18 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
face, it would be injurious rather than beneficial. 
The water thus let on would vary in its charac¬ 
ter ; in some instances it would be impregnated 
with road-washings; in others, it would con¬ 
tain considerable amounts of various fertilizers, 
brought along from the regions whence it came; 
and in all, it would contain the ammonia and the 
organic matter of the melted snow. I have, 
therefore, supposed that in some peculiar cases, 
where all the circumstances favored, it might 
be worth the farmer’s attention to turn such 
waters on to his mowing, as a sort of spring ir¬ 
rigation. 
There is another species of irrigation, of the 
advantage of which there can be no doubt—one 
which is generally practised by farmers, but 
Mot always—that of turning the water of gutters 
by the way-side on the adjoining land. Dur¬ 
ing and after heavy rains, such water often 
flows fully saturated, thickened even, with fer¬ 
tilizing matters. These should be directed, if 
the shape of the ground permits, to the neigh¬ 
boring fields, instead of running into the nearest 
brook. With regard to water from barn-yards, 
it may be said that none should be permitted to 
flow. This is true. Still many farmers have 
their arrangements such, and perhaps will have 
them such, for a long time, in spite of all that 
can be said, that the water runs in torrents from 
their yards after every hard rain. Where this 
is the case, the water should, if possible, be 
turned upon grass-land; and it should be made 
to irrigate as large an extent as the nature of 
the ground permits, as otherwise, it will make 
a small extent so rich as to be useless—to pro¬ 
duce nothing but weeds. As a general rule, 
wherever on a farm fertilizers are wont to ac¬ 
cumulate, if the water of showers, rains, and 
melting snows runs over these places, it should 
be so directed as most to benefit the land, instead 
of running where it will be useless. All these, 
however, are species of irrigation, which it would 
seem that common sense might teach every farm¬ 
er, and of which too much perhaps has been 
said in this place. I will now speak of irriga¬ 
tion in a more appropriate sense of that term— 
the turning of natural streams upon grass-lands, 
so as to cause the water to pass over and through 
the soil. No specific rules can be laid down for 
doing this. What is required for doing it in the 
best manner, is a little of that science, suffici¬ 
ently rare, though often talked of, called Farm 
Engineering , the principal ingredient in which 
is common sense— a thing which very plainly 
teaches that it is the prerogative of the Al¬ 
mighty to make hills and valleys; that we can¬ 
not essentially alter the surface of the earth, and 
therefore must be content to take it very nearly 
as it is, and to leave it pretty much as we find it; 
that water will not run up hill; that it tends to the 
lowest place by the shortest route, that is, that it 
will run directly down and not slant-wise on a 
slope. If we are to prepare the surface of land 
for irrigation, it will be found necessary to even 
it somewhat—to level down here a hillock and 
fill up there a hollow; but the transportation of 
great amounts of soil cannot be made on paying- 
conditions, where labor is as high as with us. 
Had the Duke of Portland made his improve¬ 
ments at the present rates of labor in this coun¬ 
try, they would have given him but two, or at 
most, three per cent, instead of eight, on the 
outlay, because he removed vast quantities of 
earth, far more than was necessary in order to 
accomplish the object, certainly far more than 
would be wise in a country where labor is as 
high as with us. 
Let the space above be supposed to represent 
a ten acre lot of snow land. A brook (5) flows 
through it from west to east. Across this brook 
(10) is constructed a dam with a gate. A water- 
channel cut from the dam to the northeast cor¬ 
ner of the lot (1) will preserve, by a few wind¬ 
ings, as the face of the land requires the level of 
the water in the dam, so that when the gate is 
shut the channel (1) will be filled. The wave- 
lip, or bank, of this channel should be leveled 
with great care ; should be stamped hard, sown 
with grass seed, and then, if it settle unequally, 
should be regulated from time to time as occa¬ 
sion requires, in order that when the channel is 
more than filled, the water may run over evenly 
all the way from 10 to 1. English irrigators in¬ 
sist upon it, that there should be a catch-drain 
parallel with the water-channel, (1) and about 6 
or S feet from it into which the water^hould be 
admitted from the main water-channel (1) by 
under-ground passages, capable of being opened 
and shut. I shall not speak further of this, be¬ 
cause I do not believe it necessary. They irri¬ 
gate with a recklessness of expense, which cer¬ 
tainly cannot yet be recommended to the Ameri¬ 
can farmer. I would have the lower bank of 
the water-channel (1) levelled with great care, 
and then allow the water to pass over instead of 
under it. The only objection I have heard to 
this course is the danger that the bank may 
give way, and damage be done by the whole of 
the water in the main channel rushing out at 
one place; but I do not believe there would be 
much danger if the bank were properly con¬ 
solidated and turfed over before being put to 
use. From the water-channel (1) let the water 
run down to the catch-drain, (2) thence to the 
next catch-drain, (3) thence to the catch-drain 
(4,) and thence to the channel of the brook. In 
this way about four acres on the north side of 
the brook would be irrigated. 
