, 1874-08-15

The "AvIs"
STORE UP THE RAIN FOR A DRY DAY.
from the Times.l

every person arrived at the age Of discretion
in these islands. The purport Of it is most
hOmely, yet on that account most apt to be
contemned and forgotten. It is that water
Is for various purposes a first necessary OF
life ; that HEAVEN has given US enough of it,
and that zoe ought to Store it when 1t comes,
against TIE time when a0e shall still a0ant it
though it has then ceased to come. There is
not a single point on which our experience
agrees more thoroughly with all that books
tell us, yet there is not a single point on which
we risk more. Everywhere it is almost a dead
certainty We shall be 10 want of water within
q twelvemonth, and very much in want of it
within a short cycle of two or three years
yet, when it drops from the skies at our ct
and almost washes US off our legs, all that ae
do as to Open our un6reX0S, clean the shoots and
cutters, and request tie trouble some U1Stt0r to
more on. That the affair is one of moderate
compass and one of individual concern may
appear from the simple fact that nobody can
drink more water than falls year by year from
the skies upon a single square yard Of he
surface. 1t is a matter Of easy calculation.
Tue roof over a small room, sly thirteen feet
square, receives every year water enough for
tho drinking supply OF a large household.
When to this are added the demands tor
cooking, washing, and other purposes, any
sup LCoEIIS Out pOI(S " q tuIS6 m)uIu y
voyage bears witness to the fact that the
water supply of crew and passengers equal
TO the population of a large village can be-
brought within d very smaIlA compass The
calculation eulargeS self a}1We SUCCESSFULLY
add the wants of cattle, Of gardens, Of tiilage,
of street watering, and Of the sanitary arrange
ments which the last generation introduced
for the present generation to complete, and
the next to render compatible with public
health if 1t can. But, with all this ever.in-
o%reasing variety of uses and abuses, the water
we can DO said to Consume bears hut a small
proportion to the natural supply. 1t is not the
Metropolis We are d. ling with. That is a
monster out Of all rule and proportion, wasting
all that it has, and wanting ali that it can get.
1t would not hesitate to let every drop that
falls from the clouds go down the gutter, and
then drain every fountain and we'll in the
island just to lay its dust or flush it's sewers.
The Local Government Board addressed
itself to the rural localities, to Parish and
Union authorities, Boards of Guardians, SAM
tary Inspectors, and not less all who care to
be clean and who know there is a difference
between sweet and poisoned water. 1t tells
them that much may be done by simple means;
indeed, by merely looking iuto matters
though it warns people generally that eyes,
nose, and common sense too, may often prove
~ iaulC Without the scientific aid OF civil en-
gineers.
Over a great part of the country the rainfall
of the last winter has not been sufi ,ient to
saturate the soil deep enough to keep the springs
we'll on The AOw. 1t is a difficult question, and
q sore subj.ct; but if modern agriculture
directs all its attention to pass the water off
with the greatest possible rapidly and The
least possible saturation of the soil, it will
probably find that it does effectuallY what it
tries to do, and leaves uudone that which it
most wishes not to do Beyond a doubt the
rainfall is everywhere carried away down
the. watercourses and rivers into the sea with
much greater rapidlty aud completeness than
Mature planued aud, whatever the present
gain, the loss is that after a few months def
Slen. rainfall we fad the springs dry. the wells
low ana the warehouses; also very much
lower than old people remember them to
have been. Ia the chalk downs and other
districts people have been always, accustomed
to draw all the water they require, even. for
their cattle, and the only difference
OF dry season is that they have drawn
a Rcsd deal more but such a necessity seems
nothing Lass than Q plague when ,itroccurs