for Agricultural Purposes. 
275 
were made to discharge into a reservoir at the homestead to drive 
the machinery of the farm, after which it was made to irrigate 
meadows laid out for the purpose at a lower level. Mr. B. 
Daniel, of the Brinder Ironworks, Glamorganshire, in the 
seventies, reclaimed 100 acres of land near Cefn station, and he 
also caused the drainage water of a considerable portion of it 
to discharge into a reservoir and drive machinery by means of 
a water wheel before it was utilised for irrigation. 
Another improvement of a similar nature is recorded in Yol. 
IV. 1st Series (p. 314) of the Journal (1843), wherein it is stated 
that when Lord Hatherton came to reside at Teddeslev, Stafford- 
shire, his house was surrounded by heaths and alder bogs. Of 
these he under-drained 500 acres at a cost of about 3(. per acre. 
All the water thus tapped from these bogs was conveyed to the 
farmyard, where it turned a water wheel to drive the threshing 
machine and other machinery of the homestead. Thence it was 
made to flow over 80 acres, which were converted into catch 
meadows at a cost of 224(., or about 50s. an acre. The water 
in passing from the farmyard carried with it the liquid manure 
from more than a hundred beasts kept in the yard summer and 
winter. The late Mr. Philip Pusey, M.P., in commenting on 
this grand improvement, said : — 
The beauty of this arrangement, which resembles the complicated func- 
tions of an animal body, is as striking as the practical benefit of changing a 
morass into a sound corn and stock farm, for 1,250 acres carries 1,600 sheep, 
besides more than 200 head of cattle. I know of no farm which offers so 
perfect a model for the improvement of moorland lying towards the west 
side of England. 
The same authority, after witnessing these seemingly magical 
effects of watering meadows in Devonshire, determined to 
ascertain the effects of irrigation on some of his grass lands in 
Berkshire, and afterwards described the result in Vol. X. 1st 
Series (p. 462) of the Journal (1849). He admitted at the outset 
that the money he had spent in forming and laying out his 
meadows for watering had yielded him a return of 30 per cent., 
and that consequently this means of improvement was well worth 
the attention of all landlords. 
Very graphically did he describe the effects of watering 
lands in winter as follows : — 
It is well known that in forming water meadows to moisten them is not 
the main object, the stream being laid on chiefly in winter, when commonly 
the ground is already too wet. Yet a slight film of water trickling then over 
the surface — for it must not stagnate — rouses the sleeping grass, tinges it 
with living green amidst snows and frosts, and brings forth a luxuriant crop 
in early spring, just when it is most wanted, while the other meadows are 
still bare and brown. It is a cheerful sight to see the wild birds haunting 
