THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



I67 



convenient to the main conductor. If there 

 be a ravine or ditch between the main con- 

 ductor and any portion of the meadow, a 

 branch conductor will be thrown across 

 them. Wooden trunks are placed in them 

 and embankment over the trunk. The con- 

 ductor is thus guided over without obstruc- 

 tion to the drainage. Embankment is una- 

 voidable in the construction of branch con- 

 ductors, and requires the care and precau- 

 tions before stated. Branch conductors 

 ■ should be constructed after the meadow has 

 been graded and seeded with grass, for their 

 proper position cannot sooner be ascer- 

 tained. 



The connection between the main con- 

 ductor and the branch conductors, is closed 

 by embankment and opened with the spade, 

 according as it is intended to let on or shut 

 off the water — (See sketch, p. 164 ante.) 

 Beds. 



No meadow is ever, by the hand of na- 

 ture, shaped and graded for current irriga- 

 tion. In the most favored cases there are 

 elevations to be shaved off and depressions 

 to be elevated. The land is laid off in sec- 

 tions about 30 feet wide, and as long as the 

 position of the surface will permit. 



Each of those sections, termed Beds, is 

 a perfect water meadow in itself, and except 

 in having a common conductor and a water 

 furrow in common with its adjacent bed, has 

 no connection with the other beds. It is 

 provided with its conductor notch, its feeder 

 stops, and feeder notches may be watered 

 when the rest of the meadow is laid dry and 

 laid dry when the rest of the meadow is 

 watered. It may be on the same, or on a 

 different plan, from the other beds and also 

 of larger or smaller dimensions. They must 

 all start from a conductor, have a continu- 

 ous, though not necessarily an uniform in- 

 clination, in the line of their direction and 

 terminate in a discharging ditch, or a de- 

 pression leading to a discharging ditch or 

 stream. The plan of shaping and grading 

 them, as recommended by Stevens, and 

 generally adopted in England, will be first 

 described. An important modification, the 

 merit of which has been tested by careful 

 experiments, will then be proposed. 



The following extract from " Steven's 

 will explain his plan. 



" The earth excavated from the drains and 

 conductors is used for filling up low places. The 

 next part of the process is to divide the portion 

 of land of the meadow, which is assigned to each 

 conductor, into regular beds. Where the soil 



is naturally dry and the supply of water plent*' 

 ful, they might be made 40 feet wide, but whe 11 

 the subsoil is cold and impervious, their breath 

 should never exceed 30 feet, and be even less i 11 

 deep mossy soils The feeders are made in th e 

 middle of the beds, (always branching out a* 

 right angles from the conductors,) except in cases 

 where the ground falls two ways, when it will 

 v he necessary to make the feeders a few feet near- 

 er the one side of the bed than the other. The 

 feeder should always be placed on the highest 

 on the highest part of the bed. A bed 200 yards 

 long will require a feeder, where it leaves a con- 

 ductor, twenty inches wide, gradually decreasing 

 in width to 12 inches at the farthest extremity, 

 for the quantity of water becomes less and less 

 by overflowing over its sides. The earth taken 

 out in forming the feeders is to be placed on each 

 side, in such a regular manner, as to form small 

 banks with a gradual descent towards the drains. 

 In forming the feeders, care should be taken to 

 leave stops or small portions of solid earth in 

 them, about 6 inches wide, at regular distances 

 from each other, or, according to the fall of the 

 ground, to obstruct and keep up the water to a 

 proper height, so that the whole length of the 

 bed may be regularly watered without the assist- 

 ance of notches ; as recommended by Wright and 

 others. Indeed, the contraction in the width of 

 the feeders serves to raise the, water over their 

 sides, but this is not sufficient when the descent 

 is considerable. 



Stops and notches have been thought indis- 

 pensably necessary in the formation of water 

 meadows, therefore several writers on the subject 

 have recommended stakes to be driven into the 

 conductors and feeders, to retard the velocity of 

 the water, but, if a water meadow is properly 

 laid out, few stops will be necessary, and, in sit- 

 I nations where they cannot be avoided, the last 

 method is to put in a few stones or sods. Where- 

 ever notches are found in a water meadow, it is 

 a sure sign of an imperfect formation. Having 

 completed all the feeders which are necessary to 

 introduce and spread the water, a drain or water 

 furrow must be made between every two beds 

 parallel to the feeders. The drains are made in 

 an order the reverse of the feeder, being nar- 

 rowest at the upper parts of the meadow and 

 gradually increasing in width until they descend 

 into the main drain. 



The depth of these water furrows in all soils 

 should be so regulated, that they free the sur- 

 face from the stagnated water, but in moist 

 soils, with retentive subsoils, the depth at the 

 upper end should be never less than 6 inches 

 and increasing to nearly the depth of the main 

 drain, when they discharge their waters, and 

 the width exactly the reverse of the feeders. 

 Having thus completed the formation of the va- 

 rious conductors, drains and feeders, let in the 

 water and after giving each part its due quantity 

 and regulated the stops in the feeders, (begin- 

 ning with the one next the head or upper part 

 of the meadow and continuing the same way 

 over the whole until the water runs an equal 

 depth* over the sides or banks of the feeders), 



