The Rot in Sheep. 



25 



turnips, as the re-formation of these beds with water-carriers and farrow-drains 

 would have been attended with an unnecessary additional expense of from 101. 

 to 201. per acre. Indeed it appears certain the meadow was not so formed, as 

 he says, 'The grass-seeds were sown in 1831. They were mown in the 

 autumn of that year after having been irrigated.* Mow if water had been 

 thrown over new-formed beds of loose cultivated earth, a great part of it would 

 have been washed away, and the young grass-plants along with it. Neither 

 is it probable his watering was done upon the catch- work principle, as that is 

 not applicable to flat marshy land, such as a great part of the said meadow is 

 described to be; and a loose formation of catch- work is still more liable to be 

 guttered and the earth washed away than beds so formed. I am therefore led 

 to believe the irrigation in question was something of the nature of warping, 

 and effected by a rivulet dammed up, and the water from it caused to flow 

 over the meadow at random, or with but little artificial direction ; and although 

 ewes and lambs may do well when pastured in spring upon land so managed, 

 or rather mismanaged, yet sheep of any sort close pastured upon it in wet sum- 

 mers or in autumn would hardly escape rot, and that without any reference 

 to whether the land was well or ill drained. The great advantages derived 

 from the bed formations and catch-work systems of irrigation are the rapid 

 flow of water over the surface, and quick delivery of it by the receivers and 

 furrow drains, either to supply other beds at lower levels or convey it to the 

 waste-water channels, no water ever being allowed to stagnate upon any part 

 of a well-ordered meadow. That desirable object cannot possibly be attained 

 in warped or flooded meadows, however much they may be drained, and hence 

 the liability of such meadows to rot sheep. 



" 2. The Quality of the Herbage. — We are informed the land was sown with 

 grass-seeds in the spring after the turnip crop, and that it was irrigated in the 

 same year the seeds were sown, but the varieties of those seeds are not men- 

 tioned. If they were annuals or biennials, such as are commonly used in 

 agriculture, they would of course soon die off, and all the tender and most 

 nutritious of the natural grasses would be extirpated by the aration processes ; 

 while the roots of coarse grasses and other pernicious plants, so far from being 

 eradicated, would in fact be renovated by the short course of arable culture. 

 Indeed, it is purposely acknowledged, 4 rushes again made their appearance in 

 the second year after the seeds were sown,' and probably many other still 

 more objectionable plants made their appearance at the same time. But even 

 supposing the land had been sown with a proper selection of perennial grasses, 

 these would have been weak in the second year. The narrator complains of his 

 grass looking ' starved after mowing in the second year, and that it did not come 

 a second time to the scythe.' Also in -the third year after sowing, he says, 

 4 Except in those parts which were dry and steep, it produced little for the 

 scythe;' the more valuable plants raised from seeds sown upon the low 

 land being gone, and supplanted by pernicious plants as before stated. The 

 sound pasturage on the meadow would be confined to a very narrow compass, 

 and hence Q01 without any reference whatever to draining. 



"3. The Manner of Pasturing. — We are told that before the meadow was 

 improved otherwise than by irrigation it did not rot ewes and lambs pastured 

 upon it in spring. But it is not said it was at that time sound pasturage for 

 sheep in wet summers or in autumn. Neither is it said that after draining it 

 rotted ewes and lambs in spring. It is however stated that after the third 

 draining in the spring of 1834 'the meadow was equally fatal to every slurp 

 put upon it.' There is no mention of the time of year when the slurp were 

 so put, nor is it stated whether the land was fully stocked with s/nep in that 

 fatal pasturage. I, however, think that calamity took place last autumn ; at 

 least it is fair to infer so, because, as the third draining was e fleeted in the 

 Spring of last year, the irrigation could not be carried on while the draining 



