Report on the Water Supply of the City of Albany, 



[Submitted to the Albany Institute May 21, 1872, and adopted without 

 dissent, after extended discussion, June 18, 1872.] 



The committee of the Albany Institute, to whom was 

 referred the question in regard to a feasible plan for supply- 

 ing the city with water, have considered the subject in 

 what appears to them its most important aspect; and 

 present the following report : 



Referring in the first place to the recent and present 

 scarcity of water, which has been charged to the deficiency 

 of the rain-fall of 1870 and 1871, the committee find on 

 comparison of records, that the amount of water falling 

 during these years does not vary materially from the 

 average of previous years. There are, however, two 

 causes why the supply utilized from the rain-fall has been 

 less than in some years heretofore; and we are to consider 

 also a constantly increasing demand for water by an in- 

 creasing population. 



The supply utilized from an equal amount of rain-fall 

 will be less if the rains be in frequent showers followed by 

 clear weather, thus producing a greater proportional evap- 

 oration, than if the rains and cloudy weather are of 

 longer continuance. But the chief cause of diminished 

 supply we take to be in the fact that a much larger pro- 

 portion of the area or water-shed supplying Rensselaer 

 Lake has been cleared of its forests and undergrowth, 

 thus laying open the sandy soil to direct action of the sun's 

 rays, and causing a greater amount of evaporation from 

 the surface. Accompanying this condition also, and the 

 cultivation of the soil, all surplus water is conducted as 

 rapidly as possible into the larger outlets, and numerous 



