Tour in England. 
ganisable matter, which is much greater 
after rains than at other times ; or which ex¬ 
ist in the largest quantity when the stream 
rises in a cultivated country. Even incases 
where the water used for flooding is pure, 
and free from animal or vegetable sub¬ 
stances, it acts by causing a more equable 
diffusion of nutritive matter existing in the 
land ; and in very cold seasons it preserves 
the tender roots and leaves of the grass from 
being affected by frost. Water is of greater 
specific gravity at 42° Fahrenheit, than at 32°, 
the freezing point; and hence in a meadow 
irrigated in winter, the water immediately in 
contact with the grass is rarely below 40°, a 
degree of temperature not at all prejudicial 
to the living organs of plants. In 1804, in 
the month of March, the temperature in a 
water meadow near Hungerford was exami¬ 
ned by a very delicate thermometer. The 
temperature of the air at seven in the morn¬ 
ing was 29 Q . The water was frozen above 
the grass. The temperature of the soil be¬ 
low the water in which the roots of the grass 
were fixed, was 43.° In general those 
waters which breed the best fish are the 
best fitted for watering meadovvs ; hut most 
of the benefits of irrigation may be derived 
from any kind of water. It is however a 
general principle that waters containing fe- 
ruginous impregnation, though possessed of 
fertilizing effects when applied to a calcari- 
ous soil, are injurious on soils which do not 
effervesce with acids ; and that calcarious 
waters, which are known by the earthy de¬ 
posit they afford when boiled, are of most 
use on silicious soils, or other soils contain¬ 
ing no remarkable quantity of carbonate of 
lime.” 
In forming water weadows in England, if 
the ground be nearly flat, the surface is made 
as even as possible, by levelling all little hil¬ 
locks and filling up the hollows ; a dam or 
weir is then thrown across the stream above, 
and the water brought in by a main feeder, 
from which small ditches are cut in those di¬ 
rections through the field, which are best 
calculated to distribute it in the quickest 
time and most evenly, and the surplus then 
carried off, so as to leave the meadows per¬ 
fectly free from all standing water, when re¬ 
quired. When the land is descending, ca¬ 
nals or ditches are cut out running parallel 
with each other along its whole length, thus 
forming the meadow into beds of slightly de¬ 
scending terraces. The water in sluices is 
then let into the upper canal, from which, 
when full, it slowly runs over, trickling along 
and irrigating the space of ground below, and 
is then taken up by a second ditch, and so 
on as long as the descent of the meadow con¬ 
tinues and the whole is watered. Three cut¬ 
tings of hay are usually obtained from these 
meadows every season, averaging about five 
tons of dried grass in all; and in addition 
they yield considerable late fall and early 
spring pasture. In letting on the water, they 
are managed differently according to the 
weather and circumstances ; but it is always 
intended that they shall have the benefit of 
the October and November floods, as these 
are known to abound in more fertilizing mat¬ 
ter, than those of the winter and spring. At 
this time the water is kept on three or four 
days, a week, or fortnight at a time, with 
such intermissions for drying as are thought 
proper, and again let on in the spring, and 
generally, immediately after each cutting of 
hay in the summer, for be it remembered, 
that the fertility imparted from the water, is 
even more sought after than its moisture . In 
the drier climate of America, the moisture, 
perhaps, will be as beneficial as the fertiliz¬ 
ing substances which the waters hold in so¬ 
lution, and which are so evenly distributed 
over the ground, for the nourishment tand 
rapid growth of the grass. 
It is said that irrigation has been practiced 
more or less in England ever since its occu¬ 
pancy by the Romans, but according to Lou¬ 
don, the importance of it was not much con¬ 
sidered till the publication of Vaughan’s work 
on this subject, in 1610. Attempts, however, 
at this great improvement in agriculture, 
could not have been of much account till a 
century and a half later, as he adds further 
on, u that the principal scientific efforts in 
watering lands, have been made during the 
latter end of the last and beginning of the 
present century, in consequence of a treatise 
on the subject, by George Boswell, published 
in 1780, and various others by the Rev. 
Thomas Wright, which appeared from 1789 
to 1810. 
We understood that the cultivation of wa¬ 
ter meadows was considerably on the in¬ 
crease in England; we wish we could add 
the same of our own country, where they 
are much more needed, especially in the 
southern parts of it. We believe with a pro¬ 
per system of irrigation, that the growth of 
grass might be doubled during the summer, 
above the 40° of latitude, and be had in great 
profusion from this to the 35°, nine to ten 
months of the year, and from thence south 
the whole year round. We hope that the 
attention of our countrymen will be aroused 
to the importance of commencing an im- 
