tie water ; and if there be any such, mark the place ; and thenext season, when the work is trimmed up, widen that place alittle : The stuff so produced will be found useful for making upany places that have sunk in any of the hollows that the feeder-banks are made through, or elsewhere. The first year’s grassmay be mowed over the whole ground, or it may be pasturedwith sheep. Heavy cattle cannot be admitted while the work istender, as they tread and tear the works to pieces. Where thereare no sheep, if the ground is much cut up, it is better to cut therank spots, and let the rest rot upon the ground : the morethere is left in this way on the broken places of the surface, thebetter, as it filters the water the better the next season. 1 havealways found this last way answer very well here in the North ofScotland . But, when the meadow is two years old, black cattlemay be admitted with freedom.
On poor land, or where it has been much cut up, a great cropof grass is not to be looked for before the second or third year,as it must be progressive until the land be properly enriched, whichwill require less or more time according to the state of the land,and the quantity and quality of the water.
Thus, the piece done at Pitfour, for Mr Ferguson, last year,which is about 3\ English acres, (which, together with the re-mainder of the same piece, that lies above the reach of the water,makes about 5£ English acres in whole), let, before it was float-ed, for about 30s. or 40s. altogether, and let that same year,when the work was new, for 31. This year it let for 11/. &s.; andby next year it will be worth more. This piece cost 16/. in mak-®g, exclusive of a hatch, and may cost 20s. or 30s. per annumfor keeping in repair.
The piece mentioned in the Chapter, of about 18| English acres,bas let in past years at about 4/. per acre ; but this year (1813)b let at 80/. in all, or 4/. 8s. per English acre. This shows thatfloating is a progressive and perpetual improvement.
Sect. II. — On the Practice of Irrigation.
A floated meadow, when formed and brought to a full swardsurface, as mentioned in the last Section, must undergo an year-ly repair. Thus, in the month of October, when the aftermathis ate off, the banks of the feeders must be repaired where brokedown by the cattle, and the sand or mud that lodges in any ofthem thrown out. The sides of the feeders and gutters may betrimmed with a large sharp reaping hook ; and the bottoms mayget a slight shovelling out, more or less, according to the quan-tity of filth found in them: This stuff so produced, must be troddown smoothly at the back of the gutters, or put into hollowplaces, &c. ; but it must always be observed, not to clean thefloating gutters so hard at the lower end as at the upper, that themmmishing proportion of its size may not be destroyed, which I
K 2