At 11 is another dam, and from it a water- 
channel (9) on the south side of the brook. From 
this the water may pass to 8, thence to 7, and 
so on back to the brook, irrigating an acre or so 
on the south side of the brook—in all about five 
acres, or half of the ten acre lot; and if the 
brook, as often happens, was somewhat foul, 
containing considerable quantities of fertilizing 
matter, it would be likely to cause good crops 
of grass without other manure; and if the ma¬ 
nure made from the grass grown on these five 
acres were put upon the remaining five acres, 
the whole might be kept in a highly productive 
state. But in order to give such results, the 
brook should be something more than mere by 
pure water; the soil should be either porous by 
nature, or well under-drained, as otherwise the 
irrigation would render it cold and productive of 
only sour, innutritions grasses; and the surface 
of the ground should be so arranged that the 
water would irrigate the whole, and'would no¬ 
where settle into ponds, and remain dormant till 
it had time to settle through the soil. The true 
idea of irrigation is that of water running over 
ground , and not standing upon it. How often 
the water is to be admitted, and how long to re¬ 
main before being shut off, depends much upon 
the character of the land, and must be learned 
by observation in each case. It should never, 
however, remain more than a few days at a time. 
e e e 
Suppose the above straight lines to enclose a 
piece of new land. A brook (a) enters it at the 
northwest corner, and passes through the whole 
length. About two acres of this field are con¬ 
siderably lower than the brook at the place 
where it enters the lot. These two acres then, 
can be irrigated by water taken from the upper 
end of the lot. Suppose now we find the soil of 
this field to be a light loam, resting on a gravelly 
sub-soil. If so, no under-draining would be re¬ 
quired. Suppose, also, that we find the brook to 
be rich in fertilizing matters. These would be 
favorable indications. Suppose further that the 
make of the ground is such that a water-channel 
(b) could be cheaply cut from or along the side 
of the brook, and around the before-mentioned 
two acres, preserving all the way the turns of 
the brook at a, so that without the expense of 
a dam even, this channel could be always kept 
filled and overflowing with water. But we find 
that the enclosed two acres is of such shape that 
the water, as it runs over the channel, will not 
flow equally over the whole surface, but will 
come together into larger or smaller rills, and 
thus drown a part of the land, without touching 
the rest. The way to obviate this difficulty will 
be to cut catch-drains from which to distribute 
the water again, and so to serve a nearly equal 
distribution over the whole. Let us then cut 
the catch-drain, (c,) humoring its direction to the 
make of the ground, so as to keep the elevation 
equal from end to end. Then, as the water 
flows over this, cut other catch-drains as may 
be necessary to prevent the water forming itself 
into rills, instead of spreading over the whole 
ground; as d, &c. 
If this plot of two acres, done as I have des¬ 
cribed, should be found on trial to have doubled 
its produce, the owner would wish that he could 
get the water of that brook upon other parts of 
his field. The surface of the whole field, except 
these two acres, is higher than the brook, at 
any point within his own enclosure. He finds, 
however, that by going up the stream a few rods 
into his neighbor’s land, he could then draw off 
the water at such an elevation as would carry it 
over the whole slope of land lying north or the 
brook (e, e, e .) This, if he can bargain with his 
neighbor on reasonable terms for the privilege, 
he will be likely to do. But there is one thing 
which he can do without asking favors. On the 
south side of the brook, atjf, is a sandy elevation, 
nearly round in form, and sloping in every di¬ 
rection from the highest point. The soil is un¬ 
fit for mowing, and yet it cannot be fenced out 
without shutting out some of the best of his 
