In this book a French historical geographer looks at irrigated meadows in Western, Central and Northern Europe. The first part is an overview of irrigated meadows in the Vosges, Jura, Alps and to some extent Balkan and England. In these areas the irrigation of meadows has its reason in aridity. The northern Swedish irrigated meadows, which are in focus in the second part of the book, have another raison d´être. Their object was not to ensure that the meadows were watered during the vegetation period, but, through the warming effect of the water, to promote the growth of the sedges. Another reason for leading water to the meadows was to lift the ice from the fens in order to clear it from bushes. Finally the diffusion of these kind irrigated meadows (mainly during the late 18th and the 19th centuries) is studied from historical documents.