250 [Assembly 



causes. It is in the order of Providence that lands thickly peo- 

 pled and well tilled should become more and more fertile, and it 

 is only in new countries where land is very cheap that there is 

 any departure from this law. 



The first of these recuperative influences is the action of water. 

 I quote from Chiistison: When water contains of saline matters 

 more than no\» it is scarcely fit for use. 



" __'__ it is called hard. 



« __'-_ it will still lather with soap. 



" eo'oo it ^^y ^^ ^^s^t^ for mixing medicines. The 



Thames water contains f gVo- f*anira says spring water contain- 

 ing not more than g^fVc of solid matter is rare in England. In 

 addition to these saline ingredients, there is almost always present 

 organic matter. 



On the same authority the Thames water contains 22^ grains 

 of solid matter in every imperial gallon. To say nothing of 

 sewerage water, tliere is a great deal of swamp water in this 

 country that might be allowed to run on the surrounding arable 

 lands that is much fouler than this. 



Of the vast amount of water that falls on this continent, but a 

 small portion of it ever reaches the sea. The most of it soaks 

 down through the porous portions of the earth until it meets with 

 a bed of some compact strata, and then runs along that and makes 

 its egress in the form of a spring. In its passage it dissolves out 

 salts and brings them to the surface. In many portions of this 

 State the springs are hard for this reason. In Otsego county, 

 water of wells which runs through blue clay or lies on it is hard. 

 In Sclioharie county that which runs through or lies on limestone 

 rock is hard. But springs of the softest water are bringing to the 

 surface of the earth continually inorganic salts, and although the 

 amount per gallon may be small, when we reflect on the immense 

 quantity of water that runs from them, and the small proportion 

 of it that ever reaches the sea, we find the vast resources that are 

 still left to the surface of the earth. The medicinal springs of 

 Saratoga are examples to the point. 



