FARMERS' REGISTER— RURAL ENJOYMENTS IN TOWN. 



509 



Thess important results go to change entirely 

 the state of industry of the city of Tours; such 

 a bored well giving a continued power, secure 

 irom frost and drouglit, whicli without exaggera- 

 tion, may be counted ecjual to the motive ibrce of 

 two horses. 



Februarys, 1S34. 



IIERICAUT DE THURY. 



ACCOUNT OF THE VARIATION'S OF THEHKIGHT 

 OF WATER IN THE ARTESIAN WELL OF THE 

 SEA BATHS OF IIOCHELLE. 



Translated for the Farmers' Register, from tlie .^nnales de VJlg- 

 riculturc Francaise, for Marclij 183). 



During the four yeai-s which have passed since 

 the bored well of Rochelle was undertaken, the 

 water had remained constantly, until the 1st of 

 last August, at 22 or 22^ ieet below the level of 

 the surface soil — the same height very nearly of 

 the water in the neighboring wells. 



At this time, they recommenced boring in this 

 well: 28 feet more of depth were given, which 

 made its whole depth 555 feet: on the 31st, it was 

 perceived that part of the stems which before 

 had sunk into the water, came up dry; and the 

 next day, September* 1st, the work bemg suspend- 

 ed, it was seen that the water had sunk 144 feet. 

 On the 2nd, this fall was 152 feet. But on the 

 4th, the water began to rise again, and rose 6 

 fi^et — and its ascension continued tor a month. Its 

 daily rise, on an average, was 6^- feet during the 

 first 15 days, and 3 lijet 8 inches only for the 

 last fiileen. The water returned precisely to its 

 former height of 22 feet below the surface of the 

 ground. 



The next day, October 3rd,t it began again to 

 descend, and on the 4th, it had sunk 29 feet. 



Tiie Gtli, a m\v rise commenced and continued 

 to the 15th. This was only 9 feet altogether, or 

 fi-om 9 to 10 inches a day. 



But on the 16th, the water fell 93 feet; 11 feet 

 on the 17lh, and 36 on the 18th; in all 140 feet in 

 three days. Thus the column of water which 

 before the 1st of August was 505 feet, was dimin- 

 ished by 160, or more than one-third of its height. 



Las.ly, on the 19th, the water remounted 4 feel 

 — on the 20th, 5 feet — cuid yesterday, the 21st, the 

 same measure. 



We see that the descent of the water has been 

 much more rapid than its rising. It sliouid be 

 observed also, tliat the well has been deepened 4 

 feet on the 17th, 18th and 19th, so that the total 

 depth is now 559 feet, or 186 metres and 32 cen- 

 timetres. 



At this time the work is suspended, and for a 

 long time perhaps, for want of funds, and in con- 

 sequence of the discouragements met with. 



It is of importance then to consult men versed 

 in such enterprises, in order that they may judge 

 whether it is probable that a little more of depth 

 given will sufiice to make this intermitting subter- 

 ranean fountain show its waters at the surface of 

 the earth. 



We are lost in conjecture as to the cause of these 



singular variations. Mere cavities at 500 or 600 

 ti-et below the level of the sea could not sufTice to 

 e.xplain this remarkable intermitting. Could it 

 have been owing to these subterranean currents 

 which Artesian wells are now every day brino-ino- 

 to our knowledge? Would one of these curre'nts^ 

 made to connnunicate with the well by the borintr 

 in the month of August, pour its water into the 

 well when the current i.smore rapid than common? 

 and does its neighborhood ofler a chance of suc- 

 cess? We leave it to others to decide, reminding 

 them that this well is bored in the argillaceous 

 chalk of the middle Jurassique formation; that 60 

 feet of it have been in a compact stone, of a yel- 

 lowish white, almost lithograjihic, and 479 a 

 bluish bod, much more argillaceous, of which we 

 know not the bottom. 



Last winter, the first 120 feet of the well were 

 secured in tubes of cast iron, to exclude the per- 

 colation of water from the sea. Still the taste re- 

 mains brackish. The well is fed by abundant 

 sources, as we have made known in a notice upon 

 its temperature, which has been inserted in the 

 Bulletin de la Societe Geologique of the months 

 of May and November, 1830. 



FLEURIAU DE BELLEVUE, 



Correspondent of the Jicademy of Sciences. 

 Rochslle, Oct. 22, 1833. 



*tBoth these months are called November in the ori- 

 ginal — but as the mistakes are evident, and the correc- 

 tion equally so, the proper alterations are here made. 



— TK. 



RURAL ENJOYMENTS IN TOWN REMARKS ON 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN TAYLOR, OF CAR- 

 OLINE. 



To the Editor of llis Farmers' Register. 



New York, Nov. 22, 1834. 



Enclosed is the amount of my subscription to 

 your Farmers' Reo;ister, for the second year. I 

 continue to read it with unabated pleasure — not 

 only on account of the valuable agricultural infor- 

 mation it communicates, but becaiise it carries me 

 back in imagination, to the rural fields and rural 

 occupations among which I passed my early years. 

 At that time I scarcely knew the inestimable va- 

 line of the calm quiet pleasures of a country life: but 

 time and experience, in various scenes and occu- 

 pations, have taught me properly to estimate the 

 innocent enjoyments derived from an association 

 with the fiovveis and the fruits of the earth, and 

 the harmless populace of the fields and woods. 



I delight to think, and talk, and wiite about 

 these matters, in the midst of a great city, in 

 whose business I take but little part, and whose 

 pleasures are little to my taste. I have called 

 around me all the illusions which might nourish 

 the idea of the countiy, that the limited space 

 allowed in a part of the cily where every foot of 

 land might sell for as much as would neai'ly cover 

 it with silver dollars, will permit. In spring and 

 summer the brick walls of my grounds, are over- 

 run with creeping vines, that hide them almost en- 

 tirely from view, and hedged by lilacs, snowballs, 

 and rose bushes, of various kinds. I have an Is^ 

 abella grape vine, which hangs in festoons from 

 one pillar to another of the back piazza, which 

 extends fifty lijet along the rear of my house, and 

 in the season is loaded whh bunches of purple 

 grapes. 



I have a grass plot of about eighty feet bv fhir- 

 ty-fi\-e, from which I cut a crop of hay three times 



