The Express.
London, England, 1864-08-24 00:00:00

gke eVPrefifS•

All artaareeate tataaid;d for ...fhe—Represe" LOOM. &lift
inset be at the oak% le, Esuearle•etreet, b Two
at as the day at yablloattea.

PHINCHBA
Ten Benntna, BORN TO GOOD LUCK. Mr. D. Harm
And THE STRUTS OF LONDON. Harm J. W. Ray, David
Fisher. D. Hurray, J. Nelson. H. Foreaster, and H. Mellon .
Yen H. Manton. Mime Barnett and Owynna.

BIIITAN7fLa.
TitlS Warw. THE DRUNKARD'S CHILDREN'. - &NODE hy
Yr. H. Baker, Mr. H. De Brewer, and Mr. J. H. Stead.—Mx. 0.
W. tester.—CooclutUag with THE SWISS car ICII.

MOH WEILL AT LOW BALM.
THIS DAT Hashes, 6h. ges.....Allonion. 7h. Thl.
TO MORROW Hash, Th. ....MONIS. lift 6..

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24.

A 11Irmoaiii. has been presented to the Holm
SECRETARY which so nearly concerns the whole
country as to deserve support from all quarters.
The agricultural meetings which will be taking
place for some weeks to come afford the most ob-
vious opportunities for action ; but, though the
agricultural body may take the lead, it cannot
have a stronger interest in a sufficient and safe
water supply throughout the country than every-
body else has. From the largest landowner in
the kingdom to the humblest handloom weaver in
the depths of the town alley, all persons alive have
a vital interest in the national and local supply of
water. It is on this subject that a memorial has
been presented to Sir G. GREY by Mr. Bann(
DEN-row ; and the facts of the case are so strong
that the Government cannot resist or neglect such
an application, if it is properly supported by all
who will say what they know, and ask for what is
wanted.

Three years ago there was some well-grounded
alarm about the condition of the springs through-
out the country. For several seasons the rainfall
between October and February had been below
the average ; the springs were never full ; and the
water stood lower every year. When the farmers
in the eastern counties found it becoming necessary,
year after year, to spend time, and trouble, and
money on doing, in the autumn, what nature used
to do for them—watering their stock—they
became perplexed and uneasy ; and we might all
have laid our heads together then, and found out
why nature seemed to fail in her duty more
and more perversely, but that two or three rainy
seasons came and filled the springs again. We
dismissed the subject from our minds, or most of
us did ; but there was something odd about the
matter still, the farmers said. When the weather
was fine there was a drought presently ; and when
rain came there were floods immediately. In
many places the water supply was always in ex-
tremes ; your land was either parched or drowned ;
your beasts either bad their tongues hanging out
of their mouths with thirst, or they were standing
over their hoofs in water. That the country gene-
rally is now experiencing one of these extremes is
shown by one painful sentence in the memorial—
" The subterranean supply (or springs) of the
" country were never so low within the memory
"of man as at this moment." No-
body can be much surprised that the
fact is so. Not only have we all seen
how grass can die down to dust, and foliage
shrink and crumble on the trees, and fruit fall
from the bough, and pumps go dry, and the dust
become unbearable and unmanageable from the
failure even of the dews, but we have all heard or
read of the deplorable effects of the drought on
the live stock as well as the crops in the rural
districts. While fat beasts, ready for the butcher,'
fetch very high prices from the dearness of meat,
lean cattle are almost unsaleable because of the
scarcity of grass and its substitutes, and the dif6-
culty and cost, or even the sheer impossibility, of
watering animals. One gentleman, we read, has
reluctantly parted with a flock of two hundred
splendid sheep because there is actually no water
for them within reach. And we might fill columns
with reported cues of the same character. The
universal expectation is of a winter of excessive
high price. for hay and roots, and therefore of
meat and dairy food. But there are things which
create a deeper anxiety than this.
The differences in the qualities of soils are
aggravated, somehow or other. The light and
shallow sails are more easily parched, with the'crops
they bear, than formerly. If the clays can stand
changes of weather better than they once did, the
lighter and shallower soils sufler more. And the
rain has changed its ways. It runs off and away,
and will not wait to be carried off regularly and
deliberately, but overflows all bounds, and does
infinite mischief before it reaches the sea, leaving
every probability of drought behind it. The
rivers are not suitable to their function as they
were ; the millstreams are capricious ; and the
springs rise and fall so as to baffle all calculation.
There must be some cause for such changes ; and,
as far as those causes are understood, they are
undisputed. It seems to be unquestionable also
that the remedy is in our own bands,
if we have but spirit and energy to decide upon
applying it. The first step is to sustain the re-
quest of the memorial to Government for an
inquiry into the water economy of the country.
The irregularity and frequent deficiency of the
supply are abundantly accounted for by facts which
are beforeall men's eyes. Experience proves that
the underdrainage of our fields gradually lessens
the water supply, while enormously increasing,
when properly managed, the productiveness of the
soil. Instead of sinking slowly, and lingering
mischievously about the roots of the crops, it
gushes away through the drains, and runs to
waste. The drains tap the accumulations in the
light soil, and empty them, end nobody thinks of
storing the water as it flows at the coattails ;
:'!'?rue this is the true natlral supply fin wetering
both the stock and the soil in the next dry weather.
Again, we treat our clays, and sands, and gravels