The Agriculture of Staffordshire. 
299 
The first summer was dry, and the crop was heavy. The five or 
six following crops did not produce more than common meadows, 
and the hay was deficient in feeding quality. Since then the 
pasture has been grazed, but the stock was removed from 
November till the middle of April, and the water turned on all 
the winter, until eight years since, when irrigation was aban- 
doned. On the whole this land was considered to be damaged 5*. 
i\n acre by irrigation. The water destroyed the clover and best 
grasses, and it rendered the pasture unsafe for sheep during winter. 
It has been said that " IDove's Flood" is less beneficial now 
than it was forty years ago, owing to the reduced drainage from 
the farmyards up the stream, arKl to the care taken of road- 
washings, and of any other available run, which is now turned 
over the meadows, instead of finding its way into the river. The 
waters of the BIyth below Blythfield are proverbially poor. 
Above that town there are some fine water-meadows. Perhaps 
it is the washings of the steep "sidings," during rains, which 
give the water its richness. Water that has been used is of little 
or no use farther down ; the occupier above is the wolf, who 
destroys the lamb below, I met with a very clever mode of 
applying the water of a muddy stream on some meadows 70 acres 
in extent. Instead of the water flowing over the sides of the 
carriers, it is conveyed through subterranean channels, cut from 
the bottom of the carriers and through their sides. I'he fall was 
considerable, and the large volume of swift-running water agi- 
tated the mud and carried it over the surface of the meadow, 
instead of allowing it to settle in the carrier. A slow current fills 
up carriers, and occasions the expense of frequent cleansing ; and 
in flooded meadows, where the mud is the fertilising agent, it defeats 
the object to some extent. Some of the best water-meadows in 
Staffordshire, however, lie immediately below the source of the 
springs, and are fertilised by water that is always bright. At 
the head of a little valley, near the Hollington stone quarries, 
there are several acres of meadows watered by a trout-stream, 
which rises here in the sandstone rock. The soil is gravel, and 
inferior, but it is made exceedingly productive by the goodness 
of the water. The warmth imparted to the land prevents the 
first meadow from ever freezing. The meadows are but a narrow 
strip, extending some distance down the glen. The lower mea- 
dows are less forward and less productive ; and, still further down, 
the water is found to have lost its fertilising virtues, having 
parted with its mineral constituents and with heat. 
Mr. Dinnock, of Swinnerton, showed me a poor gravel pasture 
that was exceedingly productive when irrigated from a spring 
which rises in the sandstone rock above it. The spring had 
been recently cut off by the London and North- Western Railway, 
