44 



WATERING THE PARKS. 



six summer montlis. The new system of watering by hose 

 costs for the whole of the Bois but 55^000f.^ or little more 

 than a quarter of the expense under the old system. In 

 this estimate^ however^ no account is taken either of the cost 

 of the water itself or of the capital expended for its con- 

 veyance. Pinally, it is remarked^ as regards the Bois de 

 Boulogne^ that the cost is^ in fact^ little more than that of 

 the maintenance of the apparatus in repair, or about 250/. 

 a year,, the work being done by the body of men called 

 cantonniersj who have little else to do during the summer 

 months. 



A water cart drawn by one horsC;, in cases where the 

 hydrants are 400 metres apart, will water 1300 metres an 

 hour over a width of four and a half metres — that is to say, 

 a cart will water about 6000 square metres, using in the 

 operation three tons of water. But in the parks it was 

 found that the cart should pass over every spot once in the 

 hour, and this gives, with an average of seven hours^ effec- 

 tive work, an expenditure of three and a half litres, or more 

 than seven pints per day per square metre. The cost of 

 labour, cart, and horse is given at about lOf. per day, so that 

 the actual expense per ton and per square metre stands thus, 

 ^=0'00165f. In calculating the cost of watering by 

 means of hose and branch, the hydrants or plugs must 

 necessarily be much more numerous, the intervals between 

 them being in the case of watering by cart 400 metres, 

 while in the case of the hose the intervals are on an 

 average only thirty-five metres. The total length of the 

 roads to be watered in the Bois de Boulogne is 53,000 

 metres, and the number of hydrants 1500, whereas under 

 the old system 133 would have sufficed, a difference of 

 1380 hydrants, costing 41. each, or 4s. a year for interest, 

 and, in addition, 4s. for repairs, &c. The latter is con- 

 tracted for at the following rate — ^namely, eight centimes 

 per metre, or about three farthings a yard run of conduit, 

 and 4s. per hydrant. 



A hundred and twenty men are required for watering 

 the 540,000 square metres of road in the Bois; in five 

 hours a man waters 4500 metres of road three times over, 



