TH E

AGRICULTURAL MAGAZINE.

No. IVII.] APRII, 1804. Vor. X.]

DESCRIPTION OF A MACHINE FOR THE PURPOSE OF IRRI- GATION, WITH REMARKRS ON CERTAIN OBJECTIONS MADE TO THE EXPEDIENT OF FILOATING LANDS.

[wITHA PLATE ANNEXED.]

To the Editor of the Agricultural Magazine,

SIR,

N infinity of contrivances have been resorted to for the

purpose of raising one of the most important and use- ful of tbe élements, water; if, indeed, under the present improvements in the art of Chemistry, we may be permitted to speak of water, even in a popular way, as an elementary principle. Whatever other arts or sciences have conduced to the improvement of Agriculture, it will be universally acknow- ledged, that hydraulics, or that part of staties which con- siders the motion of fluids, has been in a very small degree consulted to facilitate the increase of vegetabſe productions, and yet it is certain, not only from the observations of the modern, but from the discoveries of the ancients, that it may be extensively applied to multiply these gifts of Nature, You, Sir, have not wholly neglected the theory of this science as applicable to the purposes of agriculture; many sections of your work contribute valuable instruction on this subjeet, and in the 303 page of your second volume, you have introduced a plate of the Persian Wheel for floating meadows, which no doubt both has deserved and received the attention of your readers. It might have been explained in that paper, that it was a machine most conveniently adapted for the purpose of raising water, because it required neither men or animals to turn it, and working in the stream by the impetus the water alone supplied, it fulfilled the purpose intended under the most advantageous circumstances. With the present communica- tion I have accompanied a drawing, which l think worthy the ingenuity of your artist; it represents a wheel of a similar kind, under two views, but more suitable in the form, and more easy in the expence. It has been frequently called a lifting wheel. It may be constructed at a very tritiing charge, from an old cart wheel which is no longer adapted to the design for which it was made. It may be made of common deal, oak, or any other boards, naileg together in

Ag. Mag. Vol. 10. I 1