242    THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



sands of population who need them, and would
otherwise speedily settle and open up splendid
farms all over them.
  Providence, in the dispensation of physical
blessings or resources over the face of the
world, has observed a just system of equiva-
lents-offsetting or recompensing one deficien-
cy with some other resource. The absence of
timber is made up with cleared, pleasant fields
ready for the plow; the absence of water with
handsome pastures and meadows ready for the
scythe; and the necessary labor required to
dig cisterns, and basins. and underground
ditches, is repaid by deliverance from the hard,
dirty, weary toil of chopping and -logging
off" heavy timber; and the c nvenience of
running water is offset by freedom i from lvxa-
tion in plo0Wing among st mpts ;tp  l roots and
,tIonez.
  .\iENt 1: N  ll W.TT It . t01 THtE 1P'r.%RtES.-
This )trk of' water i. :   dit, only alppar-
ent, as there iS are-iuirct within the reach and
power of exery filrti owner, which is capable
of affordintg a mnore convenieit aud wholesotire
supply, tind at less expense, than is usually
enjoyed by those who live in regions favored
with btoulks antd spriltgs-although even tht
latier class muay, and had better, avail them
selves of this facility. as well as those on thf
prairies, who, being destitute of springs and
brooks, must rely upon Raint W1ater, which it
our chief subject.

   This idea of inequality of advantages foi
 residlence, results in tite tninds of many fron



taking a narrow view of things, wvhich per
ceives only a certain lack, without seeing tht



be lamentable. But such is not the case. Up-
on this, as upon many other subjects, men oft-
en take but a partial view of the facts, and
hence their judgments are erroneous. Abun-
dant rains fall upon these prairie distritits, as
several years in. Michigan, Illinois and Wis-
consin fully prove to me; though somewhat
less spow, yet as much rain falls here as in
most portions of the United States.

  PRtoOFs BY THE RAIN GUAOE.-The indica-
tions by various rain guages, recorded for sev-
eral years, at dtfferent localities, on the great
Lakes and the Mississippi river, show that the
average depth of water-rain and snow-
which annually falls on the whole surface of
that belt of country between St. Anthony's
Palls ttorth, and Cincinnati south, is about two
and a Italf feet This is a vast quantity, and
did it not regularly pass off, by currents, ab-
sorption and evaporation, the entire country
woold soon be submerged.  Even in a single
motth, somctimein-. as much as six to seven
inches of wSeter falls on this region. This vast
quantity of water, annually, showered upon
those splendid prairies, is a beautiful as well
as blessed spectacle, delightful to contemplate,
as well as enjoy.

  ROOFS AND CtSTt:rtNs.-All interested parties
may collect as much of this as is ntecesary for
farm arid honie purposes, Faith little trouble
and expense, in various ways. some of which
will be distinctly pointed ott' in the following
pages.  A more definite idea of' the quantity
of water which falls from the clouds may be



formed by considering the fact that over four
hundred hogsheads may be collected from the
I ..~  If on a_l -ar  ?.r~l)1;M horn I_ nl



compensating adVatitages tor the same uen- root ot an Oruinary ot-,, foot
 r i,, a Inuaily
cietncy. Failing to take a broad and rational enough to supply drink to a
goodly number of
view of all the facts and resources, this lack stock, the year round, even
though they got no
of water, in regions so capable of feeding mil- dink from any other source.
 A hogshead
lions with richest provisions, seems to present contains about thirty-two
pails of water, and
an over sight in Providence.  To have spread four hundred hogsheads about
12,800 pailsful.
out before the inspection of man such vast, Allowing four pailsful to each
creature-a lib-
inviting tracts, upon which health, plenty and eral allowance-per day, taking
all seasons of
easy labor might he enjoyed, and yet withold the year, and this supply will
afford drink for
a necessary so indispensible as water, would nine head the year round, or
3,200 head for
be strange; and, were it irremediable, it would one day.  But there are many
months of the



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