52 
Arterial Drainage 
Water for Farm Purposes. 
Irrigation. — In addition to the use of water for drinking and 
cleansing purposes, it is exceedingly valuable for irrigating grass- 
land, the water meadows of Devonshire, Gloucestershire, Somer- 
setshire and other counties growing very large crops, and com- 
manding rents sufficient to pay ample interest on the cost of the 
works necessary for laying them out, storing the water, and 
regulating the supply. An example of successful drainage com- 
bined with embanking and irrigation is given in the Appendix 
to the ' First Report of the Rivers Pollution Commissioners.' * 
The Bampton and Shilton inclosure contains 3000 acres, two- 
thirds of which were liable to be flooded, and nearly all were 
without sufficient outfall for under-drainage. A great part of 
the meadow, previous to the drainage operations, had been 
under water for nine months, and the only vegetation to be seen 
on hundreds of acres was an occasional blade of sedge peeping 
through the brown scum left on the meadows by long-continued 
floods. The land was embanked from the Thames ; a new out- 
fall with the necessary tributary drains was cut ; the arable land 
was under-drained from 4 to 8 feet deep ; and a portion of the 
meadow irrigated by sluices from the Thames. The total cost 
of the inclosure, including several miles of roads, was under 
9000/. About 5000/. of this was expended in water-courses 
and embankments, and it was estimated by Mr. Bryan Wood, 
the valuer, that the value of the crops in one rainy season since 
the inclosure, were worth the whole of the 9000/. more than they 
would have been if the land had not been improved. All the 
land sold since the inclosure realised more than double what 
it was worth before. 
The water of most large rivers is very fertilising, containing 
a great deal of rich alluvial warp and vegetable matter in sus- 
pension. Water off chalk soils also holds valuable fertilising 
salts in solution. From mountainous districts the particles held 
in suspension are generally not of a fertilising character, and 
often do more harm than good. 
In India the magnificent works carried out by the previous 
rulers of that country in the construction of canals, reservoirs, 
embankments, and other irrigation works, stand as a reproach 
to our own government. 
The very existence of the population in some parts of . our 
Indian Empire seems to depend upon irrigation. With the 
tropical sun and the dry climate of that country, lands, other- 
wise highly fertile and capable of producing the most abundant 
* ' First Report of Rivers Pollution Commisgioners ' (Thames). 
