly kept in mind, 

 in attempting this fort of improvement, that the more ftiff 

 and tenacious the foil or land is, the greater the command of 

 water fhould be, in order to effeft the purpofe. 



The lands which admit of this fort of improvement with 

 the moll fuccefs and benefit are, for the moll part, all fuch 

 as lie in low fituations on the banks and borders of brooks, 

 rivers, and ftreams, or in Hoping direftions on the fides of 

 hills, to which water can be condufted in an eafy and ready 

 manner. 



The writer of a late ufeful traft on tlie fubjeft, however, 

 feems inclined to fuppofe that there arc only a few foils or 

 forts of land to which watering may not be advantageoufly 

 applied ; the experience which he has had, it is faid, has de- 

 termined, that the wetteft land may be greatly improved by 

 it, and likewife that it is equally beneficial to that which is 

 dry. But that as many perfons, unacquainted with the nature 

 of watering land, may be more inclined to the latter fuppofi- 

 tion than the former, the reafon of wet land being as capable 

 of improvement by watering as that which is completely 

 dry before it is ufed, is explained. It is that, in the con- 

 flruftion of all watered meadows or lands, particular care 

 muft be taken to render them perfeftly dry when the bufi- 

 nefs of floating or covering them with water Ihall termi- 

 nate ; and that the feafon for floating or watering is in the 

 •winter and not in the fummer, which thofe who are unac- 

 quainted with the procefs have too commonly fuppofed. 

 All bogs of the peat kind are certainly, it is faid, of vege- 

 table origin, and thofe vegetables are all aquatic in their 

 nature. It therefore follows that the fame water which has 

 produced the vegetables of the bog would, under due ma- 

 nagement upon the furface, produce fuch grafies or other 

 ■vegetables as are ufually grown by the farmer ; and the 

 writer has hitherto had reafon to think, that this may be 

 confidered as a general rule for determining the fituation for 

 any experiments or trials with water. The writer having 

 fuceeeded in the attempt to make good watered lands, upon 

 foils which have been thought unfit for the purpofe, and 

 floated or watered them with water that was equally con- 

 demned, in point of quality, he is now, it is faid, fufficiently 

 emboldened to recommend the trial of watering land by 

 means of machinery, and that the moll flattering hopes of 

 ■fuccefs are entertained from it. It is noticed that the 

 grades produced by the firll year's floating or watering of a 

 peat-bog, or any wet land, will be much more like what 



will become the permanent herbage of a water-meadow, 

 than the firll or fecond year's crop from a newly-floated or 

 watered piece of dry land. The herbage of the former 

 being, it is faid, previoufly llored with aqueous plants, is in 

 fome degree fuited to this new flate, whereas the herbage of 

 dry land is generally of quite a different nature, and often 

 produces an exceeding great crop of grafs the firll year, 

 which does not appear the next ; for the fame water which 

 caufed thefe grafles to grow fo very luxuriantly the firll 

 year, will totally dellroy them in the courfe of the enfuing 

 winter, and produce an herbage much more congenial to 

 that degree or Hate of moillure. The utility of watering in 

 all thefe cafes has been fully ellablilhed in feveral different 

 dillrifts, fo that proper examples of the forms and crops 

 may always be readily had for the trials of others in the fame 

 way. This has been done, it is faid, in the counties of 

 Bedford, Norfolk, and Kent, in the firll and lall of which 

 upon foils that are very different from thofe of mod water- 

 meadows in the county of Wilts ; and that the floating or 

 watering of them has been effefted with water which was 

 always before confidered to be wholly unfit for that pur- 

 pofe, even by thofe fuppofed to be the bell acquainted with 

 the practice : it is now, however, fully proved and Ihewn to 

 be the cafe, not only by the accurate invelligations of the 

 moll able chemills, but by the extraordinary growth of 

 gralfes in particular boggy fituations, that waters of the 

 ferruginous kind are not at all hurtful to vegetation ; but, 

 on the contrary, very friendly to it, when they are properly 

 applied. Such fafts being eilabhfhed beyond all poflibihty 

 of doubt, afford, it is faid, a much greater fcope for the in* 

 provements by water, than was ever expefted or thought of 

 by the moll fanguine advocates of watering, and enables 

 the writer, from his great experience and obfervation, in 

 different parts of the kingdom, to fay that there are few dif- 

 trifts to which they are not applicable. 



It is, however, fuppofed by fome, that the quality of the 

 water, like that of marl or other manures, is a matter of the 

 firll importance, and fhould be particularly afcertained. 

 And it has been remarked by the author of the " Treatife 

 on Landed Property," that it is univerfally known that 

 water which flows out of a dung-yard poffeffes a fertilizing 

 quality. It is generally admitted, too, that the walhings of 

 fheep-walks, frelhly-manured arable lands, llreets of towns, 

 roads, and other fuch places, after a long drought, have the 

 quality of fertiHzation. And it is equally evident, it is 

 thought, that the waters iffuing in different parts of the 

 kingdom from chalk, hme-llone, marl, or other calcareous 

 ftratum, though they are perfeftly limpid, poffefs the power 

 of fertility ; and thofe of fome dillrifts, as of Wiltfhire, 

 Dorfetlhire, and fome others, to an allonilhing degree. 

 And a fimilar, though lefs powerful, effeft is produced by 

 the limpid waters, which iffue from the Hate-rocks of Devon- 

 (hire and Cornwall. On the other hand, waters that ooze 

 out of peat-bogs, and iffue from particular mines, are 

 well known to be injurious to the growth of agricultural 

 vegetables. 



It is added, that chemiftry points out tells and proceffes 

 whereby waters, as well as marls and other grofs manures, 

 may be tried and analyfed. But the virtue of water, when 

 confidered as a manure, does not refide in a fingle principle, 

 like that of lime-ftone. Water is capable of fufpending, not 

 only calcareous earth, but various other matters, — of animal, 

 vegetable, and foflil origin : fome of them friendly, others 

 inimical, to vegetation. It would, therefore, it is thought, 

 be imprudent m a praftical man in this bufinefs to commit 

 himfelf to theoretic guidance alone, while the theory of ma- 

 nures, and efpecially of watering land, remains fo much in- 

 1 1 volved 



