THE HYDRAULIC RAM. 



In November, 1850, I planned and put up for a gentleman in Westchester county, an 

 Hydraulic Ram, bringing the water from a small brook fed by a spring, 600 feet, to the 

 house, with a rise of fifty feet to the second story. By a dam four feet high, I obtained 

 six feet descent from the surface of the pond, to a small well of seven feet deep, in which 

 the Ram is placed to guard it from frost. 



I consider it important to place the driving pipe about a foot below the surface of the 

 pond, so that if the pond settles down in the dry season, the Ram may be supplied with 

 water. By doing so in this case, the Ram continued to work during the whole of the ex- 

 traordinary drouth of last summer, the water at one time sinking in the pond to within 

 an inch of the driving pipe. This was one and a half inches in diameter, and with a No. 

 5 Ram, supplies the house with sixteen hogsheads a day. 



The reason, however, for my troubling you with this communication, is this. From the 

 bottom of the well where the Ram is placed, I laid a two inch glass pipe to convey the 

 waste water to the brook; and being short of this pipe, I continued it with a six inch 

 brick drain, about 30 feet, to the brook. Last week the well filled with water, and the 

 Ram stopped, and as the proprietor had not cleaned the Ram and supplied it with new 

 leathers, after running fifteen mouths, it was supposed that something was the matter with 

 the Ram ; but on examining the brick part of the drain pipe, I found that although laid 

 in mortar, it was entirely filled with the roots of trees, choking it up in this short period 

 so as to prevent the passage of the water, and thereby filling the well above the Ram, pre- 

 venting its action. I think it may be useful to draw the attention of your correspondents 

 to this, as it will be better to use glass, or other drain pipes impervious to fibrous roots, 

 especially near streams where so many exist. 



Now you will perceive from this statement, that those roots must have continued to 

 grow and fill up the drain in this last severe winter, for the ram worked the whole winter 

 through without stopping, and it was only the beginning of this month that the drain, from 

 being entirelj^ closed up with roots, prevented the working of the ram. 



Can you give any information on this point. If roots grow below frost in winter, it 

 would be an additional reason for transplanting in the autumn. 



Yours, T. W. Ludlow, Jr. 



Yonkers, N Y., March 9, 1852. 



The roots of many trees have such an affinity for running water, or rather the elements 

 of food which that water contains, that they will penetrate drains of ordinary masonry, 

 and, little by little, choke them up entirely, as we have twice observed, and as our corres- 

 pondent's illustration clearly proves. It is also well known to physiologists that a gradu- 

 al growth is always going on in the roots whenever the ground is not actually frozen. 



Undoubtedly, on this account, in all parts of the country, where the ground rarely freezes 

 more than a few inches, it is greatly advantageous to transplant in the autumn. But, on 

 the other hand, in extreme northern countries many trees suflfer, during the succeeding 

 winter, if planted in the autumn, from the effect of the severe cold on the branches, much 

 more than if planted in the spring; and, as is abundantly proved, a transplanted tree is 

 much more susceptible to cold than one well established, with its roots deep in the soil. So 

 much is this the case that it is the opinion of some writers that a higher temperature is 

 maintained in the trunk and branches of a tree, by mere ordinary conducting power, 

 during severe cold, in proportion to the depth to which the roots extend — since the lower 

 the less liable to be frozen. Hence too, the great advantage of covering the soil over the 

 roots of comparativelj^ tender trees, with a mulching of saw-dust, tan-bark, or any 

 non-conductor — to keep the frost out. 



