322 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



"Water covers three-fourths of the surface of the earth. It 

 is an essential constituent of soils and almost all mineral 

 substances, being present in the form of water of crystalliza- 

 tion. It is indispensable to animal and plant life, constituting 

 from twenty to ninety-nine per cent of their substances, and 

 about three-fourths of the weight of man and animals. It is 

 chemically formed by a union of two gases (hydrogen and 

 oxygen), and is a peroxide of hydrogen, or hydrogen oxide. 



Water is the great diluent and solvent in the vast labora- 

 tory of nature, and is essential to every chemical and vital 

 change modifying the action of these forces, which are con- 

 stantly at work upon and within all atoms of matter, 

 modifying their arrangement, their mutual relations, and 

 producing all the diversified phenomena with which we are 

 acquainted. 



Water is in constant motion, — a condition essential to 

 the freshness and life of both water and air. Evaporated by 

 wind and solar influence, it loads the atmosphere with its 

 vapors, which, condensed, form clouds, and is precipitated on 

 land and sea, in rain and snow, or hail. That, falling upon 

 the earth, flows over its surface, or percolates more or less 

 deeply into its strata, to emerge again, forming springs, ponds, 

 brooks, and rivers, which flow in ceaseless currents to the 

 sea ; so that the rivers are never empty, and the sea is never 

 full. 



Water for house and barn may be obtained from rain, 

 brook, river, spring, and fi'om the earth by digging a well. 



Rain washes out and dissolves the impurities of the atmos- 

 phere ; such as, dust, organic matter, living and dead infusoria, 

 the products of combustion, the gases of the air, oxygen, 

 nitrogen in the form of ammonia, carbonic acid, and other 

 matters. 



When used for domestic purposes, it must be stored in 

 reservoirs, and carefully filtered. They should be built 

 under ground, of sufficient capacity to hold an abundant 

 supply, with walls of brick laid in cement, the space between 

 earth and wall filled either with clay or earth, carefully pud- 

 dled in with plenty of water. A well of brick, laid in cement, 

 should be built in the centre, with openings at the bottom to 

 admit the water. Animal charcoal may be placed in suffi- 

 cient quantity outside the base of the well, and the remain- 



