AGRICULTURE. 
use. It is a practice by which, in mild 
seasons, grass is produced in extreme abun- 
dance, even so early as in March ; grass, too, 
particularly nutritious as well as plentiful, 
on which cattle which have wintered hardly 
thrive with great rapidity, and on which 
young lambs feed with surprizing advan- 
tage. Between March and May, the feed 
of meadows, in consequence of this prac- 
tice, is estimated at worth one guinea per 
acre; after which an acre will yield two 
tons of hay in June, while the after-math 
may be valued at twenty shillings. In con- 
sequence of this management, moreover, 
the land is continually improving in quality, 
its herbage advancing in fineness, the soil 
becoming more firm and sound, and the 
depth of its mould being augmented. It 
may be estimated, that in each county of 
England and Wales two thousand acres may 
be increased in value one pound per acre, 
by means of irrigation ; a national advan- 
tage of serious moment, and drawing after 
it the great improvement of other lands, and 
the employment of many honest and in- 
dustrious poor. The principles on which 
the practice depends have no portion of 
difficulty and complexity whatever. Water 
will always rise to the level of the recepta- 
cle from which it is derived. .All streams 
descending in a greater or less degree, 
which is indicated by their smooth and slow, 
or their agitated and noisy progress, it is 
obvious that a main or trench may be taken 
from a river, whioh will convey water over 
the land by the side of that river to a con- 
siderable distance below the head of the 
main, where the river from which it is taken 
flows greatly below it. As water, however, 
if left to stagnate upon land, does it very 
considerable injury, instead of benefiting it, 
by cherishing flags, rushes, and other weeds, 
it is requisite to ascertain, before it be in- 
troduced upon any spot, that it can be 
easily and effectually drained off. 
The muddiness of the water applied is 
stated by some to be of little consequence, 
and several writers have even laid it down 
as a maxim, that the purer or clearer the 
water is, the more beneficial are its effects. 
These opinions, however, appear to be di- 
rectly contradicted by experience ; and it 
may be affirmed, that the mud of water, 
particularly in some situations, is nearly of 
as much consequence in winter watering, 
•s dung is in the improvement of a poor 
upland field. Every meadow will be found 
productive, proportionally to the quantity 
of mud collected Ron the water. Those 
meadows which lie next below any village 
or town, are uniformly most rapid and plen- 
tiful in their growth. So well known is this 
truth, that disputes are peipetually arising 
concerning the first application of water to 
lands; and when mud is supposed to be 
collected at the bottom of a river, or in 
ditches, many persons will employ labour- 
ers with rakes, for several days together, to 
disturb it, that it may be carried down by 
the water, and spread upon the meadows. 
The more, turbid and feculent the water, 
the more beneficially it acts. Hasty and 
violent rains, producing floods, dissolve the 
salts of the circumjacent lands, and Wash 
from them considerable portions of the ma- 
nure which naturally or factitiously had been 
deposited on them. Water from a spring 
depends in no small degree for the quantity 
of nutriment it affords to vegetables on the 
nature of the strata over which it passes. 
If these be metallic, or consisting of earth 
partaking of the sulphuric acid, it may be 
really injurious. But that which passes 
over fossil chalks, or any thing of a calca- 
reous nature, will highly promote the pro- 
cess of vegetation. That which has run 
a long way, is almost always preferable to 
what flows over land immediately from the 
spring. 
In mid winter great attention should be 
applied to keeping watered land sheltered 
■by the water from the rigour of night frosts : 
but during the whole winter it should be 
withdrawn once in every twelve days, to 
prevent its rotting and destroying the roots 
of the grass. Every meadow should also 
be attentively inspected, to preserve the 
equal distribution of the water over it, and 
to remove obstacles arising from the influx 
of weeds and sticks, and other similar 
causes. In the month of February particu- 
lar caution is requisite. If the water be 
suffered to remain many days together upon 
the land, a white scum, extremely perni- 
cious, is the consequence ; and if the land 
be exposed, without drying during the 
course of the day, to one severe night frost, 
the herbage will often be completely cut 
off. Both these causes of injury must be 
carefully avoided. About the middle of 
February half the quantity of water pre- 
viously used will be better than more, all 
that is requisite now being to keep the 
ground moist and warm, and to hasten the 
progress of vegetation ; and in proportion 
as the weather becomes warmer, the quan- 
tity introduced should proportionally be 
diminished. An important maxim in the 
