133 



Vaughan was vain of his discovery ; he published a 

 long" account of it, with numerous Testimonia de Authored 

 where the mole is not forgotten, and from some of which it 

 appears, that the phrase a Roiolandfot^ his Oliver is of old 

 standing, as the book was printed in JaiMES l.'s time. 



A previous acquaintance with the benefits to be derived 

 from irrigation, was not required in the case of fiorin 

 grass ; the luxuriance it attained in every small languid 

 streamlet was sufficient to suggest the probabiUty of its 

 being much improved 'by irrigation. 



1 made several plots of fiorin which I irrigated dif- 

 ferently for experiment, and the measure succeeded with 

 all. In one plot I made the surface rich, but planted 

 nothing, leaving it quite raw. I poured a stream over this 

 plot also, and vegetation soon appeared, principally fiorin ; 

 I weeded out every thing else, continued to irrigate, and in 

 two years found this plot gave one of my best crops. 



In the mean time I had been irrigating much of my 

 fiorin meadows, apparently with great success ; and having 

 thus fully satisfied myself , I published a letter on the ap- 

 plication of irrigation to fiorin meadows, strenuously re- 

 commending the practice. 



I was precipitate ; for I began to observe, where the 

 subsoil was cold and retentive, that the luxuriance of the 

 crops began to abate, and the fiorin itself gradually to 

 vanish. 



r soon perceived that the progress of these failures was 

 proportioned to the coldness and imperviousness of the 

 bottom, and that in the course of years my lightest, and 

 even gravelly soils gave up, under the continued practice of 

 irrigation; — whence, though with great command of water, 

 which I could pour upon many varieties of soil, I have 

 totally given up irrigations of fiorin meadows. 



I was farther induced to abandon this practice, as J 



M 



