133
in the shape of ridges. At the end of the meadow, and indeedat the end of every set of beds, there must be a drain (equal tothe size of the feeder that supplies the gutters in the beds withwater), which must carry it oft' into a master drain, or immedi-ately into the river ; and betwixt every two gutters there mustbe a small drain to receive the water that flows over the beds,and carry it into the cross or main drain; only these drains shouldbe begun quite narrow at the upper end of the beds, and increas-ed all the way down to receive the increase of water flowing frorftthe floating gutters. These small drains must be parallel with,and reverse in their dimensions to, the floating gutters ; least atthe upper, and largest at the lower end : whereas the gutters arelargest at the upper end, and smallest at the lower. These smalldrains, if in a dry soil, will do 6 inches wide at the head, and18 inches * at the foot of the ridges. The stuff that is takenout of them, is always wanted to make up hollows, or to makeup the banks of the feeders to carry them through low places tohigher ground; but wherever it is put, it must be properly smooth-ed, to let the water flow regularly over it. When a meadow islarge, and the surface not all upon one, section, but has high andlow places in it, more feeders must be made, and more cross ormaster drains. Sometimes it happens, that a feeder must crossa drain in carrying the water from one eminence to anotherthrough a hollow: In this case a trunk must be made withboards of the size of your drain, and placed in it, and the feedercarried over it. Your trunk must be as much longer than thewidth of the feeder, as will be sufficient to give room for properbanks to your feeder, otherwise the weight of the water willforce them out. If the feeder be small, and the drain large, itwill be cheaper fo make the trunk or spout correspond with thesize of the feeder, and carry the water over the drain in it. Drainswill always require to be deeper in cold, rushy, boggy, or sprittyground, than in dry soils. Hatches or sluices (one or more ac-cording to the size of the feeders) are always necessary in themouths of them, for excluding or admitting the water at plea-sure ; and also for changing it when the meadow is divided intodivisions.
All the foregoing observations will be better understood byconsulting the plates, with their explanations.
It sometimes happens in the north of Scotland , and may fre-quently happen, that the land proposed to be converted into awater-meadow hath been ploughed the year before, and is leftout in crooked, narrow, and irregular-sized ridges, but full ofnatural grass roots : In this case, it is best to plough it again, andmake it into proper ridges, by first levelling it, and then straight-ening the ridges, and gathering them up; so that the crown may
* Or two feet, according to the length of the drain.