THE SOUTH DOWNS.—WILTSHIRE LANDSCAPE.—CHALK AND
FLINT.—IRRIGATION.—THE COST AND PROFIT OF WATER-MEADOWS.—SEWERAGE
WATER.—IRRIGATION IN OLD TIMES.
[Sidenote: _WILTSHIRE LANDSCAPE._]
Soon after leaving Warminster, began a very different style of
landscape from what I have before seen: long ranges and large groups
of high hills with gentle and gracefully undulating slopes; broad and
deep dells between and within them, through which flow in tortuous
channels streamlets of exceedingly pure, sparkling water. These hills
are bare of trees, except rarely a close body of them, covering a space
of perhaps an acre, and evidently planted by man. Within the shelter
of these you will sometimes see that there is a large farm-house with
a small range of stables. The valleys are cultivated, but the hills in
greater part are covered, without the slightest variety, except what
arises from the changing contour of the ground, with short, wiry grass,
standing thinly, but sufficiently close to give the appearance, at a
little distance from the eye, of a smooth, velvetty, green surface.
Among the first of the hills I observed, at a high elevation, long
angular ramparts and earth-works, all greened over. Within them and
at the summit of the hill were several extensive tumuli, evidently
artificial, (though I find nothing about it in the books,) and on the
top of one of these was a shepherd and dog and a large flock of sheep,
clear and coldly distinct, and appearing of gigantic size against the
leaden clouds behind. In the course of the day I met with many of
these flocks, and nearly all the hill-land seemed given up to them. I
was upon the border, in fact, of the great _South-down_ district, and,
during the next week, the greater part of the country through which we
were travelling, was of the same general character of landscape, though
frequently not as green, varied, and pleasing, as in these outskirts of
it.
Geologically, it is a chalk district, the whole earth, high and low,
and to any depth that I saw it exposed, being more or less of a white
colour, generally gray, but sometimes white as snow. The only mineral
is flint, which occurs in small boulders or pebbles, cased in a
hardened crust of carbonate of lime mingled irregularly with the chalk,
more thickly on the hill-tops, and often gathered in beds. The road
is made of these flint pebbles, broken fine, and their chalk-crust,
powdered by the attrition of wheels, is worked up into a slippery paste
during such heavy rains as I was experiencing, and makes the walking
peculiarly fatiguing. The soil upon the hills is very dry and thin. In
the valleys it is deeper and richer, being composed, in a considerable
part, of the wash of the higher country, and the wheat and forage crops
were often very luxuriant. Advantage is sometimes taken of the streams
to form water-meadows, and the effect of irrigation can often be seen
at a considerable distance in the deeper green and greater density of
the grass upon them. These meadows are of great agricultural value, and
I will give an account of the method of construction and management of
them.
[Sidenote: _WATER MEADOWS._]
An artificial channel is made, into which the water of a brook may
be turned at will. This is carried along for as great a distance as
practicable, so as to skirt the upper sides of fields of a convenient
surface for irrigation. At suitable intervals there are gates and
smaller channels, and eventually a great number of minor ducts, through
which the water is distributed. The fields are divided by low walls,
so that the water can be retained upon them as long as is desired, and
then drawn off to a lower level. Commonly, a series of meadows, held
by different farmers, are flooded from one source, and old custom or
agreement fixes the date of commencing the irrigation and the period of
time at which the water shall be moved from one to another.
The main flooding is usually given in October, after the grass has
been closely eaten off by neat stock. It is then allowed to remain
resting or quietly flowing over the land for two or three weeks; or
for two weeks, and, after an interval of a day or two, for two weeks
more. This consolidates the grassy surface, and encourages the growth
and new formation of roots. The grass springs and grows luxuriantly
after this, and, as soon as it is observed to flag, the water is let
in again for two or three weeks; it may be twice during the winter.
