drains; if so, the leaders must be made straight, or winding along the highest part of the knolls, whence the water will flow down the slopes to the catch-drains in the hollows."

"Where there are different levels, or where the leaders, from being too long, act imperfectly, the irrigator throws his catch-drains into divisions, by which the whole becomes more effectually watered, in consequence of an accelerated motion being given to the water. Where, however, the plane of the surface of the field presents a considerable descent, the leaders and catch-drains, instead of being carried straight across it, are cut in an angular direction across the line of descent with such an inclination as will best favor the gradual though certain discharge of the water; for in some situations the declivity of the ground is so great as to render it necessary to make leaders at certain distances below each other, to catch the water at different points of the fall and thus prevent its too rapid passage."

A, river; B, head ditch to receive the water; c, leaders to conduct water; d, catch-drains; E, ditch to conduct water back to river; x, fences.

The drains may be made permanent, or may be shovelled out anew each time we plough the field. When once it is laid down to grass, the drains may be grassed like the rest of the field.

When level land is irrigated according to the methods just described, it must be very much ridged

4

in ploughing to insure a flow for the water from the leaders into

the catch-drains.

But level land should never be irrigated unless

the under drainage is very good.

Flow meadows or water meadows are made by damming any brook that crosses a meadow, perhaps even a ditch, making the dam high enough to flow the water back not less than a foot, -better two feet, in cold regions, over the whole field. The water should be deep enough not to freeze to the bottom; for should it freeze to the sward, a rain or flush of water might raise the ice suddenly and tear up the grass with it.

The method of irrigation by catch-drains just described would be very expensive on steep hillsides, or on very undulating surfaces, and is said by some who have tried it not to convey the water to all parts of the field with sufficient rapidity.

Another system better adapted to such surfaces, and recommended by its very simplicity, shall be presently described.

My readers may object that expensive works for irrigation and draining are well enough adapted to the rich lands and men of England, but would be less profitable or possible in the more sterile and cheap lands and on the small farms of New England. The objection would have weight to superficial thinkers only; for irrigation has been most effective on the steep and seemingly sterile hill-sides of the West of England and Scotland.

In such places, comparatively little reliance has been placed on the water in summer, when all brooks and springs are liable to be dried up; but in late autumn and early spring it furnishes grass for pasture. It is turned on, as the season grows cold, and running slowly in a thin sheet over the surface from one catch-drain to the next, by its motion, as has been observed on a preceding page, it keeps the ground over which it runs warmer than the uncovered soil, and thus keeps the grass growing until the cold becomes sufficiently severe to freeze running water to the sod; then the water is shut off, and the icy covering partially protects the grass till a thaw, when the water is at once turned on, be it a spring or a winter thaw, till again frozen, or till cut off by drought.

Thus in the early month of January (corresponding to our March) the running water warms and protects the Grass roots, and the young and tender herbage grows rapidly, furnishing early feed.

Travellers have been astonished in visiting the farms where the practice prevails, to see verdant hill-sides at a season when all else is brown and bare. It will be seen that it is a reasonable practice, and after Nature's example. Call to mind any bleak, unsheltered hill, where a brook runs during fall, winter, and spring, and you will remember the green line of grass that marks the course of the water, long after winter has seized all other green places, and long before spring has proclaimed itself even in the most sheltered. spots. And this early coming and later stay of vegetation is not the only gain; for where pastures and hill-sides are naturally sterile, or covered with moss and sour vegetation from having been too long pastured, a stream of pure water turned so as to trickle over the surface, is found to sweeten the soil, banish moss and rubbish, and produce short, sweet herbage with the same certainty that a top-dressing of wood ashes brings out Clover on every soil.

England is not the only country where this practice has been followed with great advantage. There are many farmers among the Swiss Alps who have irrigated for years without knowing of any similar practice in other countries. These farmers, finding their supply of water in the streams that come from the glaciers, on the very edge of which they live, have converted land that was not worth fencing, into land that cuts six and eight tons of hay to the Their system of irrigation is as follows:

acre.

Having decided upon the size of your "catch-meadow," lay off the hill by the level into lines a, marking them as you go by stones, stakes, or sods raised with the spade; the lines may be at such distance apart as you please, and however near together they may start, the varying inequalities in the field as the lines of level are followed across its face will make any close parallelism between them impossible. Next dig the leaders x; these will be tapped at y, to draw the water into the catch-drains. Beyond the last y the leaders become catch or watering-drains themselves. Now from points equally distant, or at such distances apart as you please, on the line of the first catch-drain, draw straight lines crossing all the lines of level, a, previously laid out at R, to the farthest extremity of the field.

Then take a spade, four to six inches wide at the point, or a

plough invented for the purpose, which cuts and throws out a strip of turf four inches wide, and dig or plough along the lines of level, a, until they are all thus dug out. Your field is now divided by a series of small ditches. To ensure the water's running

a, catch-drains; b, cross-drains; m, dam; o, brook; x, main leader, x', branch-drains; y, branch-leaders.

through these with sufficient rapidity, their inclination may be varied as seems best. Now with spade or plough, cut the transverse lines of drains b, thus dividing the field into irregular quadrilaterals. The b set of lines are the leaders through which

water may be supplied to the top, bottom, or any part of the field at will by inserting into the mouths of the catch-drains pieces of sod cut to fit them exactly, thus blocking out the water when and where we please.

A section of such a field would appear as shown in cut C, where a a and c c are the catch-drains shown before. Cut E shows the intersection of catch and cross-drains.

irrigated. The levels once established, there need be no expense in clearing drains every year or two, for at such intervals the spade or the ditch-plough should run along at the side of the old drain to cut a new one, the sod or earth turned out of this being used to stop up the old drain.

I have urged these two matters of drainage and irrigation at this length, because they are the two surest methods of raising the rental of all our farms, and because there is no land too poor to be benefited by one or the other; and neither is so expensive that any farmer should be terrified. Remember that the English farmers, few of whom are fortunate enough to own the farms on which they live, are obliged to get the profits of their investments in permanent improvements during the continuance of their leases; and yet most of these improvements are made by tenants who hire their whole farms, either at their own expense or by paying interest on money advanced to them to make such improvements, by their landlords or government. These farms are often hundreds of acres in extent, and are leased at rentals, varying from one to fifty dollars per acre, and averaging $12 to $15 per acre, with rates and taxes in addition.