2 
The Economical Application 
tills branch of farm ^vork only, where one ahcaily exists irriga- 
tion will be the means of providing it with profitable employ- 
ment, when its busy autumn and winter work of threshing-, chaff- 
cutting, root-pulping, cake-crushing, grinding, &c., being over, 
it would otherwise be idle. Even the season for cultivation by 
steam will then be drawing to a close, therefore the farm can afford 
to supply the engine at a low rate of charge ; and a steam-engine 
is made profitable in proportion to the number of days' work 
which it is made to perform during the year. 
When the position of the ground suggests gravitation, as the 
power to be made use of in carrying out the system, a pressure 
of 40 feet (representing the diffei-ence of level between the tank 
and the field) may be looked on as a minimum for the purpose, 
it being borne in mind that the less the pressure is, the larger- 
must be the pipes laid down to convey a given quantity of fluid. 
If water is the motive power on a farm I would rather erect 
pumps than avail myself of gravitation, as the latter power very 
frequently involves long up-hill carriage of the produce from the 
field to the stall, besides an additional quantity of piping. 
The error into which many have fallen of laying down pipes 
over a greater extent of land than can pretty constantly be 
worked through the season, must be avoided, as the portion used 
will have to be charged with the yearly interest due on the 
whole capital expended ; the area operated upon must evidently 
depend on the amount of water at command, and the rotation to 
be adopted on the land so laid out, which should comprise the 
greatest number of those crops to which the liquid can be 
profitably applied — crops which are capable of yielding the 
largest returns from such an application, and consequently leave 
the greatest quantity of manure at our disposal. The ground 
intended for the purpose should be immediately adjacent to the 
farm buildings, so as to economise the piping, as also the cartage 
of a largo weight of produce to the stall. The description of soil 
is of little moment, so that it be thoroughly drained. I have 
obtained equally good results from heavy clay as from a black 
loam or sandy soil. The most important supply of liquid will 
be derived from the cattle, and for its effectual collection stall- 
feeding is the best system to follow. 
The floor on which the animals stand should be made of 
planks raised six or seven inches ; the ground may be covered 
with asphalt, having a slope towards the channel behind the 
cattle, which conveys the liquid to the tank ; the sparred floor is 
so constructed as to require only a small portion of straw on its 
surface for litter, while it readily allows the liquid to run through 
and make its way into the channel, at the lower end of which it 
is taken through a grating into the tank, I prefer a boarded 