Whenever a scum is observed to form, indicating that decomposition is
commencing below, the water is immediately drawn. In warm weather this
will occur very soon, perhaps in a day or two. I believe the water is
also never allowed, if possible, to freeze upon the meadows. In the
spring, by the middle of March, sometimes sheep and lambs are turned on
to the grass. After being fed pretty closely, they are removed, and the
meadows left for a crop of hay. They are ready for mowing in less than
two months, and are then, after a short interval, pastured again with
horned cattle and horses. Some meadows are never pastured, and yield
three heavy crops of hay. Mr. Pusey (a member of Parliament) declares,
that he keeps sheep upon his water-meadows, in Berkshire, at the rate
of thirty-six an acre, well fed, and intimates his belief that the
produce of grass-land is doubled by irrigation. Grass and hay, however,
from irrigated meadows, are of slightly less nourishing quality. It
is generally said, that a single winter’s flooding will increase the
growth of grass equal to a top-dressing of thirty (thirty bushel) loads
of dung.
We may judge somewhat from these facts and opinions of practical men,
whether, in any given circumstances, we can afford to construct the
dam, channels, gates, sluices, &c., by which we may use this method
of fertilizing our meadows. There are millions of acres in the United
States that could be most readily made subject to the system. The
outlay for permanent works might often be very inconsiderable, and
the labour of making use of them, after construction, would be almost
nothing. The cost of conveying manure, and its distribution by carts
and manual labour, is a very important item in the expenditure of most
of our eastern farms; and, though this is felt much less here, where
labour is so much cheaper, we may obtain many economical hints with
regard to it from British practice. Fields distant from the farmstead,
and hill-lands not easily accessible, should nearly always be enriched
by bone, guano, and other concentrated manures; of which a man may
carry more on his back than will be of equal value with many cart-loads
of dung, or by some other means which will dispense with long and heavy
transportation. I have obtained increased crops, with a saving of some
hundred dollars a-year of expenditure, in this way.
Different streams vary in their value for irrigation. The _muddiest_
streams are the best, as they generally carry suspended a great deal of
the fertile matter of the land through which they have flowed; often,
too, road-washings, and other valuable drainings, have been taken along
with them, and these are caused to be deposited upon the meadow. A
perfectly transparent fluid will often, however, have most valuable
salts in solution; and I noticed that most of the Wiltshire streams
were peculiarly clear, reminding me of the White Mountain trout-brooks.
It is said that streams abounding in fish, and which have abundance of
aquatic plants and luxuriant vegetation upon their borders, are to be
relied upon as the most enriching in their deposit. Streams, into which
the sewerage of large towns is emptied, are often of the greatest value
for agricultural purposes. A stream thus enriched is turned to the most
important account near Edinburgh: certain lands, which were formerly
barren wastes, being merely the clean, dry sands thrown up by the sea
in former times, having been arranged so that they may be flowed by
this stream. The expense of the operation was great—about one hundred
dollars an acre—and the annual cost of flooding is very much greater
than usual—four or five dollars an acre; but the crops of hay are so
frequent and enormous, (ten cuttings being made in a season,) that some
parts of the meadow _rent_ for _one hundred dollars_ a-year for one
acre, and none for less than seventy-five dollars!
[Sidenote: _SEWERAGE MANURE._]
It is estimated by the distinguished agriculturist, Smith of Deanston,
that the sewerage-water of a town may be contracted for, to be
delivered, (sent by subterranean pipes and branches, so that it may be
distributed over any required surface,) eleven miles out of town, for
_four cents a-ton_. Mr. Hawksley, a prudent engineer, offers to convey
it five miles, and raise it two hundred feet, for _five cents a-ton_;
the expense of carting it to the same distance and elevation being
estimated at about $1. Another estimate makes the expense of conveying
and distributing manure, in the solid form, as compared with liquid, at
fifteen dollars to seventy-five cents, for equal fertilizing values.
Professor Johnston estimates the fertilizing value, _per annum_, of the
sewerage of a town of one thousand inhabitants, as equal to a quantity
of guano which, at present American prices, would be worth $13,000.
