The Planters' banner. [volume] (Franklin, Attakapas Co., Lou.) 1849-1872, 1853-11-17

mer, if it were saved and not wasted
But most of it falls during the season:
when least is wanted, and is suffered
to run off to the rivers and the ocean
carrying very much of the best juices
Of the soil along with it. when it shoulC
be retained in ponds and reservoirs, tc
be pumped into barn-yards or drawn OF
to irrigate the fields during the fervid
heats of summer. The apparent diff
Guilty of doing this would vanish and
the presumed expense be materially
lessened on careful consideration.
know not that have traversed any
country with more lively interest than
beautiful, bountiful, picturesque LON
hardy. The dark pail of Austrian des.
potism enveloping it, did not suffice tc
dim its natural loveliness and luXuri-
ance, so greatly improved by the labor
and genius Of man. 1t seems to have
grown into its system of almost uni
Versal irrigation by imperceptible and
unmarked degrees, and to be now pro.
ducing double harvests annually as the
result of some fortuitous impulse rather
than foresight and deliberate calcula-
ton. The magnificent plain of Upper
Italy, which has for so many centuries
been the field Of combat where Goth
and Latin, Frank and Hun, Gaul and
German have struggled for the mastery
of Europe, slopes almost imperceptlbly
from the Alps to the Pc, and the impe-
tous torrents which tear the rocky sides
of the snow-crowned precipices are
arrested and chastened in the blue
lakes which lie at the foot of the noun
tains, smiling serenely out upon the
plata. Thence the waters proceed with
more gentle and measured cadence
to the great river, and are drawn off
and stayed from point to point to fill
the irrigating canals and ensure rich
reward to the husbandman's labors.-
Let any stream from heavy rains be-
come raging, forming, milky torrent,
and its waters have value which the
pure element could not command, and
are drawn off on every side until the
canals and reservoirs are filled and all
danger Of inundation precluded, Thus
the waters are most valuable for irriga-
tion just when they are most easily and
abundantly obtainable for that purpose.
The water which has irrigated one fer
tile garden or field, far from being ex-
hausted. has been rendered more nour-
ishing thereby, and may now be drawn
off TO fertilize the next field lying all
inch or so lower, and thence TO the next
and ,s 81 !, on on to the river, enriching and
-
Irrigation is the life blood of Lombar-
dY; shall il be nothing, teach nothing,
TO US?
If there be country on earth which
one would suppose irrigation unsuited
10, Great Britain is that country. Her
exceedingly moist, cool climate, cou
pied with her compact. clay sub-soil
mot universal, butvery extensive J would
seem to render deficiency of moist
ure one of the very last evils to be ap-
pretended or guarded against in her
agriculture. And yet her best farmers
are now embarking rapidly and extern
sively in Irrigation, finding it practical
bic and immensely profitable. Not
here, as in Lombardy, is the natural
flow of the streams, in their descent
from the hills to the rivers, relied on
but great pumps are employed, raising
water by steam or other power from
rivers, brooks and ponds, to a height
whence it is carried by gravltation
through metallic and gutta-percha
pipes to every point where it is needed.
MIR. Mech, the ex-London merchant
who retired from trade with a compe-
tency to earn another by sclentlhc
farming, takes the lead in this applica-
ton, and his estimates of the increased
productiyeness of lands by reason of
irrigation aud the profits thus secured
would seem wild to any audience unfa-
miliar with the subject. | may state,
however, that he fixes the expense of
conveying his manures IN liquid form
from his yard to every portion OF his
estate as equivalent to one penny ster-
ling or two cents per cartload-that is
to say, the fertilizing properties which
were contained in a tun OF muck or
compost are now conveyed to the soil
that requires them at the cost of one
penny That loading, teaming, IN
loading and spreading in the old way
must have cost far more than this, you
cannot donbt; and beside, the fertili-
zing liquid, being entirely free from
seeds or weedy germs of any kind, and
in a condition to be readily and totally
absorbed by plants, must be worth twice
as much as if applied in the old way.
Now consider that this load of manure
has been conveyed through and applied
with many tuns of water, just when
the soil is most thirsty, and the plants
most needy, and you can readily Judge
that the tun of manure dissolved in
water and applied through irrigating
pipes at the cost of penny, must be
worth at least thrice as much as the
same tun applied in the crude solid
state, at cost of not less than thrice
that sum. But | must not dwell on
details. You have the general idea,
and can follow it out at your leisure In
to all its necessary results.
III. What the sister arts teach as to
agriculture may be fairly summed up
in this proposition:
The tcorkman should be completely