No. 105.] 225 



500 or 600 of the best Merino sheep. Twenty years since, it would 

 not have fed a twentieth part of that number. 



Accidental instances often exhibit strongly the advantages of water- 

 ing. In a meadow belonging to the writer, a part of the land was 

 occasionally overflowed by a large stream ; another portion, of similar 

 soil, was left dry. The watered portion was usually double and some- 

 times triple in product ; and so clear was the line of demarcation 

 between these portions, that high-water mark could be distinctly traced 

 by the difference in growth, at any time before cutting the hay. 

 Meadows on the lower side of the Erie Canal in Niagara county, were 

 noticed last summer, when water had escaped from the canal, to be at 

 least double in growth in consequence ; and a farmer who allows the 

 wash from the public road, during all rains, to pass upon his adjacent 

 meadow, cuts annually two and a half tons of hay to the acre. 



Rationale. — A supply of water to plants, is essential on two 

 accounts. First, it is necessary that all plants m a growing state have 

 at hand a supply of the water which enters t© largely into their com- 

 position. Secondly, that there be enough to dissolve freely all sub- 

 stances which ascend through the stem from the roots ; for, without 

 solution, no fertilizing substances can enter the plant. 



The large quantities of water needed during vegetable growth, are 

 evident from the abundance which exists in nearly all living plants. 

 Some plants contain more than three-quarters of their weight, and most 

 others more than one-half. In addition to this, the enormous quantities 

 thrown off in hot dry weather, by perspiration, amounting sometimes 

 to the entire weight of the plant in a day or two, or to several tons 

 daily from an acre, render an abundant supply still more important. 

 Hence the reason they droop and witlier so soon, when the usual supply 

 is withheld. Water also, of itself, forms an essential portion of the 

 food of plants, by furnishing nearly all the hydrogen they consumed. 



But a most important office performed by water, is its solvent power. 

 During its fall in rain, in washing and purifying the atmosphere as it 

 descends, it brings down matter which had previously risen in the form 

 of vapor ; and afterwards as it flows along the surface or through the 

 soil, it dissolves many solid substances, and becomes charged with 

 various matters of organic origin, which possess more or less highly 

 fertilizing powers, and which are thus conveyed in a fluid form to the roots 

 of plants. Water thus becomes one of the best and most efficient 



[Senate, No. 105.] 15 