Smith of Deanston estimates the cost of manuring an acre by sewerage,
conveyed in aqueducts and distributed by jet-pipes, at three dollars
an acre, and that of fertilizing it to an equal degree, in the usual
way, by farm-yard manure, at fifteen dollars. Considering that the
expense of conveyance and distribution of solid manure is much greater
in America than in England, these figures will not be thought to be
without personal interest to us.
The use of manure-drainings and the urine of the cattle of a farm, very
much diluted with spring water, has been found to have such astonishing
immediate effects, when distributed over young herbage, that several
English agricultural pioneers are making extensive and costly permanent
arrangements for its distribution, from their stables, over large
surfaces. It is first collected in tanks, where it is retained until
putrefied, and mixed with the water of irrigation. This is then driven
by forcing-pumps into the pipes which convey it, so that it can be
distributed (in one case, over one hundred and seventy acres.) The
pipes are hard-burnt clay tubes, an inch thick, joined with cement,
costing here about twelve and a-half cents a-yard. The pipe is laid
under ground, and at convenient intervals there are heads coming to the
surface with stop-cocks, where a hose can be attached and the water
further guided in any direction. For greater distances, a cart like
those used for sprinkling the dusty streets of our cities is used. It
is conjectured by some that, eventually, all manure will be furnished
to land in a state of solution.
[Sidenote: _GARDEN IRRIGATION._]
I believe irrigation is only used for the benefit of grass-lands in
England; but it probably might be found of great advantage to some
other valuable crops. I have seen large fields of roots, apparently
of the character of turnips, irrigated in China, and it is well
known that rice is every where flooded in tropical countries. I
suspect that irrigation, and even that expensive form of it that I
have last described, might be profitably used, for certain plants,
by our market-gardeners; I judge so of celery and asparagus; and it
is well known that enormous strawberries, and unusually large and
long-continuing crops of them, have resulted from an inefficient and
unsystematic kind of irrigation. A small experiment that I made with
Indian corn resulted in a great growth of stalk and in small and
unhealthy malformed grain.
Irrigation is of the least advantage upon heavy clay soils, and of the
greatest upon light sandy loams with gravelly subsoils. It is very
desirable that the construction of the soil should be such that the
water may gradually and somewhat rapidly filter through it; and it is
considered of great importance, when the water is drawn off, after
the flooding, (_drowning_ is the local term,) that it should be very
completely removed, leaving no small pools upon the surface. Stagnating
water, either above or below the surface, is very poisonous to most
plants.
I may remind those who have a prejudice against new practices in
agriculture, that irrigation was practised as long ago as the days
of the patriarchs. In this part of England it has been in use since
about the beginning of the seventeenth century, at which time an
agreeably-written book on the subject was published by one Rowland
Vaughan, Esq. The account of the way that he was first led to make
systematic trial of irrigation, and the manner in which he proceeded,
is amusing and instructive:—
“In the month of March I happened to find a mole or wont’s nest
raised on the brim of a brook in my meade, like a great hillock;
and from it there issued a little streame of water, (drawn by the
working of the mole,) down a shelving ground, one pace broad, and
some twenty in length. The running of this little streame did at that
time wonderfully content me, seeing it pleasing greene, and that
other land on both sides was full of moss, and hide-bound for want of
water. This was the first cause I undertook the drowning of grounds.
“Now to proceed to the execution of my worke: being perswaded of the
excellency of the water, I examined how many foote fall the brooke
yielded from my mill to the uppermost part of my grounds, being
in length a measured mile. There laye of medow land thirty acres
overworn with age, and heavily laden with moss, cowslips, and much
other imperfect grass, betwixt my mill stream and the maine river,
which (with two shillings cost) my grandfather and his grandsire,
with the rest, might have drowned at their pleasures; but from the
beginning never any thing was done, that either tradition or record
could witness, or any other testimonie.
“Having viewed the convenientest place, which the uppermost part of
my ground would afforde for placing a commanding weare or sluce, I
espied divers water falls on my neighbours’ grounds, higher than mine
by seven or eight foote: which gave me great advantage of drowning
more ground, than I was of mine own power able to do.
