Economical Management of Materials, ^c, on the Farm. 379 
or bricks, &c., and their numerous joints. The second cause 
is the rain which is suffered to drop from the eaves, in this 
case gutterless. These causes work singly or in conjunction in 
old and neglected buildings ; and in buildings which although 
not old arc still neglected, to the great loss of their proprietors ; 
those in many, too many instances being the while singularly 
indifferent to them, and if not so, labouring apparently under 
the impression that there is no remedy for the evil. 
Of these two sources from which walls, &c., derive the moisture 
which bring about their rapid deterioration, the second is the 
most dangerous. Its action is peculiar and is not always 
considered. I wish to draw attention to this fertile source of 
" waste," a waste which in more senses than one deserves the 
epithet of wanton being added to it^ — wanton, inasmuch as the 
second of the evils I have named can be easily prevented, and 
if not absolutely cheaply, relatively so. Indeed, in one sense the 
remedy will cost nothing, for the cost of putting up the gutters 
and the down-spouts will be repaid, and far more than repaid, by 
the abundant supply of rain-water of the softest and for the 
most part purest water which can be obtained. In other words, 
the rain-water thus collected will be so valuable that it will 
pay for its collection. And thus the advantages derived from 
guttering the eaves, and providing down-spouts or pipes to lead 
the water off at once to the receptacles or tanks provided for 
its reception and storing, will be got for nothing. And these 
advantages are more numerous and greater than many are dis- 
posed to acknowledge at the first blush of what they call " so 
simple a trifle." 
Some may maintain that the supply thus obtained from the 
roof-surfaces cannot possibly be much — in fact some say it is 
not worth the trouble to collect the small volume obtainable. 
And to prove this they refer in a very general way to the rain- 
fall. And in truth it is only fair to admit that this is very 
deceptive ; and the ideas formed of it are as numerous almost 
as are those who take the trouble to think about it at all. But 
the amount or volume of the rainfall is in point of fact 
enormously in excess of what even the most exaggerated or 
sanguine of popular estimates make it to be. I need not trouble 
the reader with figures, which are soon forgotten, I simply state 
the following concrete fact, which may at least in a general way 
be remembered. Assuming the daily consumption per head of 
the rural population in any given district to be very nearly 
double that at present estimated, and adding thereto the volume 
of water required by the live stock, and, further, that used by the 
steam-engines in the fold and the field alike, the proportion 
which the whole volume bears to that of the rainfall in the same 
