200 yds. If possible the water should be taken so far above the meadows as to have sufficient fall without damming up the river. If a dam be absolutely necessary, care must be taken so to build it as to secure the fields on both sides from possible inundation; and it should be constructed substantially, for the cost of repairing accidents to a weak dam is very serious.
Even were the objects of irrigation always identical, the conditions
under which it is carried on are so variable as to preclude
calculations of quantity. Mere making up of necessary
water in droughty seasons is one thing, protection
Quantity
of water.
against frost is another, while the addition of soil
material is a third. Amongst causes of variation in the quantity
of water needed will be its quality and temperature and rate
of flow, the climate, the season, the soil, the subsoil, the artificial
drainage, the slope, the aspect and the crop. In actual practice
the amount of water varies from 300 gallons per acre in the hour
to no less than 28,000 gallons. Where water is used, as in dry
and hot countries, simply as water, less is generally needed than
in cold, damp and northerly climates, where the higher temperature
and the action of the water as manure are of more consequence.
But it is necessary to be thoroughly assured of a good
supply of water before laying out a water-meadow. Except in
a few places where unusual dryness of soil and climate indicate
the employment of water, even in small quantity, merely to
avoid the consequences of drought, irrigation works are not to
be commenced upon a large area, if only a part can ever be
efficiently watered. The engineer must not decide upon the plan
till he has gauged at different seasons the stream which has to
supply the water, and has ascertained the rain-collecting area
available, and the rainfall of the district, as well as the proportion
of storable to percolating and evaporating water. Reservoirs
for storage, or for equalizing the flow, are rarely resorted to in
England; but they are of absolute necessity in those countries
in which it is just when there is least water that it is most wanted.
It is by no means an injudicious plan before laying out a system
of water-meadows, which is intended to be at all extensive,
to prepare a small trial plot, to aid in determining a number of
questions relating to the nature and quantity of the water,
the porosity of the soil, &c.
The quality of the water employed for any of the purposes of irrigation is of much importance. Its dissolved and its suspended matters must both be taken into account. Clear water is usually preferable for grass land, thick for Quality of water. arable land. If it is to be used for warping, or in any way for adding to the solid material of the irrigated land, then the nature and amount of the suspended material are necessarily of more importance than the character of the dissolved substances, provided the latter are not positively injurious. For use on ordinary water-meadows, however, not only is very clear water often found to be perfectly efficient, but water having no more than a few grains of dissolved matter per gallon answers the purposes in view satisfactorily. Water from moors and peat-bogs or from gravel or ferruginous sandstone is generally of small utility so far as plant food is concerned. River water, especially that which has received town sewage, or the drainage of highly manured land, would naturally be considered most suitable for irrigation, but excellent results are obtained also with waters which are uncontaminated with manurial matters, and which contain but 8 or 10 grains per gallon of the usual dissolved constituents of spring water. Experienced English irrigators generally commend as suitable for water-meadows those streams in which fish and waterweeds abound. But the particular plants present in or near the water-supply afford further indications of quality. Water-cress, sweet flag, flowering rush, several potamogetons, water milfoil, water ranunculus, and the reedy sweet watergrass (Glyceria aquatica) rank amongst the criteria of excellence. Less favourable signs are furnished by such plants as Arundo Donax (in Germany), Cicuta virosa and Typha latifolia, which are found in stagnant and torpid waters. Water when it has been used for irrigation generally becomes of less value for the same purpose. This occurs with clear water as well as with turbid, and obviously arises mainly from the loss of plant food which occurs when water filters through or trickles over poor soil. By passing over or through rich soil the water may, however, actually be enriched, just as clear water passed through a charcoal filter which has been long used becomes impure. It has been contended that irrigation water suffers no change in composition by use, since by evaporation of a part of the pure water the dissolved matters in the remainder would be so increased as to make up for any matters removed. But it is forgotten that both the plant and the soil enjoy special powers of selective absorption, which remove and fix the better constituents of the water and leave the less valuable.
Of the few leguminous plants which are in any degree suitable for water-meadows, Lotus corniculatus major, Trifolium hybridum, and T. pratense are those which generally flourish best; T. repens is less successful. Amongst grasses Seeds for water-meadows. the highest place must be assigned to ryegrass, especially to the Italian variety, commonly called Lolium italicum. The mixture of seeds for sowing a water-meadow demands much consideration, and must be modified according to local circumstances of soil, aspect, climate and drainage. From the peculiar use which is made of the produce of an irrigated meadow, and from the conditions to which it is subjected, it is necessary to include in our mixture of seeds some that produce an early crop, some that give an abundant growth, and some that impart sweetness and good flavour, while all the kinds sown must be capable of flourishing on irrigated soil.
The following mixtures of seeds (stated in pounds per acre) have been recommended for sowing on water-meadows, Messrs Sutton of Reading, after considerable experience, regarding No. I. as the more suitable:
| I. | II. | I. | II. | ||
| Lolium perenne | 8 | 12 | Festuca pratensis | 0 | 2 |
| Lolium italicum | 0 | 8 | Festuca loliacea | 3 | 2 |
| Poa trivialis | 6 | 3 | Anthoxanthum odoratum | 0 | 1 |
| Glyceria fluitans | 6 | 2 | Phleum pratense | 4 | 2 |
| Glyceria aquatica | 4 | 1 | Phalaris arundinacea | 3 | 2 |
| Agrostis alba | 0 | 1 | Lotus corniculatus major | 3 | 2 |
| Agrostis stolonifera | 6 | 2 | Trifolium hybridum | 0 | 1 |
| Alopecurus pratensis | 0 | 2 | Trifolium pratense | 0 | 1 |
| Festuca elatior | 3 | 2 | |||
In irrigated meadows, though in a less degree than on sewaged land, the reduction of the amount or even the actual suppression of certain species of plants is occasionally well marked. Sometimes this action is exerted upon the finer grasses, Changes in irrigated herbage. but happily also upon some of the less profitable constituents of the miscellaneous herbage. Thus Ranunculus bulbosus has been observed to become quite rare after a few years’ watering of a meadow in which it had been most abundant, R. acris rather increasing by the same treatment; Plantago media was extinguished and P. lanceolata reduced 70%. Amongst the grasses which may be spared, Aira caespitosa, Briza media and Cynosurus cristatus are generally much reduced by irrigation. Useful grasses which are increased are Lolium perenne and Alopecurus pratensis, and among those of less value Avena favescens, Dactylis glomerata and Poa pratensis.
Four ways of irrigating land with water are practised in England: (1) bedwork irrigation, which is the most efficient although it is also the most costly method by which currents of water can be applied to level land; (2) Methods. catchwork irrigation, in which the same water is caught and used repeatedly; (3) subterraneous or rather upward irrigation, in which the water in the drains is sent upwards through the soil towards the surface; and (4) warping, in which the water is allowed to stand over a level field until it has deposited the mud suspended in it.
There are two things to be attended to most carefully in the construction of a water-meadow on the first or second of these plans. First, no portion of them whatever should be on a dead level, but every part should belong to one or other of a series of true inclined planes. The second point of primary importance is the size and slope of the main conductor, which brings the water from the river to the meadow. The size of this depends
