2064. Water is equally at our command with soil: it may be made to pass through the house in a surface-rill; or under the soil in subterraneous channels; may be retained in a cistern or basin; or introduced in tubes, either to throw up innumerable jets from the floor, or pour them down from the roof to serve as rain. It may be supplied directly to the roots of plants, without wetting their leaves, in the manner of irrigation; be stagnated round them, as in natural marshes; or made to ascend as vapour from steam-pipes, by pouring it on flues or hot bodies, or even watering the floor or interior surface of the house. Having ascended, and filled the air, it parts with its caloric, and is precipitated on the plants in the form of dew.
