for Agricultural Purposes. 
283 
Mr. Smith’s estimate of the cost of laying out catch 
meadows on Exmoor was 10s. per acre for cutting gutters and 
water-carriers at an average distance of 22 yards — large or 
small — and os. per acre for all other works, such as the necessary 
culverts through the fences, under gateways and flood-gates, 
hatches, and extra water-carriers for fetching distant water to 
any given point or pond. 
The Rev. Mr. Wilkinson in his report on the farming of 
Hampshire (p. 288 of the Journal, Vol. XXII. 1st Series, 
1861) says of the water meadows in that county: — 
They are expensive both to make and to maintain, their construction 
costing l'roiu 15/. to 40/. an acre, according to the form of the surface. If 
the soil he not naturally dry it must be under-drained, and that deeply, so 
as not to interfere with the irrigation. The ground lias to be turned by 
manual labour into ridges and furrows, or, as it is called, “ bedwork,” the 
beds being some eleven yards wide, with an elevation of 2 feet in the 
centre; but this 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 in quality. The water is 
admitted 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. The used water is not returned to the river 
for perhaps two miles from the spot whence it was originally abstracted and 
does duty meanwhile. A “ head ” meadow is one flooded with the water 
first coming from the river; a “tail” meadow with that previously 
used in a head meadow. The meadow receiving the tail water is not 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 so high 
that it would flood the head meadow ; the intermediate meadow is generally 
watered by an “ over-carrier.” 
As to the period of watering he says : — 
The watering is continued throughout November and December six 
days in the week if possible ; in January five ; in February four. If the 
frost be bard the water is turned off until a thaw. The meadows are 
dried the first week in March and trodden by men’s feet — a roller and 
horses would do injury to the carriers and the drains — and about Lady Day 
the ewes and lambs are turned in, being taken out at night and folded on 
the arable. They stay in about six weeks ; if longer the meadows are liable 
to injury. As soon as they are out the hatches are drawn and the water is 
admitted, but very thinly and scantily at first in order that the grass may 
have time to grow above it. Two days a week will be sufficient watering 
till the grass is cut, and the hay made in the middle of J^uue. "Water may 
again be applied once a week, and eight weeks after there will be a second 
crop of hay. As to the produce the spring feed of one acre will easily keep 
twenty couples, which will fold three-quarters of an acre of arable in the 
time. Each hay crop will be from H to 2 tons per acre. 
A range of valuable water meadows lies on each side of the 
Rennet and of the Lambourne from Shefford to Newbury, and 
