476 On the Theory and Practice of Water-Meadows. 



stream be strong it sinks through the worm-holes, from which the 

 escape of the air-bubbles produces a general noise like the distant 

 singing of birds ; the ground indeed is said to sing. The worms 

 however die (they are found dead in large numbers), and the 

 pores of the earth are gradually filled up by fine particles of soil 

 carried down by the water. It is a good sign when the water 

 begins to lie in the bottom of the gutters after the stream is 

 drawn off. This effect may be anticipated by rendering the water 

 muddy where that is possible, or, according to Mr. Roales in his 

 Prize Essay, by spreading fine earth on the surface. 



Still a great deal of water is drunk by the land, and this circum- 

 stance may be made serviceable. In summer only " damping," 

 as it is called, is allowable. Here, however, in a dry summer we 

 have not water enough even for damping. But by leaving the 

 gutters brimfull, so that the whole stream might be absorbed in 

 the channels, I was enabled to make the most of the dribbling 

 brook which the long drought had left, and to keep some very 

 dry land green and grassy, while other pastures were parched 

 and had ceased growing. For our inland counties, which are 

 subject in summer to constant droughts, I believe that this power 

 of keeping the land moist would alone go far to pay the cost of 

 making a catch-meadow. 



There is another use which may be made of water-meadows. 

 The two streams employed here T have turned through two of the 

 farm-yards. The cattle in these yards are kept loose, even while 

 fattening, in the old-fashioned way, though tied up at feeding- 

 time. When heavy rains come, the muck- water is washed down 

 into the passing stream, and distributed over the meadow without 

 labour to man or to horse. In this case, and whenever a reservoir 

 is filled with black water from other yards, as happens in sudden 

 rains, the manager is desired to put only so much of this rich 

 water on a piece of the ground as will sink into it, and then to 

 turn the dark liquor over a fresh portion of meadow. This is 

 done lest the soluble salts should be carried away over the 

 surface of the field into the stream, and so wasted. As to the 

 winter management of the water it may generally be left on any 

 particular portion for a fortnight at once. When the grass turns 

 dark, the water should be taken off. A standard Scotch work on 

 farming directs that it should be taken off on the arrival of frost. 

 The true rule, however, at least in Devonshire, is not to take it off 

 nor to lay it on in a frost ; — not to take it off, because the water 

 freezing on the ground forms a coat of ice which protects the grass 

 exactly as a covering of snow guards the young wheat, — not to 

 lay it on, because the ground, being already frozen, can be no 

 longer protected. 



There is a novel use of irrigation which I may be permitted to 



