1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
203 
the good effects of irrigation are produced only by 
running water —coarse grasses and marsh plants 
springing up when the water is allowed to stagnate. 
Running water comes upon the field charged with 
gaseous matter, with oxygen and nitrogen, and car¬ 
bonic acid, in proportions very different from those 
in which these gases are mixed together in the air. 
To the root and to the leaf also, it carries these gas¬ 
eous substances. The oxygen is worked up in aid¬ 
ing the decomposition of decaying vegetable mat¬ 
ter. The carbonic acid is absorbed by and feeds the 
plant. Let the same water remain on the same 
spot, and the supply of these gaseous substances is 
soon exhausted. In its state of rest it re-absorbs 
new portions from the air with comparative slow¬ 
ness. But let it flow along the surface of the field, 
exposing every moment new particles to the moving 
air, and it takes in the carbonic acid especially with 
much rapidity, and as it takes it from the air almost 
as readily, again gives it up to the leaf or the root 
with which it first comes into contact. But further, 
if water be allowed to stagnate over the finer gras¬ 
ses, they soon find themselves in circumstances in 
which it is not consistent with their nature to exhib¬ 
it a healthy growth. They droop, therefore, and die; 
and are succeeded by new races, to which the wet 
land is more congenial.” 
In addition to the watered meadow, Col. Lincoln 
has several acres of upland, situated on a southern 
slope, which he irrigates temporarily by turning on 
a small stream issuing from springs in the highlands 
beyond, and which receives sufficient accessions 
from the rains and melting snows of early spring 
to adapt it to that purpose. The brook is brought 
on to this land at the highest point in the slope ; a 
ditch, made by the^ plow, runs aross the land, at 
right angles with the descent, and the water, trick¬ 
ling over the lower side of the ditch, diffuses itself 
over the surface for a considerable breadth, until 
it is caught by another ditch, lower down, and par¬ 
allel to the first, when it is again spread, and so on, 
to the bottom of the slope. If for any reason it is 
desirable to bring the water on to the land at a low¬ 
er point than the first named ditch, it can be done by 
regulating the gates at the mouth of the ditches. 
In this system of irrigation it is not found to be so 
important as in the flat land mode, to change the 
water from place to place frequently, though it is 
still well to vary its course at short intervals, giving 
equal benefit to all portions of the land. 
Col. Lincoln thinks that irrigation should not be 
neglected by any farmer who can turn even a small 
stream, or springs, on to his grass lands for only a 
few weeks in the spring. On land thus partially ir¬ 
rigated, the grass starts very early, the earth hav¬ 
ing acquired a thicker covering, is afterwards less 
affected by drouth, and the crop of hay, although 
less than on lands receiving a more constant water¬ 
ing, is yet much superior to that on adjoining land, 
of equal quality of soil, on which water has not been 
turned. There are many temporary streams, form¬ 
ed in hilly districts in the spring of the year by the 
rains and melting snow, that collect in their course 
a rich sediment, which may be arrested and distribu¬ 
ted by the water among the grass roots of our pas¬ 
tures and mowings, instead of passing to the river 
to make a useless deposit in its bed, or aiding to fill 
up a neighboring mill-pond. Oftentimes, too, by 
throwing a cheap embankment or dam across the 
lower end of valleys among the hills, these waters 
may be bottled up for a more prolonged use. 
Even spring water, containing no perceptible se¬ 
diment, is found in practice to be very beneficial in 
irrigation. Prof. Johnston remarks that “in lime¬ 
stone districts, these waters are generally impreg¬ 
nated with carbonate of lime, and in other districts 
again, the springs contain gypsum and common salt, 
and sulphate of soda and sulphate of magnesia, and 
thus are capable of imparting to plants many of 
those inorganic forms of matter, without which they 
cannot exhibit a healthy growth.” 
Sir Humphrey Davy remarks that “even in cases 
where the water used for flooding is pure, and free 
from animal or vegetable substances, it acts by caus¬ 
ing the more equable diffusion of nutritive matter 
already existing in the land; and in cold weather it 
preserves the tender roots and leaves of the grass 
from being affected by frost. In 1804, in the month 
of March, I examined the temperature in a water 
meadow near Hungerford, in Berkshire, by a very 
delicate thermometer. The temperature of the air 
at seven in the mornifig was 29 deg. The water 
was frozen above the grass. The temperature of 
the soil below the water, in which the roots of the 
grass were fixed, was 43 deg.” 
Sinclair, in his Code of Agriculture , remarks that 
“clear spring water, in the state in wffiich it issues 
from the hills, is certainly of a fertilizing quality; 
anol in either cold or hot weather, it moderates the 
temperature of the soil. Clear spring water may 
also be used longer than the foul or muddy, being 
less apt to render the grass gritty and unwholesome; 
hence some give a preference to clean watered 
crops.” 
Several interesting experiments have been made 
by distinguished philosophers, showing the effects 
of pure water upon vegetation. 
“Mr. Boyle dried in an oven, a proper quantity 
of earth proper for vegetation, and after carefully 
weighing it, planted in it the seed of a gourd. He 
watered it with pure rain water, and it produced a 
plant which weighed fourteen pounds, though the 
earth producing it had suffered no sensible dimuni* 
tion.” 
“A willow tree was planted by Van Helmont, in 
a vessel containing a thousand pounds of earth. 
This plant was watered with distilled water; and 
the vessel was so covered as to exclude all solid 
matter. At the end of five years, upon taking out 
the plant, he found it had increased in weight 119 
pounds, though the earth had lost only two ounces 
of its original weight.” 
There is another theory as to the action of sim¬ 
ple water when used for irrigaton, which I will 
state. It is believed by some that all plants excrete 
certain matters from their roots which are hurtful to 
other plants of the same kind; that the cultivated 
grasses, being in time affected by their own excre¬ 
tions, do not continue permanently healthy in the 
same site, and therefore mosses and other inferior 
plants, spring up and extirpate them; that the wa¬ 
ter of irrigation, in its descent through the soil and 
subsoil, washes away this excrementitious matter 
from the roots of the grasses, and carries it off in 
solution; and that hence, in a good degree, the 
healthfulness and verdure of irrigated meadows. 
After taking a good look at Col. Lincoln’s irriga¬ 
tion, I accompanied him down the river into Rhode 
Island, to view the watered meadows which there 
so frequently occur. Some of the meadows pre¬ 
serve their original surface, and the ditches are laid 
out, and the water distributed, in a way precisely 
like that practiced by Col. L. Other meadows have 
been graduated by the plow and scraper, so as to 
present a surface best adapted to s} r stematic irriga¬ 
tion . A mound of earth is raised, extending through 
the centre of the meadow in its entire length, and a 
carrier ditch, starting from the dam in the stream, 
