AGRICULTURE. 
application of water is to bring it on as 
plentifully as possible, but to let it pass off 
by a brisk and nimble course, as not only 
its stagnation is injurious, but by indolently 
creeping over the land it is of much less 
advantage than when passing off quickly. 
The spring feeding ought never to be done 
by heavier cattle than sheep or calves, as 
others would do extreme injury, by poach- 
ing the ground with their feet, and spoiling 
the trenches. The barer the meadows are 
fed towards the close of April, tire better. 
After clearing, they should have a week’s 
watering, with a careful attention to every 
sluice or drain. 
With respect to the application of floods, 
a general rule of no slight importance is, 
that the farmer should avail himself of them 
whenever the grass cannot be used, as the 
sand and mud brought down by them in- 
crease and enrich the soil; but that he 
should avoid them when the grass is long or 
soon to be cut, as in flat countries it is 
frequently spoiled by them, and much of the 
matter which they bring down sticking to 
the grass, renders it peculiarly unpleasant 
to cattle, which have been known in some 
instances rather to starve than use it. 
So great is the importance of irrigation, 
that governments would be fully justified in 
giving facility to undertakings for conduct- 
ing it on an extensive plan. The fertility, 
or, in other words, the national wealth 
capable of being derived from the applica- 
tion of cold water, which is at present al- 
lowed to flow uselessly away, to the pur- 
poses of agriculture, is well worthy the at- 
tention of the enlightened and benevolent 
statesman. In the neighbourhood of the 
cities of Milan and Lodi, Mr. Young ob- 
serves, that the exertions in irrigation are 
truly great, and even astonishing. “ Canals 
are not only numerons and uninterrupted, 
but conducted with great skill and expense. 
Along the public roads, almost every where, 
there is one canal on the side of the road, 
and sometimes there are two. Cross ones 
are thrown over these on arches, and pass 
in trunks of brick or stone, under the road. 
A very considerable one, after passing for 
several miles by the side of the highway, 
sinks under it, and also under two other 
canals, carried in stone troughs a foot wide. 
The variety of directions in which the wa- 
ter is carried, the ease with which it is made 
to flow in opposite directions, and the ob- 
stacles which are overcome, are objects of 
admiration. The expense thus employed in 
the twenty miles from Milan to Lodi is im- 
mense ; and meritorious as many undertak- 
ings in England are, they sink to nothing in 
comparison with these truly great and noble 
works. So well understood is the value of 
water in this country, that it is brought by 
the farmer (who has the power of conduct- 
ing it through his neighbour’s ground for a 
stipulated sum, and under certain regula- 
tions, to any distance that may suit him,) 
from a canal of a certain size, at so much 
an hour per week, and even from an hour 
down to a quarter. The usual price for an 
hour per week in perpetuity is fifteen hun- 
dred livres.” 
manures, &c. 
Ingenious theories have too often, in agri- 
cultural treatises, usurped the plate of re- 
citals of attentive and patient experience. 
To the latter, the judicious reader will ever 
bend his attention with pleasure and advan- 
tage, rejoicing that while the systems of men 
are seen to vanish, one after another, in ra- 
pid succession, like the waves of the ocean, 
the course of nature is constant, and may 
be depended upon through all generations 
and ages. Of all the expenses incurred by 
the husbandman, none so rarely disappoints 
its object as that which he employs in ma- 
nures. The use of lime in this connection 
has been long decidedly established. It 
reduces to mould all the dead roots of ve- 
getables, with which the soil abounds. Its 
useful operation depends upon its intimate 
mixture with the land ; and the proper time 
therefore to apply it is, when both are in 
that pulverized state in which this union 
can be best completed. If left to be slaked 
by humid air, or casual rain, it is seldom 
perfectly reduced to powder. The proper 
method is to place it in heaps on the ground 
on which it is intended to be spread, to 
slake it there with a due quantity of water, 
and afterwards to cover it with sod, to 
preserve it from the rain. If long slaked, 
however, before it is spread, it runs into 
clots, and becomes less operative for its 
purpose ; besides which, it loses in such 
circumstances its caustic quality, on which 
account it should be brought home as short 
a time as possible before its intended ap- 
plication. Lime should not be permitted 
to lie all winter on the surface of the ground 
after being spread, for a similar reason, as 
also because it is washed down into the 
furrows ; and on the sides of hills the whole 
is apt to be carried off by the winter tor- 
rents. It should be spread, and mixed with 
the soil immediately before sowing. The 
quantity to be laid on depends upon the 
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