WAT 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



WAT 



to snow or rain water, but for most purposes is superior to 

 either, because it contains more fixed air and less putrescent 

 matter. Of this water, that which runs over a clean, rocky, 

 stony, or gravelly bottom, is by much the purest. But river 

 waters in general are found to putrefy sooner than those of 

 springs, and during their putrefaction they throw off a great 

 part of the extraneous matter they contain, and at length 

 become sweet again, and purer than in their first state ; after 

 which they will remain sweet for a long time, as is particu- 

 larly the case with the water of the Thames ; and it is there- 

 fore this sort of water that is so useful in irrigation. See 

 below. Sea water, is an universal collection of most of the 

 matters in nature, being a diffused solution of various sub- 

 stances, as common salt, bitter cathartic salt, different other 

 saline matters, and a compound of muriatic acid with mag- 

 nesia, mixed and blended together in a variety of proportions. 

 It is capable of being freshened by simple distillation, without 

 any addition, and is about three parts in a hundred heavier 

 than common water. It appears in some cases to be service- 

 able when applied to land : indeed it is the muddy material 

 conveyed in a state of diffusion in this water, which is found 

 so beneficial in the warping of land in some cases and situa- 

 tions. See Warping of Land. 



Water Aloes. See Stratiotes. 



Water Betony. See Scrophularia. 



Water Caltrops. See Potamogeton and Trapa. 



Water Chickweed. See Montia. 



Water Cress. See Sisymbrium. 



Water Dock. See Rumex. 



Water Dropwort. See Oenanthe. 



Water Germander. See Teucrium Scordium. 



Water Hemlock. See Cicuta Virosa. 



Water Hemp Agrimony. See Bidens. 



Water Horehound. See Lycopus. 



Water Hyssop. See Gratiola. 



Watering of Land. This is a practice of great antiquity, 

 which it is probable the extraordinary fertility afforded by 

 the annual overflowings of the river Nile in Egypt, may have 

 first suggested as the means of improving the lands of other 

 countries. In this country the practice is very ancient, and 

 it unquestionably deserves the particular attention of the 

 farmer and land proprietor. The lands which most readily 

 admit of this mode of improvement, generally lie in low situ- 

 ations, on the beds and borders of brooks, rivers, and streams, 

 or in sloping directions on the sides of hills, to which water 

 an be conducted in an easy and ready manner. It has been 

 stated by different writers on the practice of watering land, 

 that the most proper qualities of the grounds for being water- 

 ed, are all those which are of a sandy or gravelly friable open 

 nature, as upon such the improvement is not only immediate, 

 but the effects produded more certain and powerful than on 

 any other soils. There are also some strong adhesive sour 

 wet lands, which are likewise capable of being improved by 

 watering, as also may those which contain different kinds of 

 coarse vegetable productions, such as heath, ling, rushes, and 

 boggy and aquatic plants. It must however be constantly 

 remembered, that the more stiff" and tenacious the'soil to be 

 watered is, the greater command should be possessed over the 

 water. The quality of water, (see the preceding article,) like 

 that of marl or other manures, is a matter of the first import- 

 ance. It is universally known that water which flows out of 

 a dung-yard possesses a fertilizing quality ; and that the 

 washing of sheep-walks, freshly manured arable lands, streets 

 of towns, roads, and other such places, after a long drought, 

 have the quality of fertilization. It appears also equally 

 evident, that the waters issuing in different parts of the 



kingdom from chalk, limestone, marl, or other calcareous 

 stratum, though perfectly limpid, promote fertility in some 

 districts, as of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, to an astonishing 

 degree : on the other hand, the waters that ooze out of the 

 peat-bogs, and issue from particular mines, are known to 

 impede the growth of vegetables. Chemistry points out 

 tests and processes to analyze marl, gross manure, and water; 

 but the virtue of water, when considered as a manure, does 

 not reside in a single principle, like that of limestone. Water 

 is capable of suspending not only calcareous earth, but various 

 other manures, of animal, vegetable, and fossil origin ; some 

 friendly, and others destructive, to vegetation. Hence a prac- 

 tical man would not entirely trust to the theoretic guidance, 

 while the theory of manures, and especially of watering land, 

 is involved in so many difficulties. The effects of watering 

 are remarkably beneficial in many instances : in Wilts, for 

 instance, it is not uncommon to see lands, where water has 

 been diverted for the purpose of improvement, divided by a 

 hedge or ditch only, the grass on one side of which is of the 

 most luxuriant growth, and on the other so weak as not to 

 reach the height of three inches. The implements necessary 

 for watering in different circumstances are, first a level, of 

 which the spirit one should be preferred as most accurate. 

 This is necessary for taking the level of the land at a distance, 

 compared with the part of the river or other stream from 

 whence it is intended to take the water, to ascertain whether 

 it can be made to float the part designed to be watered. A 

 proper line, reel, and cutting-iron, are absolutely necessary, 

 and a breast-plough of the best kind to cut turfs for the 

 sides of the channels. The spades to be used in this work, 

 should have the steins or handles considerably more crooked 

 than those in common use, the bit being of iron, about a foot 

 in width in the middle, terminating in a point, a thick ridge 

 running down the middle part, from the top to near the 

 point; the edges, on both sides, being drawn very thin, and 

 kept quite sharp by frequent grinding and whetting; when 

 they are become thin and narrow by wearing, they are used 

 for the smaller trenches and drains. Short and narrow 

 scythes will be required to remove weeds and superfluous 

 grass, during the running of the water in the trenches or other 

 cuts ; also forks, and long four or five lined crooks or drags, 

 for pulling out the roots of the sedges, rushes, or reeds, which 

 may obstruct the mains, or large channels. Wheel and hand 

 barrows must be provided for removing the clods and earths 

 to the flats or hollow places ; for this purpose they may be 

 made open, without sides or hinder parts: the ha'nd-barrows 

 are used where the ground is too soft to admit of the former, 

 where the clods, &c. require to be removed while the land is in 

 water. But when large quantities of earth are wanted to be 

 removed to any distance, three-wheeled carts will be neces- 

 sary. Each of the workmen will also need stout large water- 

 proof boots, made so as to admit a quantity of hay or other 

 such materials to be stuffed down all round the legs ; with 

 tops so as to draw up half the length of the thigh, and kept 

 well tallowed, in order to resist the running water for any 

 length of time. The art of watering land may be properly 

 called floating, not soaking or drowning. Soaking the soil 

 similarly to the effects produced by a shower of rain, is not 

 sufficient for the general purposes of watering; nor will dam- 

 ming up the water, or keeping it stagnant upon the surface 

 like that in a pond, or on the fens, produce the desired 

 effect. The latter, it is thought, may be properly termed 

 drowning, because it drowns or covers all the grasses, there- 

 by rendering the plants beneath it certainly aquatic, or the 

 herbage disposed to take on such a change; whereas the 

 herbage of a watered meadow or land should, from the form 