“I acquainted them with my purpose; the one being a gentleman of
worth and good nature, gave me leave to plant the one end of my
weare on his side the river: the other, my tenant, being very aged
and simple, by no perswasion I could use, would yield his consent,
alleging it would marre his grounds, yea, sometimes his apple trees;
and men told him, water would raise the rush, and kill his cowslips,
which was the chiefest flower his daughters had to tricke the
May-pole withal.
“After I had wrought thus farre, I caused my servant, a joyner, to
make a levell to discover what quantity of ground I might obtaine
from the entry of the water; allowing his doubling course, compassing
hills to carry it plym or even, which fell out to be some three
hundred acres.
“After I had plymmed it upon a true levell, I betooke myself to
the favour of my tenants, friends, and neighbours, in running
my maine trench, which I call my trench-royal. I call it so,
because I have within the contents of my worke, counter-trenches,
defending-trenches, topping-trenches, winter and summer-trenches,
double and treble-trenches, a traversing-trench with a point, and an
everlasting trench, with other troublesome trenches, which in a map
I will more lively expresse. When the inhabitants of the country,
wherein I inhabit, (namely the Golden Valley,) saw I had begun some
part of my worke, they summoned a consultation against me and my man
John, the leveller, saying our wits were in our hands, not in our
heads; so we both, for three or four years lay levell to the whole
country’s censure for such engineers as their forefathers heard not
of, nor they well able to endure without merryments.
“In the running and casting of my trench-royal, though it were
levelled from the beginning to the end, upon the face of the ground,
yet in the bottom I did likewise levell it to avoyde error.
“For the breadth and depth, my proportion is ten foote broad, and
four foote deep; unless in the beginning, to fetch the water to my
drowning grounds, I ran it some half mile eight foote deep, and in
some places sixteen foote broad. All the rest of the course for two
miles and a-half in length, according to my former proportion. When
my worke began in the eye of the country to carry a shew of profit,
it pleased many out of their courtesie to give it commendations, and
applaud the invention.”
[Sidenote: _MAIDS AND MEADOWS._]
The author then makes a considerable digression, to account for a delay
in his proceedings, which was occasioned by processes issued against
him from the courts of Star Chamber, Chancery, and Wardes, to compel
him to deliver his niece and ward into their custody.
“These courts,” he observes, “bred more white haires in my head in
one year than all my wet-shod water-works did in sixteen. So leaving
my wanton ward in London, in the custody of a precisian or puritan
taylor, who would not endure to heare one of his journeymen sweare by
the cross of his shears; so full was he of sanctity in deceipt. But
the first news I heard was, that he had married my Welch niece to his
English nephew; and at my return, I was driven to take his word, that
he was neither privy to the contract, nor the marriage.”
Mr. Vaughan next gives the following directions for carrying this plan
into effect:—
“Having prepared your drowning course, be very careful that all the
ground subject to the same, whether meadow, pasture, or arable, be
as plain as any garden-plotte, and without furrows. Then follows
your attendance in flood-times: see that you suffer not your flood
water by negligence to pass away into the brooke, river, and sea, but
by your sluice command it to your grounds, and continue it playing
thereon so long as it appears muddy. In the beginning of March clear
your ground of cold water, and keep it as dry as a child under the
hands of a dainty nurse; observing generally that sandy ground will
endure ten times more water than the clay. A day or two before you
mow, if sufficient showers have not qualified the drought of your
ground, let down your sluice into your trench-royal, that thereby
you may command so much water to serve your turn as you desire.
Suffer it to descend where you mean first to mow, and you shall find
this manner of drowning in the morning before you mow so profitable
and good, that commonly you gain ten or twelve days’ advantage in
growing. For drowning before mowing, a day, or even two or three, so
supplies the ground, that it doth most sweetly release the root of
every particular grasse, although the sun be never so extream hot.
This practice will often make good a second mowing, and in walking
over grounds, I will tread as on velvet, or a Turkey carpet.”