dl 
WATER. 
the pavement. Other and newer methods are 
noticed in the article Ponp. In the North Rid- 
ing of Yorkshire, there is a tract, extending for 
many miles, entirely destitute of water, except 
what flows along the bottoms of the deep valleys 
by which it is intersected, and little relief could 
consequently be afforded by streams thus dis- 
tantly and inconveniently situated to the inha- 
bitants of the uplands and their cattle. About 
the year 1770, a person of the name of Ford 
devised a method of watering this district, by 
means of rills brought from the springs that 
break out at the foot of the still loftier moorland 
hills that run parallel to and northward of this 
tract, in some instances at the distance of about 
ten miles. These springs he collected into one 
channel, which he carried in a winding direction 
about the intervening tract, according to its 
level, and along the sides of the valleys, until he 
gained the summit of the arid country which he 
wished to supply with water; and when this was 
| accomplished, the water was easily conveyed to 
the places desired, and also to the ponds in all 
the fields, over a considerable tract of ground. 
| The plan of thus watering a dry upland country 
has much merit. It is not expensive, the ori- 
| ginal charge rarely exceeding £100 per rill, while 
if affords a most important accommodation to 
the occupier, and greatly enhances the value of 
the property. Though not generally applicable, 
this plan might certainly be adopted, with great 
advantage, in some other situations. A supply 
of water is also an object of great importance in 
| every field where pasturage is intended. With 
that view, if there happens to be a small rivulet 
in the neighbourhood of the lands, it may often 
be distributed in branches, so as to water many 
fields. Springs, or the collected discharges from 
drains, may also be applied to the same purpose. 
All land used for grazing requires to be con- 
stantly well supplied with water. In conducting 
water through fields, it is of material importance 
to take care that the slopes be gentle, and not 
more than sufficient for easy transmission ; as, 
when water is conveyed down fence ditches, or 
open conduits of considerable declivity, it is too 
apt to do injury in its progress by washing away 
the sides of its channels. Sometimes water ‘is 
collected in a field, not only for the use of the 
animals pastured there, but also to be afterwards 
diverted for other uses, as for threshing and other 
i mills, for irrigation, for ponds, for bleaching, and 
similar purposes. To accomplish these objects, 
and at the same time to prevent injury from this 
element, the drains, conduits, sluices, bridges, 
gates, and fence-ditches, require to be designed 
with skill, and constructed with scientific at- 
tention. 
WATER ALOE. See Water Sorpier. 
WATER CALTROPS. See Canrrorps (Wa- 
TER). 
WATER CART. See Carr and Liquip Man- 
URE CART. 
WATER-CRESS. 
WATER CHICKWEED. See Monrta. 
WATER COWBANE. See CowzBann. 
WATER CRESS,—botanically Vasturteum Offi- 
cinale. An indigenous, culinary, aquatic plant, 
of the cruciferous order. It inhabits rills and 
ditches in most parts of Britain. The roots are 
perennial, and comprise a great many long fibres, 
and attach themselves to the mud at the bottom 
of the water ; several stems arise from each root 
or set of roots, and have a height of about 18 
inches, and are hollow, channelled, and leafy, 
and divide at the top each into two or three 
branches ; the leaves are pinnate, and have each 
5 or 6 pairs of leaflets and a terminating odd 
one; the leaflets are roundish or almost heart- 
shaped, and stand almost alternately along the 
midrib; the flowers come out in loose spikes at 
the ends of the branches, and are small and 
white, and bloom from May till July; and the 
pods have a tapering form, and are full of small 
brown seeds. This plant came into pretty high 
favour about a century ago as a spring salad ; 
and it soon obtained preference to all other 
spring salads on account of its agreeable warm bit- 
ter taste, and for sake of its purifying, antiscor- 
butic and diuretic properties; and was greeedily 
gathered in all its natural habitats within some 
miles of London for the supply of the London 
market ; and eventually came to be an object of 
regular, peculiar,.and somewhat extensive culti- | |_ 
vation. ( The places most suitable for growing it 
are gently flowing rills, with a gravelly or chalky 
bottom, and with from 14 inch to 4 or 5 inches 
depth of water; and if only muddy bottomed 
rills are available, the mud should be removed 
from them and gravel substituted... The plants 
are propagated by division of the root ; and re- 
quire to be cleaned, lifted, and replanted twice 
a-year. The plantings and removals should be 
done in successions during May and June for 
affording supplies of salad in August, and during 
September, October, and November for affording 
supplies in spring. The plants should be set in | 
rows, commencing as near as possible to the 
sources of the stream; and the rows should be 
about 18 inches asunder in shallow rills, and from 
18 inches to 7 feet in deeper ones. In every 
process of cleaning and renewal, all weeds, mud, 
and rubbish should be cleared away; and in 
the accompanying process of replanting, all the 
youngest and best-rooted cresses should be se- 
lected for use, and each returned into the stream 
and retained in its proper place with a stone ; 
and during winter, crops in even the shallowest 
streams should be so managed in the cutting as 
to impede the current to a sufficient degree to 
maintain it at a depth of 4 or 5 inches. Gather- 
ings from the plants should be done always by 
cutting, and never by breaking ; and, in a fa- 
vourable situation, with a good set of plants, 
may be made so often as once a-week. The cut- 
tings should be very close in summer; and after 
the plants have been cut about three times, they 
