210 
WATERING. 
wanted, should precede watering, otherwise the grass* 
or hay, cannot be expected to be of the best qua¬ 
lity. 
A number of useless small corn mills is a threat hin- 
derance to the improvement of land by watering. I sel¬ 
dom find that mills erected on large streams prove 
much obstruction to watering meadows; on such large 
streams mills are proper, and sufficient to perform the 
business in most countries; or if not, steam or wind¬ 
mills ought to be erected, which might well answer the 
purpose, and the water might then be applied to a 
much better use. I could easily prove, in many in¬ 
stances, that these small mills do more injury by de¬ 
priving the land of the water, than they are worth, and 
five times more than any service they render the pub¬ 
lic, or their owners ; they also often pound up the wa¬ 
ter so as to prevent many meadows from being under 
drained, to the great injury of the land. 
A farther loss to the land occasioned by these small 
mills, is their retaining the mud, and other rich soil, in 
their mill ponds, which is washed by the heavy rains 
from the adjacent countries. I have known a ten acre 
meadow much benefited by the mud produced from a 
mill pond ; this work, though it saved the miller the 
expense and trouble of doing it himself, he does not 
choose to allow being done, without a premium ; it is 
the work of one day in the year, performed by six or 
seven men with scrapers, to mix the mud with the 
stream, and this thick water floats the meadow over 
during the time allowed. 
Respecting grazing water meadows with sheep, the 
best opinion is, that there is no danger of their taking 
the rot after the first autumnal frost, till it is time to re¬ 
serve 
