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of money, has tended to the division of property, and to the increase of the number of small freeholders in many parts of the kingdom. Lords of manors who were inclined to dispose of their property, found they could make more of it by parcelling it out in small lots, than by selling it in. entire manors. But this has been chiefly the case where land lay in the neighbourhood of great towns, and particularly where it could be applied to pasture.

"In this district it has been otherwise; the small number of great towns in the south-east part of Wilts; the difficulty of raising quick fences in high and exposed situations; the inaptitude of the land to turn into pasture; and, above all, the indivisibility of the manors occasioned by their aukward shape, and the detached situation of the several pieces composing each estate; the difficulty of getting rid of the common rights over the lands, and of course the impossibility of making much improvement in their value, seem to be the principal reasons that very few manors have been dismembered, and sold off among small freeholders.

"The residence of so many of the principal land owners in the county, on account of its reputed good air, and its eligibility for sporting, has also contributed in a great degree to prevent any great dismemberment of property."

IMPROVEMENT of Estates.-Reclaiming wild Lands.Sodburning. Mr. Davis is peculiarly argumentative, on this controversial topic. His good sense, however, brings him, on this occasion, as on most others, to the confine of truth; as the following short extract, taken from near the close of his remarks, on "Burnbeaking," sufficiently evince.-P. 94. "But however burnbeaking may be proper in proper cases, for breaking up new land, it is a matter of very serious consideration, how far the system of burnbeaking lately introduced, and which seems to gain ground as a general system, upon old arable land on Wiltshire downs, can be reconciled to the rules of good husbandry." IRRIGATION. On this subject, we find Mr. Davis superiorly intelligent. He has evidently bestowed much thought upon it,-in an ample and the best field of practice this island affords.

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The History of the Wiltshire Water Meadows.-P. 30. "There is, perhaps, no part of this kingdom, where the system of watering meadows is so well understood, and carried to so great perfection, as in this district.This, which is so justly called by Mr. Kent the greatest and most valuable of all improvements,' was generally introduced into this district in the latter end of the last, and the beginning of this century. Many of the most valuable and best formed meadows, particularly in the Wyley Bourn,

were

were made under the directions of one farmer Baverstock, of Stockton, between the year 1700, and the year 1705. And at present there is scarcely a river or brook in the district, that is not applied in some way or other to this purpose.

An imperfect scheme of watering, had undoubtedly been practised before that period. Perhaps indeed its introduction into this district, is almost coeval with that of folding sheep, with which it is intimately connected. But the regular mode, in which both systems are now conducted, is certainly not very ancient. Many old farmers, who have died within the memory of man, remembered when neither of the systems was conducted on any regular plan.

"Theory of water-meadows.-The idea of watering meadows, so far as it relates to bringing the water upon the land, was taken from nature. It must have been always observed, that winter floods produced fertility, provided the water did not remain too long on the land. The idea of taking the water off the land at will, and bringing it on again at will, is the effect of art; and the knowledge of the proper time to do this, the effect of observation."

P. 31. "Nature and properties of water-meadows.—It has been already premised, that the principle of a watermeadow, is the power of bringing on and carrying off the water at pleasure. And provided this great object can be accomplished, it is not material what the shape of a watermeadow is, or that the disposition of the trenches (pro. vincially the works of the meadow,') should be uniform. But as very little land can be entirely commanded by water, unless its inequalities are reduced by manual labour,-it has been found convenient to adopt two different kinds of water-meadows, one for land lying on declivities, and which must in general be watered from springs or small brooks, and the other for low land near rivers, to be watered from 'those rivers.

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"The first kind is called in Wiltshire, catch work meadows,' and the latter flowing meadows. The latter are by far the most general in this district."

The former of those methods belong to the Devonshire practice, rather then to that of Wiltshire. I therefore pass on to the latter;-which might be emphatically named the Wiltshire practice.

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P. 33. Flowing meadows described.-The other kind of water-meadows, viz. those usually called Flowing Meadows,' require much more labour and system in their formation. The land applicable to this purpose being fre

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quently a fat morass, the first object to be considered is, how the water is to be got off when once brought on; and in such situations this can seldom be done, without throwing up the land in high ridges, with deep drains between them. A main carriage being then taken out of the river at a higher level, so as to command the tops of these ridges, the water is carried by small trenches or carriages along the top of each ridge, and, by means of moveable stops of earth, is thrown over on each side, and received in the drains below, from whence it is collected into a main drain, and carried on to water other meadows, or other parts of the same meadow below. One tier of these ridges being usually watered at once, is usually called a Pitch of Work; and it is usual to make the ridges thirty or forty feet wide, or, if water is abundant, perhaps sixty feet, and nine or ten poles in length, or longer, according to the strength and plenty of the water.

"It is obvious from this description, that as the water in this kind of meadow is not used again and again, in one pitch, as in the catch meadows, that this method is only applicable to large streams, or to valleys subject to floods; and as these ridges must be formed by manual labour, the expence of this kind of meadow must necessarily exceed the more simple method first described: and the hatches that are necessary to manage and temper the water on rivers, must be much more expensive than those on small brooks.

