have seen sometimes done by people inexpert in the business, asWhere and when it was necessary to pare the sides with a spade.
The drains will do with cleansing once in two or three years inthe North of Scotland , as there is not a long time for pasturinghere with cattle when the crop is cut for hay. <
The stuff produced from the cleansing of the drairiSj is put intohollows, or used to mend the low places in the feeder-banks, See.
N. B. The works should always be got ready in October to re-ceive the autumnal floods in November; and even in October, ifthe work was not all cleansed, and a flood was coming down af-ter a heavy rain, it should be turned into the meadow, particu-larly if the meadow was two or three years old. These first au-tumnal floods bring a great quantity of putrescent matter alongwith them, which is particularly enriching to the soil. If theWater is turned in before the works are cleaned up in a flood aiabove ; when the flood ceases, the water can be taken off againto finish the cleansing ; and when that is done, it should be puton again in the beginning of November, with intermissions forthe floating season, which in the North of Scotland , must be fromthe 1st of November to the 1st of June, i. e. for seven months.
The process through the floating months begins thusInNovember, the water is used very plentifully for three weeks ora month ; at the end of which time it must be taken off for a fewdays, or changed to another part of the meadow, as no grass willdo without having the water sometimes taken off from it, to giveit air : besides, if it runs too long on one place at a time, a scumis engendered which is poisonous to the grass, although it is notso soon produced here as in Gloucestershire, because the climateis not so warm.
In December and January, the water is used, as much as can behere, to shelter the ground and enrich the soil; but there is hereno vegetation in these two months, owing to the lowness of thetemperature of the air; the heat being below the vegetation point.In these months, the process of floating is sometimes intermittedby the frost. In very frosty weather, it is better to take off the wa-ter from the meadows altogether if it is severe, and likely to con-tinue long; but this must be done at the beginning of the frost;otherwise, where there are hatches, in two or three days andnights frost, they will be so firmly frozen, that it will be foundimpossible to remove them. However, as there is no grass onthe meadows here at this season, the only hurt that the frost doesis, the ice in the feeder takes such a strong hold of the banks<that, by its expansion, it breaks pieces out of them ; otherwise theice, when it hath given a complete sheet to the land, keeps itwarm, and the water sometimes runs under it: But if these monthsare not frosty, it will be necessary to give the meadows air oncein two or three weeks, less or more, to prevent the engenderingof scum as aforesaid, and to dry the land.