40 



A DISCOURSE 



Lastly, Irrigation and watering, both by admitting and excluding 

 moisture at pleasure : and certainly this has (since his lordship's time) 

 been found one of the richest improvements that ever was put in prac- 

 tice, especially where they have the command of fat and impregnate 

 Avaters, without grittiness, or being over harsh and cold ; whether it 

 percolate through rich ground, or, which is better, descend from emi- 

 nences and moderate declivities, from whence we find the valleys so 

 luxurious and flourishing =>. 



To this belongs the cure of wet and boggy lands, by cutting trenches 

 deeper than the cause of the evil, which proceeds from concealed springs 

 hindered from emerging forth by the sluggish, incumbent earth. This 

 makes the ground to heave and swell, but, not giving vent, it stagnates 

 and corrupts both the water and the mould about it ; and though it lie 

 loose and hollow, yet it gathers no vigour from above, but remains cold 

 and insipid. The remedy is opening the ground till you meet with a 

 sound bottom, and cutting your furrow upwards to the bog, about a foot 

 beneath the spewing water : this is to be done in several places, and 

 when the drains appear to have wrought the effect, you may fill them up 

 again with spray and bavin, great and rough flints, brick-bats, tileshards, 

 horse-bones, or any other rubbish which will remain loose and hollow ; 

 cover them with the grassy side of the turf which you pared off and 



^ The advantages of water-meadows are little known in the northern parts of this king- 

 dom. Such gentlemen as have lands that are capable of being artificially flooded^ will find 

 it best to send into those counties where water-meadows are well understood, for expe- 

 rienced persons, rather than trust to their own agents, whose knowledge can only be 

 collected from books. And I most cordially recommend this idea in all cases where a 

 new improvement is to be brought from one county to another. It is of the utmost im- 

 portance for the farmer to have early grass for his ewes and lambs, and no method hitherto 

 known (water-meadows excepted) does effectually provide him with it. It is not necessary 

 that the water employed should come from a river, or be loaded with earthy particles, as 

 pure spring-water, when drawn over the surface of grass-grounds during winter, and kept 

 continually gliding, is found of equal use. I have often remarked upon heath lands, where 

 springs frequently break out, that the earth which receives the water is full of verdure at an 

 early season ; and at the same time I have observed, that the heath was effectually killed 

 in all places over wliich the water had spread. From this, we may conclude, where circum- 

 stances will allow, that drawing water from tlie high springs, over dry and barren heaths, 

 will bring them sooner into cultivation than the expensive methods now practised, of paring 

 and burning the surface, as preparatory to the plough. 



