288 
Faiininr/ of Hampshire. 
i'all of eight or nine feet in the mile is required for water-meadows, 
and that below Fordino-bridsje is not mpre than four. 
" No country in luip^lan*!," says Fuller, " hath more plenty of 
clear and fresh rivulets of troutful water." And where trout 
flourish, water-cresses g;ro\y, and stones are covered with lichen, 
there are the best water-meadows, which are accordingly a 
feature in Hampshire farming. They are here, on the confines 
of the county, and in the heart of it on every chalk stream, but 
none are comjiarable to those on the Avon. The depth and 
dryness of the alluvial soil, with a gravel subsoil, is the reason of 
their superiority over those on the Test and Anton, and Itching, 
which rest on clay or peat. Indeed the meadows below Romsey, 
from lying on peat, which is the worst foundation of all, and 
from their faulty construction, are of little worth. 
I will therefore describe the water-meadovv^ system here, men- 
tioning differences between these and others in the county, and- 
noting their influence on the arable farming near them. They 
are expensive, both to make and to maintain, their construction 
costing from 15/. to 40/. an acre, according to the form of the 
surface. If the soil be not naturally dry it must be under- 
drained, and that deeply, so as not to interfere with the irriga- 
tion. The ground has to be formed by manual labour into 
ridges and furrows, or, as it is called, " bed-work ; " the beds 
being here 11 yards wide, with an elevation of 2 feet in the 
centi-e, but their width generally, and the gradients of their sides, 
depend much on the soil ; the drier this is the broader the beds, 
and the less the declivity of the sides. The great object is to 
give the water a quick run, for if it stagnates the grass will suffer 
in quantity and quality. The water is adrrtitted by a main 
" carriage ; " subordinate carriers or feeders, at different angles to 
the main, convey the water along the summit of each ridge ; the 
water soaks down and through the sides of the ridges into the 
drains which run along the furrows ; these drains communicate 
with a main drain (" the drawn "'). The used water is not 
returned to the river for, perhaps, two miles from the spot whence 
it was originally abstracted ; it does duty meanwhile. A " head " 
meadow is one flooded with the water on its first coming from 
the river ; a " tail " meadow with that previously used in a 
" head " meadow. Of course the head-water is the best, but to 
use nothing else would be to divert the channel of the stream. 
The meadow receiving the tail-water is not (as might be sup- 
posed) the one immediately contiguous to that receiving the 
head-water, but the next but one ; if it were attempted to make 
a tail-meadow next to a head-meadow it would be necessary to 
raise the water by hatches (which are used to pen back and to 
