116 Management of Ponds and Wells. 



tliough tlicy liad been paid for I don't know how many feet. 

 Encouraged by this discovery he renewed his work, and was very 

 soon rewarded by an ample supply of water. 



We often see springs issuing from the ground and running to 

 waste, spoiling perhaps a considerable piece of ground before 

 their water is collected into a ditch or other channel. If the 

 owner would only take the trouble to follow the spring back into 

 the ground for a feet feet, and place in it a draining-tube which 

 should empty into a small tank or tub let into the soil, with a 

 waste-pipe at the opposite side, he might have an excellent 

 supply at a minimum of cost ; and two loads of stone, placed 

 round the tank to give firmness to the earth, would make it as 

 good a drinking-place as could be desired. 



Again, in many places a brook, which is often dry or nearly 

 so in summer, may be made to give a certain and ample supply 

 all through the year by erecting sluices across it at intervals ; 

 and though the cost of this is considerable, yet it will often pay, 

 simply by making the brook a good fence instead of a bad one. 



Lastly, a few words about spouting. Spouting is, I am Avell 

 aware, expensive in the first instance ; but were all the cottages 

 in a village and all the buildings on a farm well spouted, and the 

 water conducted into capacious tanks or wells, many places which 

 now constantly suffer from lack of water would hardly ever know 

 the want. And I think that at least half the cost of the spouting 

 would be saved in the item of repairs to the buildings ; for nothing 

 makes a wall more damp, or saps the foundations more surely, 

 than a dripping eave. 



In conclusion, let me remark that, although we cannot actually 

 increase the supply of water which nature provides, nevertheless 

 by management we may obtain more of that supply for our own 

 use, and by care we can keep what we obtain. 



Ilinchwich Hall, Wellingborough. 



X. — On the Comparative Cheapness and Advantages of Iran and 

 Wood in the Construction of Roofs for Farm-Buildings. By 

 Arthur Bailey Denton (Junior). 



Prize Essay.* 



For some years past the minds of practical men have been 

 advancing towards a conviction that increased covering, under 



* One of the Judges reports as follows : — 



The opinions of the Essayists seem to be nearly unanimous on the following 

 points, viz. : 



I, That timber grown upon estates in Great Britain should be disposed of for 



