SAVING AND USING THE RAIN. 
151 
As to the Rothamsted Percolation Observations, referred to by Mr. 
Kay, he thought the results there obtained must be regarded as somewhat 
misleading, owing to the absence of vegetation over each of the three 
gauges. In order to show the effect of vegetation upon percolation he 
might state that at Berkhamsted he had two percolation gauges each a 
yard square and 2J feet deep. In March last he had one of these gauges 
turfed over, leaving the other bare. The result had been that whereas 
nine gallons of rain water had already come through the bare-soil gauge 
since the beginning of May, only about a thimbleful had come through 
the gauge covered with short grass. He considered there was a great 
difference from a horticultural point of view between the value of hard 
water and the same quantity of rain water. If Mr. Kay had not preserved 
the rain water, there would have been tremendous waste. For example, 
from these twelve large vineries alone he calculated he must collect on 
an average annually between 2 and 2^ million gallons of this splendid 
rain water. The question was a very important one from a meteorolo- 
gical as well as from a horticultural point of view, and he should like 
to hear the views of those present upon it. 
Mr. Reece said that when he started a garden in the suburbs, he 
had a tank built in the yard, with an outlet into the sewer for the surplus 
water. During the last two or three years, that water had proved of 
great value in the garden. The water company, last year, seeing his 
garden so fine and making certain that he was using their water, sent him 
an ultimatum to pay two guineas, or otherwise they should stop his 
supply. His own stored-up supply, however, enabled him to laugh at 
the company's threats and do without their water entirely. Marly 
people in the suburbs might, at a very small expense, put in their own 
tank, and have a supply of raia water for their gardens. The last few 
summers have been especially dry, and he could not say that the reservoir 
had quite held out every year. But this season, for example, the tank 
had not run dry. Of course you cannot put a force on it like a high- 
pressure main. 
Mr. Alexander Dean said that with regard to the waste of water 
which had been spoken of he should like to know how far there was any 
actual waste. The general impression was that water existed in the 
atmosphere in the form of vapour. This vapour rises by evaporation 
from the surface of the ocean, and from the soil, plants, &c. If so, how 
is the sea replenished, the mean level being always the same ? It is 
kept up by means of the vast quantities of water supplied by the rivers 
and smaller streams, and the rain which falls on the surface of the sea. 
He began to wonder what the effect would be on, say, the Thames, if the 
river were very seriously depleted in its upper waters by any very con- 
siderable storing of rain as in India, &c. It seemed probable that great 
difficulty would arise. The water which is not saved for purposes of 
irrigation can hardly be said to be loasted, seeing it returns to replenish 
the natural reservoirs. It was a question then how far it might be 
desirable to take water from the streams or to keep it from flowing into 
them. One could not help realising that Mr. Kay had raised a very 
important economic question. His plan would save a large sum from 
the water companies. The proposal to construct large reservoirs in the 
