WATER. 



WATER-MELON. 



larly luxuriant crops of grass on the Craigin- 

 tinny meadows. This observation is not con- 

 fined to the English graziers : those of the duchy 

 of Milan long since made the same remark. 

 Half a century since, Mr. Songa, when describ- 

 ing the meads of the banks of the Brembo, 

 says, '" That water is found excellent which 

 passes through the fosses of the town of Tre- 

 viglio, and discharges itself from them by form- 

 ing a canal of 8 or 10 feet broad, and 1 foot or 

 1 foot deep. The lands irrigated with this 

 water seem to receive every time the advan- 

 tage of a dunging, and on this account sell 

 from a third to a half dearer than any other of 

 an equal quality of soil." ( Youngs Jlnnals, 1793, 

 p. 182.) Watering the land to add to its fer- 

 tility is a very ancient practice. 



Such, then, are a few of the well-ascertained 

 facts with regard to the application of water to 

 vegetation, uses which are so valuable when 

 well understood by the farmer. In all his ope- 

 rations this universal fluid will be found to in- 

 fluence his arrangements; and in a due and 

 regular supply of it to his crops consists, in 

 fact, the success of most of his efforts. If, for 

 instance, a farmer would judge of the value of 

 a particular field from merely a specimen of its 

 soil, the attraction of the previously dried earth 

 for the moisture of the atmosphere will afford 

 a very tolerable indication of its comparative 

 value ; those soils which attract the most wa- 

 ter being commonly those which obtain the 

 highest rents. 



All researches like these, in many obvious 

 and indirect ways, are attended with consider- 

 able advantage to the cultivator. For, the 

 more he becomes acquainted with the uses and 

 properties of water, the more readily will he 

 be able to avail himself of every opportunity 

 which may present itself for extending its 

 sphere of usefulness. It is idle to conclude 

 that every thing possible has been effected with 

 regard to the agricultural uses of water; for, 

 saying nothing of the inferior extent of our 

 water meads to those of even the banks of 

 the Italian rivers, much still remains to be ac- 

 complished in rendering available, not only the 

 liquid drainage of our large towns, but in the 

 use of the steam-engine for the purposes of 

 irrigation ; an agent to which I have in this 

 work already alluded, and for obtaining whose 

 magic assistance the farmers of no other coun- 

 try are so well situated as those of our own 

 island. To the cultivator, therefore, an exami- 

 nation of the powers and properties of water 

 will in many ways be attended with benefit; 

 for if the farmer once seriously contemplates 

 the powerfully invigorating and enriching qua- 

 lities of the waters near to which he is very often 

 placed, the abundance of organic matters which 

 they contain, and the advantages to be derived 

 from their judicious application, he will speedi- 

 ly devise some means or other by which he 

 may avail himself of this too often neglected 

 agent. The finely divided earthy and organic 

 matters which now so copiously pollute the 

 waters of our rivers are in fact the only great 

 drawbacks upon the otherwise gradually in- 

 creasing productiveness of the land. (See AL- 

 LUVIUM and WARPING.) These, be it remem- 

 bered, are ever quietly yet incessantly acting 

 1096 



as drains upon the fertility of the land ; they 

 never cease the work of impoverishment; and 

 it is only by the efforts of the merchant, the 

 fisherman, and the irrigator, that any portion of 

 these finely divided matters ever return again to- 

 the cultivated soils of our country. See IRRI- 

 GATION and RAIN. 



WATER-ALOE, or WATER SOLDIER 

 (Stratiotes alaides; from stralos, an army, in allu- 

 sion to its long sword-like leaves). In England, 

 an ornamental native aquatic, which fills the 

 ditches in summer with a close phalanx of 

 sword-like leaves, and increases so fast in the 

 ponds where it is planted as to become almost 

 a troublesome weed. In its wild state it inha- 

 bits deep ditches and pools, and is a stolonife- 

 rous, smooth, floating herb, with numerous ra- 

 dical leaves, and a solitary central flower-stalk, 

 but no stem. The parent plant sinks to the 

 bottom after flowering, and sends out long sim- 

 ple runners, each terminating in a leaf, bud, or 

 young plant, which first takes root in the mud, 

 by several long fibres, and in the following 

 summer rises to the surface of the water, blos- 

 soms and then again subsides to ripen its seeds 

 and throw out fresh runners, each tuft of 

 leaves flowering but once. The leaves are a 

 span long or more, acute, highly vascular, 

 fringed with very sharp saw-like teeth. Flow- 

 ers white, large and handsome, the stalk firm, 

 stout, two-edged, much shorter than the leaves. 



WATER-CARPET. A name in Pennsylva- 

 nia for the GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE, which see. 



WATER-CO WBANE. See COWBANE. 



WATER-CRESS. See CRESS. 



WATER-DROPWORT. See DROPWORT. 



WATER-ELDER. See GUELDER ROSE. 



WATER-FARCY. See FARCY. 



WATER-HEMLOCK. See COWBANE. 



WATER-LILY, THE FRINGED. See 



BUCKBEAN. 



WATER-LILY, YELLOW. See LILT, WA- 

 TER. 



WATER-LILY, WHITE. See LILT, WATER. 



WATER-MELON. The following direc- 

 tions for cultivating water-melons for an early 

 market, are given in the Southern Agriculturist. 



Select a high and dry soil for the purpose. 

 Plough it up well, and harrow it. Check off 

 the spot thus treated at distances of 10 feet 

 each way. Dig out each check with a hoe or 

 spade, and into the same place 5 or 6 quarts of 

 cotton seed ; or if this cannot be procured, fill 

 the place with stable manure, partly decom- 

 posed. Haul over this the earth before dug 

 from the hole, and mix it well with the manure. 

 If you have used cotton seed, in the spring, it 

 will have sprouted a week or two after being 

 put into the hole ; and must now be killed by 

 chopping up the same well, and mixing it with 

 the soil. This being done, you may now haul 

 up the manure and earth as before directed, 

 into hills, on the top of which you must place 

 about a peck of sand, taken from some street 

 or well-travelled road. Your hills will be now 

 ready for planting. I should, however, state 

 that the hills must, instead of being made high, 

 be made flat and broad. 



Soak your seed over night in milk-warm 

 water, and plant them out the next morning, 

 placing from 5 to 6 seed to each hill. The 



