THE CULTIVATOR. 
17 
quality of this rule will appear by supposing two individuals to start 
in business with a credit each of $10,000: one buys a farm for this 
amount, and the other buys merchandize. Neither are in fact worth 
any thing, above their debts. By the existing law, the farmer would 
be compelled to pay a tax on $10,000, while the merchant would not 
be required to pay a cent’s tax. Is this right? Is it equitable? Does 
this not savor somewhat of the spirit of the aristocratic notions of the 
old world, which imposes onerous burthens upon the farmer? The 
impression is irresistible upon my mind, that although we have done 
much to elevate the farmer to his true rank in society, we have not 
done enough to improve the powers of his intellect—to make him wise 
in his business, and useful to the republic. 
I come now to the question, what can this convention do in further¬ 
ance of these great objects ? To this I reply—imitate the industry, 
liberality and perseverance of the good men who have achieved equal¬ 
ly difficult tasks, in other branches of public improvement, in our day 
and country. Inform the public mind, digest your plans, and enlist 
the co-operation of your fellow citizens. Petition your legislature for 
the aid which justice and sound policy demand; and if they deny or 
neglect your prayers, carry your appeal to their fears:— threaten, 
that, with respectful but persevering importunity; <you will continue 
to urge your claims, till more auspicious times, or a more enlightened 
policy, shall crown your efforts with success. Imitate the persever¬ 
ing examples of Ami Dardin and Corn’s Higgins, who renewed their 
applications for legislative justice, or legislative bounty, for more than 
twenty years, and until they finally gained a hearing, and got their 
reward. There is no dishonor in being discomfited in a good cause, 
even twice or thrice, and there is much pleasure in finally triumphing. 
THE CULTIVATOR-APRIL, 1836. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
IRRIGATION. 
A highly respected correspondent thinks we have done wrong in dis¬ 
couraging irrigation, in our January number, and suggests, that the 
turning water from the highway, on to meadows, charged with fer¬ 
tilizing matters, constitutes a branch of irrigation. Our remarks have 
also attracted the notice of the Hon. J. W. Lincoln, who in the New- 
England Farmer has expressed his “ deep regret” at the error of our 
opinion; and he quotes Blith, Parkinson, Davy, Sinclair, &c. to prove, 
that irrigation is a great improver of land, and that it adds greatly to 
its products. All this we can readily admit, without, however, acced¬ 
ing to the proposition, that this branch of improvement, in its syste¬ 
matic form, is suited to the present condition of our husbandry. Where 
every rood, or where every acre of land, is made to support a human 
being, and the price of labor merely nominal, great expenditure in 
improving the soil is justifiable and often necessary. But in our coun¬ 
try, where the best wild land can be had for ten shillings an acre, and 
where labor is high, the case is far different. In many parts of the 
old continent, trenching, or spade husbandry, is extensively resorted 
to for field crops; and this both improves the soil and increases its 
products. Yet no one would venture to recommend it as a suitable I 
farm practice here. Circumstances alter cases. 
The first chapter on irrigation, suggested by our correspondent, that 
of diverting the waters from highways, charged with earthy and ve¬ 
getable matters, upon meadows, does not, in our view, belong to ir¬ 
rigation, nor do we find such a construction sanctioned in any work 
that has fallen under our notice. This practice we decidedly recom¬ 
mend. Irrigation implies the command of water, and its use at stated 
periods, and not a dependance upon the clouds for a supply. We spoke 
of systematic irrigation, not of accidental. And we are prepared also 
to admit, that in some peculiar cases, and to a limited extent, irriga¬ 
tion may be adopted with advantage even here. Our proposition is, 
that as a general mode of improvement, or even one of moderate ex¬ 
tent, the system of irrigation adopted in Wilts and Gloucester, in Bri¬ 
tain, which counties have been cited as examples, is unsuited to our 
climate and scale of agricultural expenditure. The high respect we 
entertain for the gentlemen from whose opinion we dissent in this mat¬ 
ter, compels us, at least from courtesy, to state the ground of our dis¬ 
sent. They may be comprised under the following heads. 
1. Irrigation seriously interferes with the system of alternating crops, 
one of the greatest improvements in modern husbandry. 
2. It produces coarse and innutricious herbage. 
3. It tends to engender disease, in man and beast. 
4. It costs more than it comes to. 
5. All its advantages may be obtained by good culture. And 
6. Its benefits have not yet been demonstrated in our practice. 
1. The fact is not generally known, that “over the greatest part of 
England land is kept permanently in grass, for the purpose of mowing. 
This system has become the very habit of the country, and by the ge¬ 
neral adoption of it, beyond a question, a vast public loss is sustained.” 
