Some of the Agricultural Lessons of 1868. 
41 
floods in tlic winter, and had always been mown. It is situated half a mile 
above this mill ; and as soon as the mill was pulled down, this meadow gave a 
less produce than it had done belbre by more than half a ton per aerc yearly j 
and it continued to do so for fifteen years, until a weir was i>ut up holding the 
water to the height it stood before the mill was removed ; and then the meadow 
at once returned to its increased productiveness, and it has continued so ever 
since. Side main drains have been put in, so that the uplands are all well 
drained, although the water in the river stands at its former height. — The 
deep stirring of my land by steam power has enabled it to withstand the 
drought better than shallow horse-worked land had done. This was clearlj- 
shown in my bean crop. They were planted at the same time that the 
neighbouring horse-farmers planted theirs, yet they came up first and kept 
first. They stood 5 feet high, and were well corned, and kept green longer 
than those on horse-worked laud did, and were much the best crop in the 
neighbourhood." 
The history of the river-side meadow, given by Mr. Smithy 
can hardly be taken, I think, to prove an injury by land-drainage. 
Some of the advantages of the water-course being obstructed by 
the mill, to which he testifies have, no doubt, arisen from the top- 
dressings which the land obtained by winter floods, which were 
lost when the obstruction to which they were owing was removed. 
But even if we are to attribute the present heavier grass crops and 
those of former years to the higher " water table," as Mr. Paget calls 
it, within the soil, which is created by the impounded river, it is 
by no means certain that a different management of the land after 
the water had been permanently lowered, would not have resulted 
in still greater fertility. There is many an agricultural opera- 
tion beneficial under proper management, of which those v/ho 
maintain the old management under the new conditions, are 
unable to realise the advantage. To one instance of this, reference 
will be made hereafter ; and this may be another. It is possible 
that if the Woolstone meadow, instead of being annually mown 
when thus incidentally laid dry, had been annually grazed, the 
report of its tenant might have been different. 
The following are shorter communications on the same subjects. 
— land-drainage and deep-tillage : — 
Captain Dashvvood, of Kirtlington, Oxford, occupies two farms 
comprising 1072 acres, of which 927 are arable, and 100 mea- 
dow or pasture. The soil is on the limestone formation, commonly 
called stonehrasli. He says, that though unable to give particular 
instances, he believes his crops on land well drained have been 
superior to those of neighbouring fields on soil of a similar quality, 
but badly drained. His conviction is, that land overcharged 
with water for part of the year must suffer the most in a dry 
summer like that of 1868. And as to steam-cultivation: having 
cultivated by steam-power for some years he is convinced that 
deeply-stirred land has undoubtedly suffered less from the drought. 
Horse-hoeing the corn and thus keeping the surface in tilth, 
prevented the land from drying up and cracking. 
