Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-29

only by large expenditure of water.
Plants will not grow without water. To
produce the grain necessary for making two
hundred pounds of bread, ? east four hun
dred tons of water are required. Thus we
begin to get notion of the really enormous
indirect consumption of water by the indi-
vidual human being. He cannot get along
without it. If a man or a woman was re-
duced to an allowance of, say, one thousand
tons of water year, he would soon die.
Water Needed to Make Meat
THERE is still the two hundred pounds of
meat to provide for. To produce it, ami
mals-cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry
must be raised. They not only drink large
quantities of water; but depend for their
own food upon forage and other plants which
require water for their growth. Hence, on
careful reckoning, it is found that no less
than four thousand tons of water is needed,
directly and indirectly, to provide the two
hundred pounds of meat, or its equivalent
eaten by the average adult in a twelve
month.
These, however, are minimum estimates,
a fact made manifest by taking up the prob
lem from the other end, as one might say,
and going back to the farm, which is the
original source of subsistence for all of u.s.
try is done in the territory of Arizona Agri-
culture is better developed there than any
where else in the United States, simply for
the reason that water is scarce. and, to make
farming a success, exact and painstaking
methods are necessary. All the available
water is economically used, and to the great
est possible advantage. Not a drop is
wasted.
Experience in Arizona has proved that an
average five-acre farm will comfortably sus-
tain family of five persons. To do this,
however, it must be supplied with five acre
feet of water year; that is to say, enough
water to form a small lake five acres in area
and five feet in depth. This amount of
water would weigh six thousand tons for
each acre, or thirty thousand tons for the
whole farm of five acres.
Thus it appears that each occupant of the
fve-acre farm requires for his or her COM
Portable subsistence six thousand tons of
water annually, an estimate that matches
in an interesting way the figures given in the
earlier part of this article. 1t shows, how
ever, that the figures, for the amount of
water drunk and eaten, directly and indi-
rectly, by the individual human being, were
under rather than over the mark.
Longevity Greater in Dry Climates
l mas DeeT SAID tnaC the average adult
drinks about one ton of water in year;
but the allowance varies considerably with
climate. People who dwell in humid regions
drink less than two thousand pounds annu-
ally; on the other hand, those who live in
arid regions drink more. Professor w ]
MCGEE, the eminent Government scientist,
said to the writer the other day that the
average duration of human life was consider
ably greater in the dry parts of our own
country than in those which have moist
climate. mainly because the consumption of
water was greater, and its passage through
the skin by evaporation tended to dissolve
and eliminate the earthly salts that clogged
the system and interfered with vital proc
esses. People in arid or semiarid parts of
the West have what life insurance experts
would call an expectation of life five years
better than that enjoyed by inhabitants of
the humid East.
1t must be remembered (says Professor
McGee) that life can exist only where there
is water. 1t depends absolutely upon water.
All vital processes, indeed, might be said to
be manifestations of the presence of water.