56G 
Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 
difference is easily accounted for if we take into consideration how 
water usually collects in our springs. A surface well we can only 
have when a bed of clay conies near the surface, for this intercepts 
the surface water. In warm weather little or no water usually collects ; 
and if the water found in a well is tolerably pure, it remains so for some 
time. During the summer months, however, there are probably accu- 
mulations of organic refuse matter around or near the well, and when a 
heavy fall of rain comes, it flushes them into the well. Hence we 
And, on examining the water after a heavy fall of rain, that it has a 
very different composition from that which it had before. Heavy 
showers of rain do not affect deep wells ; and as by filtration through 
a considerable depth of soil the water is deprived of all injurious con- 
tamination, and as deep wells have a uniform temperature, a uniform 
coolness of water thus becomes an indirect indication of good quality 
in drinking-water. 
In the next place, let me briefly allude to the qualities that we most 
esteem in 
Water for Cooking and Washing. 
Water for washing should be as free as possible from sulphate of 
lime, which causes hardness, neutralising in a great measure the soap, 
causing it to curdle, and destroying its detergent properties. It is 
undesirable to have much lime in water for cooking purposes, because 
with several organic constituents— for instance, legumin, the albuminous 
matter in peas and beans — it forms insoluble combinations, so that it is 
almost impossible to boil peas soft in hard water. Moreover water 
that contains much lime, on boiling throws down a white deposit, which 
prevents a proper extract being made from many articles of food, such 
as meat used to furnish soup, or tea. Very hard waters may be 
much improved for tea-making by adding a little bi-carbonate of soda. 
Means of rendering Water Soft. 
On a small scale Ave can effect this by the addition of a little car- 
bonate of soda ; but of course en a large scale this is inadmissible. In 
dealing with waters on a large scale they require to be purified, espe- 
cially if we intend to make use of them in feeding our stea'm-boilers, 
because hard waters are the cause of steam-boiler deposits, which 
consist principally of carbonate and sulphate of lime. When water is 
boiled slowly and continuously, as in the steam-boiler, the carbonic 
acid is driven out, and the bi-carbonate becomes neutral, or insoluble 
carbonate of lime, which assumes a crystalline form, and accumulates 
in a stone-like mass at the bottom of the boiler, both injuring the 
metal, and creating a fearful risk of explosion. 
Clarke's Water-purifting Process. 
Fortunately we have in Dr. Clarke's process a very convenient safe- 
guard. It consists simply in the addition of a certain quantity of 
lime-water, or even of powdered lime, to hard water. Strange as this 
remedy may appear at first sight its utility finds a ready explanation in 
the difference existing between the properties of the neutral or insoluble 