— Low. This grows out of a long perpetuated prejudice in the land¬ 
holders, who are not the practical farmers, but who make it a condi¬ 
tion in their leases. Hence irrigation is resorted to, but even then to 
a limited extent, to remedy the defects of a bad practice, at war with 
the first principles of nature, and to increase the otherwise scanty 
herbage on meadows which have lain in grass hundreds of years. But 
in the best cultivated districts of Great Britain, where modern improve¬ 
ment has been most apparent, as in Norfolk and in Scotland, and where 
the alternating system lays at the foundation of farm profits, irrigation 
is not practised. In these districts there are no perennial meadows. 
By good draining, all grounds are made to alternate in grain, grass and 
roots. Do the sagacious, industrious and money-making Scotch be¬ 
lieve in the utility of irrigation ? Loudon says this art is not practised 
in Scotland ; and Low, her late and popular writer and professor of 
agriculture, says, “ in the north of England the practice almost ceases; 
and on the Scottish side of the Tweed it is yet hardly known as a branch 
of the rural art.” 
2. The flooding of meadows must necessarily encourage the growth 
of rank coarse herbage, far less nutritious than that which grows upon 
dry grounds ; and unless the land is so fitted that the water may be en¬ 
tirely drawn off when required', and this requires generally previous 
and efficient under-draining, the evil will be a growing and a serious 
one. 
3. Stagnant waters, and soils highly saturated with water, when the 
vegetable growth of the season is undergoing decay, are always pre¬ 
judicial to health. “ It is by summer flooding,” says Low, “ that the 
fatal disease of rot is introduced, so that no sheep should ever touch 
the meadows which have been flooded during the summer months.” 
4. To fit lands for irrigation, it is necessary, first, that the surface 
should be a horizontal level, that the whole may be flooded with wa¬ 
ter, with suitable embankments and drains, that it may be let on or 
drawn off at pleasure; or second, that the surlace be so graded, and 
the ground furnished with conductors, feeders, drains, &c. that the 
water may be made to run —for it will not do to permit it to stand, and 
become stagnant—over the whole surface, and also to be drawn off. A 
common way is to conduct the water along the upper side of the mea¬ 
dow, to lay the land in ridges in the direction of the inclined plane be¬ 
low, and to conduct the water in shallow feeders along the tops of these 
ridges, and permitting it to filter down the slopes of these ridges, on 
each side, to the centre furrows, where narrow drains are constructed 
to carry it off. The expense varies according to the mode of irriga¬ 
tion, and the nature of the ground. Although, according to Smith 
and Loudon, it may ordinarily range from five to ten pounds per acre, 
(=to $22 to $44) and is sometimesless, yet that in Wiltshire, to which 
we are referred as a pattern, and “where they are anxious to have 
their meadows formed in the most perfect manner, the expense per 
acre has amounted to £40,” ( =to $177.60.) When we consider that in 
Wiltshire it is a business which has been learnt, and compare the price 
of labor in the two countries, it cannot be extravagant to say, that ir¬ 
rigation would cost fifty per cent more here than it does in Britain. 
We are afraid our farmers would rather purchase new lands, at a mo¬ 
derate price, than bestow this much to render old lands productive, as 
water meadows. It is no easy task, says Smith on irrigation, to give 
an irregular surface that regular yet various figure which shall be fit 
for the overflowing of water. It is very necessary for the operator to 
have just ideas of levels, lines and angles; a knowledge of superficial 
forms will not be sufficient; accurate notions of solid geometry are ab¬ 
solutely necessary to put such a surface proper for the reception of 
water, without the trouble and expense of doing much of the work 
twice over. 
5. This proposition is proved by the practice of Scotland and Nor¬ 
folk, already noticed,—and by the opinions of some of the best prac¬ 
tical farmers. “Mr. Bukham,” says Sir Arthur Young, “asserts it as 
a fact, of which he has not the least doubt, that tillage, well managed, 
would support as much live stock, on the seed, turnips and straw, as 
the same land would do all under grass; consequently, the corn is all 
gain to the public.— I am certain it would” —adds Sir Arthur. 
Young meadows produce, besides, a far greater burthen than old ones; 
their herbage is much sweeter and more nutritious ; and their sward 
constitutues an excellent preparation for heavy crops of grain and 
roots. “ It cannot be doubted,” says Low. “ that the produce of the 
cultivated meadow, consisting of the superior grasses and clovers alone, 
in their young and more juicy state, must be greatly superior to that 
of the old grasses, mixed as they always are with a class of inferior 
plants.” How greatly will it add to this disparity, if we mix with the 
old grasses, rushes and water plants, which more or less follow irra- 
gation. 
6. The gentlemen who are opposed to us in opinion are both men 
of wealth, and withal practical farmers. Have they introduced sys¬ 
tematic irrigation on their farms? and if yea, to what extent, and 
with what success? Or will they furnish us data of its profitable in¬ 
troduction, on any thing like an extensive scale, in our northern states ? 
We often see European methods of culture recommended to our prac- 
