SAVING AND USING THE EAIN. 
147 
carries on a work which places us, whether we are cultivators of the soil 
or belong to other callings, under lasting obligation. 
Knowing the fundamental value of studying the rainfall of any 
country or area, one would naturally make it a great factor in deciding 
upon the suitability of a district for the purpose of agriculture or 
horticulture, as it follows, especially commercially, that where Nature 
has endowed a spot with special advantages there the undertaking will 
have the most powerful ally. Of course this is a truism, and applies to 
all industries ; but water is so necessary itself, together with the cheap 
manipulation of it, that we horticulturists must always place it equal 
with every other essential, such as soil and climate. The ideal place to 
start a nursery or vineyard we all find out, after the experience of many 
years in positions that probably environment placed us in. But condi- 
tions change, competition goes on apace, compelling us more and more 
to enlist to the utmost all the advantages we possibly can. 
Happily, in taking a wide view of the advantages and disadvantages 
of countries and places — and allow me to observe of persons as well — we 
can generally see a law of compensation tending to equalise things. 
Confining our attention to the rainfall, it is particularly to be taken full 
advantage of, as falUng free from heaven in that very form best suited to 
perform the miracle of the increase from the culture of the soil. But 
although no man can improve upon Nature, still, if it is not too presump- 
tuous to say so, we may direct and regulate her in the way that she herself 
teaches us very distinctly in the form of the great lakes spread over the 
surface of the globe. 
They are the natural savings of the rains and snows, and man 
following in her silent examples makes artificial lakes or reservoirs, some 
very extensive and some very small, as in the case of the Egyptian or 
Staines reservoirs, or the cottager's water-butt. 
In India, owing to the calamitous times of famine which are brought 
to pass by the absence of rains, great works have been undertaken for 
conserving the rain. During the last quarter of a century no man has 
done so much for the irrigation of Nortli-Western India as Colonel S. S. 
Jacob, CLE. 
In twenty years he has perseveringly carried out no fewer than over 
one hundred different works at a cost of fully half a million sterling, and 
they now pay 5^ per cent. When a good rainy season fills the reservoirs 
nearly 100,000 acres are irrigated, and by the works carried out Colonel 
Jacob has so saved the rain that he has for ever protected a very large area 
from famine in that part of India. To the extending of such policy the 
rulers and the Government are straining every resource, and with the actual 
success already accomplished have encouraging examples to stimulate 
them. In Australia also the works for saving the rain have been, and 
are largely being, executed. Parenthetically, it may be observed that 
agriculture, although the predominating work, the carrying on of which 
depends entirely upon rain and irrigation works, is not the only industry 
where water is vital. In the large mining centres of Africa, Australia, 
and America the value of the mines is entirely dependent upon the 
necessary water, which often can only be obtained by saving the rain. In 
the greater works lightly referred to, where the object is to save the rains 
L 2 