"The expence, therefore, of the first making such a meadow as this is, will be from twelve pounds to twenty pounds per acre, according to the difficulty of the ground, and the quantity of hatch-work required: but the improvement in the value of the land by this operation is astonishing. The abstract value of a good meadow of this kind, may fairly be called three pounds per acre; but its value, when taken as part of a farm, and particularly of a sheepbreeding farm, is almost beyond computation; and when such a meadow is once made, it may be said to be made for ever, the whole expence of keeping up the works, and watering it frequently, not exceeding five shillings per acre yearly, and the expence of the hatches, if well done at first, being a mere trifle for a number of years afterwards." P. 34. Supposed quantity of water-meadows in this district. The number of acres of land in this district, under this kind of management, has been computed, and with a tolerable degree of accuracy, to be between 15 and 20,000

acres.

"

"Indeed, it has been found so very beneficial, that very few spots of land capable of being watered, remain other.

wise, unless where some water mill stands in the way, or where some person who has the command of the water above, refuses to let it be taken out of its natural course to water the lands below.

"Some new meadows might be made, and very great and beneficial alterations made in the old ones, if some plan could be adopted to get the command of water where necessary for this purpose, and particularly in the case of water mills. A remedy for this will be afterwards proposed."

P. 103. "Use of water-meadows.-The water-meadows of Wiltshire, and the neighbouring counties, are a branch of husbandry that can never be too much recommended.

"In speaking of water-meadows, it has been often object-ed, that they are local; and that there are many parts of the kingdom in which they neither can be made, nor are they necessary if they could be made.

"There are, undoubtedly, many parts of the kingdom in which water-meadows cannot be made; but nobody will deny, but there are thousands of situations where they could be made, in which they have never been tried. And as for their use, it may be strongly suspected, that those who deny it have never been in Wiltshire in the month of April. Let those who call it in question, point out a substitute, on which a farmer can, with equal certainty, depend for the sustenance of his flock in that trying month.

"Whatever may be the earliness of the season, with respect to the springing of either ray grass or meadow grass, water-meadows will be a month before either.

"And notwithstanding the great advantages that have been derived from the introduction of green winter crops, such as turnips, rape, cabbages, &c. (advantages to this kingdom almost beyond estimate) yet this may be laid down as a certain maxim, that, whether the winter be hard or mild-whether the spring be late or early-nature will always have, in this climate, an interregnum'" (!) "between the end of one year's food and the beginning of another. The same temperature of the air in the spring, which brings on the grass, will occasion all the green winter crops to run to seed, and not only to lose their own nourishing quality, but to exhaust the land on which they grow.

"A moment's reflection will convince every man, that nature must unavoidably and constantly leave this chasm in the year's food. Winter, though driven into a small compass, is still winter, and art alone can expunge it from the kalendar."

P. 37. "Management of water-meadows.-The manage. ment of water-meadows (as nearly as it can be described in

an account necessarily so concise as this), is in the following way:

"As soon as the after-grass is eaten off as bare as can be, the manager of the mead (provincially the drowner') begins cleaning out the main drain, then the main carriage, and then proceeds to right up the works,' that is, to make good all the water carriages that the cattle have trodden down, and open all the drains they may have trodden in, so as to have one tier or pitch of work ready for drowning,' and which is then put under water (if water is plenty enough), during the time the drowners is righting up the next pitch. In the flowing meadows this work is, or ought to be, done early enough in the autumn, to have the whole mead ready to catch, if possible, the first floods after Michaelmas,' the water being then thick and good," being the first washing of the arable land on the sides of the chalk hills, as well as of the dirt from the roads, &c. &c.

"The length of this autumn watering cannot always be determined, as it depends on situations and circumstances; but if water can be commanded in plenty, the rule is to give it a thorough good soaking' at first, perhaps, a fortnight or three weeks, with a dry interval of a day or two, and sometimes two fortnights, with a dry interval of a week, and then the works are made as dry as possible, to encourage the growth of the grass. This first soaking is to make the land sink and pitch close together; a circumstance of great consequence, not only to the quantity but to the quality of the grass, and particularly to encourage the shooting of the new roots which the grass is continually forming, to support the forced growth above.

"While the grass grows freely, a fresh watering is not wanted, but as soon as it flags, the watering may be repeated for a few days at a time, whenever there is an opportunity of getting water, always keeping this fundamental rule in view, to make the meadows as dry as possible between every watering; and to stop the water, the moment the appearance of any scum on the land, shews that it has already had water enough.'

"Some meadows that will bear the water three weeks in October, November, or December, will, perhaps, not bear it a week in February or March, and sometimes scarcely two days in April or May."

P. 38. "Custom of feeding meadows with sheep.-It has already been said, that the great object in this district of an early crop of water-meadow grass, is to enable the farmer to breed early lambs.

"As soon as the lambs are able to travel with the ewes,

(perhaps

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