The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1862-07-09

an art we'll understood long before the
Christian era. Is il not strange that in
climate quite as much subject TO drouth as
Italy. irrigation should be almost unknown
among usr With climate that demands
it. and with unrivalled facilities for its
practice in most Of the Northern States.
not one farmer il thousand has availed
himself Of the treasures Of water within
his reach. Nothing could better show the
neglect Of agriculture among us as an art
than this fact. Few people are more inge-
nious than ours, or more quick TO take ad-
vantage of the facilities which nature offers
to save labor and to create wealth. We
abound in all useful inventions and labor
saving machines. We dam streams to turn
innumerable wheels for manufacturing pur-
poses TO make fish ponds and adorn our
ornamental grounds to make model lakes,
and raise our annual crops Of ice for the
delight Of Europe and the Indies. But how
rarely is a stream turned from its course TO
rertiize the land aud increase our harvests
Few have any conception OF the value
of water as a fertilizer. Many turn the
streams made by rains in the highways into
tho adjacent fields, but they attribute all
the increased luxuriance Of the grass to the
matter deposited No doubt street refuse,
such as the rain washes into the meadow,
is an excellent fertilizer but the rain itself
contributes TO the result. Far beyond the
line of deposit you see the effects OF the
water.
Just how the water operates to iertilize
! the soil we may not be able to state. VI
the fact there can be no doubt. We see
the power of water to make crops OF grass
| in every drOuth that comes. There are
| fields of gravelly soil. whose crops of grass
are nearly doubled in wet seasons, 1t is
pretty safe to infer that water makes the
difference. Water is q powerful solvent,
and helps the decomposition, not only OF
vegetable fibre in the soil, but of its miner
al constituents. You can not wash a stone
so clean that water will not act upon its
surface, and after few hours wash away
something more from it. 1t is probable
that the water is all the while preparing
plant food from the soil where it is present
and of course the more of 1t we pass through
the soil, the more nourishment the roots OF
the plants are enabled to take up.
We have recently examined two small
valleys, flowed for skating during the win
ter, and drawn off in early spring. In both
you can detect the water line in winter by
the greater luxuriance of grass. Both
streams that fed these ponds are dry, or
nearly SO, in summer, and never carry any
very large volume of water. The basins
that contain the wat r are small, and mostly
covered with grass, 50 that they are rarely
turbid even in rains. There is little ap-
pearance of sediment when the water is
drawn off in the spring, and it is nearly
certain that the beneficial effect is mainly
owing to the presence of water in the win
ter season. If the water helps the grass
crop under these unfavorable circumstances
it must help it much more when it bears a
rich deposit and is applied at the growing
season.
We have in this state two examples at
least, of the successful application of irri.
cation to farms - that of A. B. Dickinson
of Steuben county, and l.. D. Cliff, of Put
nam county accounts of which were pub
, lisAed in the Agricultural Transactions fol
-, 1855. In both these cases, the method l,
simple and the expense not beyond the
) means of most thriving farmers who have
streams convenient for this purpose, lr
both. the results are all that could have
been anticipated. The method is to dan
the stream at point above the lands to b'
watered, and to turn it on at pleasure, by
means of gate and channels of distribu
ton. These main channels are Furnished
with side conduts which are merely lur
I rows made with plow, and having JUS
, descent enough to carry the water. Wher
the water is turned on these channels over
, flow, and the water is distributed over ma
ny acres.
Mr. Cliff pursues his irrigation even il
winter, and it is this feature probably tina
will be looked upon with more hesitation
: than any others. The water freezes some
times as it flows, making broad field o
ice a foot or more in thickness, where i
J remains until dissolved by the suns o
spring. 1t is probable that the ice affect
2 the soil thus protected just as the ice Gov
I cred pond does. 1t is completely shielded
p from the alternate thawing and freezing
the frost does not strike in deeply, ant
comes out very early in the spring. 1t i
his testimony that " the grass in all sucl
places is first in Spring, and grows witt
great rapidity." He also improves othe
n seasons, when the stream is charged witt
b sediment, and spreads il over the land as
top dressing. Besides the sediment whc
is carried in the water, a good deal collect
i in the bottom of the pond, which is carte
n out when the water is drawn off, and make
II excellent manure. This is spread upo
n portions of the field that receive the sma
lest supply of water. He cuts about hur
K which is certainly double the average fo
=. the moving land of the state, and uses n
G other manure.
=, Mr.. Dickinson makes great account {
increasing the natural deposit of sedimer
10y artificial means. He plows and harrow
q land that is 10 be overfowed, and stirs II
o the soil after it is under water to make
Is very muddy. Even the subsoil that is thu
Il spread over grass land is found to be a
II excellent fertilizer. His grass crops ar
enormous - the best possible commentar
' upon his method of irrigation.
" Now we have thousands of farms all ove
II the country quite as WELL or even bette
il situated for artificial watering than thes,
e IN many cases few days labor by the o
n binary working force of the farm woul
!, make pond and the necessary channel
" for watering a few acres. The work ono
. begun would demonstrate its economy, an
lead TO the watering of all the availabl
/ portions of the farm. Lands that are no.
,i an encumbrance, hardly paying taxes, migi
= he brought into high state of productiv,
ness. We call the attention of our reader
to this very important topic at this seasol
n when the scythe sweeps so many acre
= prolific in tive-tnger and briars, but poo
e in grass. Cheap and careless irrigatio
:, pays, and the more systematic and perte'
i it is, the better it pays, us a general rul
J.. Use our streams rightly, and we shall lin
s them richer than Pactolus, blowing ovC
y golden sands.-Americm AgricuhvriSL
n .-<----
n a PhiIOsOphic Negro.
:, \ CORRESPONDENT of the Cincinnati "
. .elte, writing from Cumberland river, give
= humorous account of colloquy with
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