On  Irrigation  in  Switzerland.  611 
hours.  It  is  then  shifted  further  on,  and  in  about  a week  they 
return  to  the  point  where  they  commenced.  This  shifting  is 
occasioned  solely  by  the  scanty  supply  of  water,  and  were  there 
a sufficiency  of  water,  M.  de  Feilenberg  would  let  it  flow  con- 
stantly over  the  meadows,  except  immediately  before  cutting  the 
grass.  Irrigation  is  discontinued  from  the  period  when  the  severe 
frosts  set  in  until  such  time  as  the  snows  have  melted.  Generally 
irrigation  is  recommenced  in  the  month  of  March,  and,  as  1 have 
before  stated,  the  extent  to  which  the  irrigation  is  carried  is  only 
limited  by  the  supply  of  water.  M.  de  Feilenberg  generally  has 
four  crops  of  grass,  the  first  and  last  are  employed  for  the  stall 
feeding  of  the  cattle;  the  two  intermediate  crops  for  hay.  Some 
years  he  has  even  had  six  crops  of  grass,  and  he  recollects  one 
year  when  the  grass  was  cut  for  the  cattle  as  late  as  Christmas. 
The  first  crop  is  generally  cut  in  May,  and  the  last  crop  in  the 
end  of  October.  The  quantity  of  hay  produced  (as  I was  in- 
formed) per  English  acre  is  from  65  to  70  quintaux  (somewhere 
between  64  and  69  cwt.).  M.  de  Feilenberg  finds  it  necessary, 
merely  on  account  of  manure,  to  keep  from  fifty  to  sixty  cows. 
He  farms  about  280  acres,  of  which  90  are  grass  land.  He  also 
feeds  the  cattle  during  part  of  the  summer  with  clover.  The 
cattle  are  never  turned  into  the  water-meadows.  Those  meadows 
which  cannot  be  brought  under  irrigation  are  manured  with  solid 
manure  in  the  autumn ; and  should  there  not  be  a sufficiency  of 
solid  manure  to  spread  over  the  whole,  the  remainder  is  watered 
with  liquid  manure  while  the  snow  lies  on  the  ground. 
In  the  farmyard  are  tanks  in  which  every  drop  of  liquid 
manure  is  collected.  This  is  pumped  up  into  a channel  and 
conveyed  by  it  to  the  water-courses,  and  thus  with  the  smallest 
amount  of  labour  some  of  the  water-meadows  are  irrigated  with 
water  diluted  with  liquid  manure.  The  grass  from  these  parts 
is  consequently  richer  and  thicker,  but  the  number  of  crops  pro- 
duced from  land  thus  irrigated  is  the  same  as  that  which  is  pro- 
duced from  land  irrigated  with  water  alone. 
There  is  a pump  in  the  centre  of  the  manure  pile  by  which 
the  drainings  are  pumped  up  every  morning  over  and  upon  the 
manure  pile,  while  part  of  the  fluid  is  thrown  over  rubbish, 
potatoe  stalks,  &c.  The  hay  was  stowed  away  in  large  lofts 
above  the  cow-stables. 
The  whole  farm  was  a most  interesting  sight,  particularly  when 
it  is  borne  in  mind  that  the  enterprise  and  perseverance  of  one 
man  has  rendered  what  was  formerly  a marsh  covered  with  coarse 
grass  and  rushes,  one  of  the  most  productive  and  valuable  farms 
in  Switzerland.  Nor  were  the  immediate  results  of  the  late  M. 
de  Fellenberg’s  energy  the  most  important.  For  the  agricultural 
college  and  schools  of  Hofwyl  have  gained  for  their  benevolent 
