On the Theory and Practice of Water -Meadows. 47 1 



property of 156 acres, all but eight of which, that are orchard - 

 ground, are watered by two moderate brooks. It is let at more 

 than six pounds an acre all round to different occupiers. Three 

 acres, worth naturally three pounds an acre, let at ten pounds, 

 six acres at eight pounds per acre. The whole was worth about 

 two pounds an acre originally, and the portion recently made 

 cost about three pounds twelve shillings per acre to form. These 

 are actual lettings. The Clipstone water-meadows are valued by 

 Mr. Denison at eleven pounds fourteen shillings per acre yearly, 

 without allowance for rates and taxes. They are, indeed, a noble 

 creation of the Duke of Portland's. Great difficulties have been 

 overcome, and great perfection attained. As you wind up the 

 valley you see nothing but one universal luxuriant tapestry of 

 grass spread on each side along the well-moulded slopes — - 



" Hie ver assiduum atque alienis mensibus aestas." 



" The fields here Spring's perpetual beauties crown, 

 Here Summer shines in seasons not her own." * 



This work, however, cost his Grace one hundred and thirty pounds 

 per acre in forming, or 39.297/. for 300 acres — a price few could 

 afford. In the above case from the neighbourhood of Exeter, we 

 have the value not merely estimated, but realized in the form of 

 rent, and the cost insignificant. If I dwell often on cheapness 

 of construction in farming it is because no improvement can be- 

 come general if it be not also cheap. It is by reducing the cost 

 of production that the Lancashire manufacturers have sent our 

 cottons round the whole world. 



As to the management of the catch-meadow r s in Devonshire, 

 the watering 1 is begun in autumn with the heavy rains, and great 

 importance is attached to these first floodings. Sometimes the 

 use of a stream is divided among neighbouring farmers by periods 

 of three days. I have been told by one who contracts to keep 

 such meadows in order, that when an unneighbourly farmer 

 insists on keeping his water for the full term, that is till midnight, 

 my informant is obliged to remain out half the night, perhaps w 7 et 

 to his skin, setting the bays and distributing the water on the land 

 of the next recipient, who, he says, might lose ten shillings an 

 acre if he waited till morning. So much value does the experience 

 of Devonshire attach to water. 



Sometimes a crop of feed is forced before Christmas ; but in 

 general the water is so shifted, that the strength of the land and 

 the grass may be reserved for an early crop, which in Devonshire 

 is often ready by the end of February. If the ewes are admitted 

 into a field on the 1st of March, they feed it down perhaps in a 

 fortnight, and are removed. The water is let in, and kept on 



* Warton's Virgil. 



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