Drainage and Water-Supply 



chosen, so that water must by some power be forced to a 

 high point, and distributed therefrom by gravitation, or wells 

 may be dug and pumps put in. This latter method is 

 probably the cheaper, but it entails more labour in working, 

 and it is but reasonable and according to experience to 

 suppose that the plants will suffer from this ineffectiveness. 

 I do not wish to disparage the efforts of those who have 

 decided on this method of providing a sufficiency of water, 

 but I do say that a system which entails so much labour 

 has little chance of becoming used to the extent which 

 would be required to increase the natural productiveness of 

 the soil. Therefore I strongly favour a system which we 

 might call automatic, as it is obtained rather by the 

 regulation of mechanical than the expenditure of human 

 labour. For throwing water up to a sufficient height we 

 may put in rams worked by water or by wind power. The 

 former is not always convenient, but the latter is free for the 

 harnessing, and if a sufficiently large store tank is provided, 

 there will be no need to fear shortage during a spell of mild 

 un windy weather. Into all the intricacies of the workings 

 of these apparatus we need not enter, for they can be dis- 

 cussed to advantage with the engineer who is to be called 

 in. Some curious person anxious to find difficulties may 

 think that the questions of drainage and water-supply clash 

 with one another. " Why," it may be asked, " take water 

 from the land and then by much labour and great cost put 

 it on again ? Surely this double barrelled contrivance is 

 merely waste?" To understand thoroughly this question 

 we must be fully aware of the needs of plants under culture. 

 Plants require a right supply of moisture not at certain 

 periods of the year only but all during their growth. In 

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