110 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



These calculations were made from experiments running 

 through eight years, in which the average fall of water was 

 only 26.61 inches per annum. When the results derived 

 from them are applied to our average fall of 35.28 inches, we 

 have for the water that constitutes the summer flow of our 

 streams 13.25 cubic feet per minute per mile of the country 

 drained, and for the average annual flow exclusive of freshets 

 26.50 cubic feet per mile per minute. That is to say, of 

 the 35.28 inches of water that falls in the course of the year, 

 6.30 run away in the streams as the average annual flow, 

 7.95 run away in the freshets, and 20.47 evaponite from 

 the earth's surface, leaving 1.56 for consumption in various 

 ways. 



" The annual fall of water in England is stated by Mr. 

 Dalton to be 32 inches. In this State it is 35.28 inches. 

 The evaporation from water surface in England is put by 

 Mr. Dalton at 44.43 inches. Tiie fall is less, and the evapo- 

 ration is less in England than here, and the fall in each case 

 bears the same proportion to the evaporation, very nearly ; 

 and it appears that the experiments made on the two sides of 

 the ocean result in giving very nearly the same percentage of 

 drainage. In England it is 42.4 per cent., in this State it is 

 44.1. In England the experiments were made on a limited 

 scale compared with ours, but the results agree so well that 

 great confidence may safely be placed in them. 



" In a country thoroughly underdrained to the depth of 

 three feet, and deeply subsoiled, neither droughts nor exces- 

 sive rains are much feared by the cultivator ; a large propor- 

 tion of the water that falls is treasured up in his subterranean 

 reservoirs, and any excess is carried off" by his drains. Some 

 districts of country have a soft, mellow soil, just clay enough, 

 and just sand enough to give it proper consistency, and then 

 this soil underdrained perfectly by an open gravel or shelly 

 rock." 



No better evidence can be given than that by Mr. Geddes 

 of the importance of trenching, or subsoiling, and draining, 

 as tlie'only means of storing up a supply of moisture for use 

 during the continuance of longer or shorter droughts. This 



