MANAGEMENT OF WATER. 



sylvania pear, the Styer. It came before us, on the committee of seedling fruits, at 

 the late meeting of the American Pomological Society, and we were much pleased 

 with it, as all were who saw and tasted it. We carried some specimens home with 

 us, and although quite ripe when we left Philadelphia, on our arrival at home we 

 found it perfectly sound and its flavor unimpared. It possesses considerable distinct- 

 ness, a quality to which M-e assign some importance. The Doyenne Rohin, a new 

 foreign sort, resembles it more than any other that we recollect at present ; but the 

 stalk of this is twice as long as that of the Styer, and the skin of the latter has a 

 peculiar marking of russet.] 



ON THE MANAGEMENT OF WATER. — ITS USES AND ABUSES. 



In every part of our country where the surface is at all hilly or undulating, the multi- 

 tude of transparent streamlets offer, to those who are fortunate enough to live in their 

 vicinity, many opportunities of using them for purposes of convenience and ornament, 

 at a very small expense. That these opportunities arc generally neglected, or miser- 

 ably improved, every one can testify. How often is it the case that a small, but 

 perennial brook, is found running through a tract of useless, rushy ground, perhaps 

 filled with springs, and bounded at varying distances by high banks ; in some places 

 rocky and precipitous ; in others sloping at a greater or less angle ; now covered with 

 short turf; again clothed with shrubbery, the kalmia and azalia mingling with the 

 graceful hemlock and feathery birch ; or a dense wood of larger trees graces the 

 summit of the slope. These banks — sometimes retreating from the water, and again 

 advancing, so as to form a narrow ravine almost shutting up the passage of the brook 

 itself — offer every advantage for throwing across a dam at a slight expense ; and 

 thus, in many situations, producing the effect of a beautiful natural lake, of great 

 depth and extent. ' In other places, where the form of the ground does not admit 

 this, the cheapness and facility with which water may be brought in lead jjipes, bored 

 logs, or what is much used in England and is preferable to either, glazed earthen 

 tubes, would bring a sufficient supply of water ; not only for domestic purposes, but 

 for those of ornament. Fountains might be supplied, and any convenient hollow, 

 either natural or artificial, be converted into a miniature lake, well suited as an accom- 

 paniment to a flower garden, or an opening in a grove. If the supply be abundant, a 

 small cascade, well and tastefully managed, might produce a beautiful effect. The 

 small supply of a hydraulic ram may afford water sufficient for some ornamental uses. 

 But, in all these cases, everything depends on the taste with which the affair is 

 managed. From the lake half a mile long, to the pipe of an inch bore, anything of 

 this kind may be rendered perfectly ridiculous by mismanagement. A plain stone 

 wall or wooden dam, for the lake ; and an animal with the wings of a duck, the body 

 of a goose, and the neck of a swan, vomiting a thread of water no larger than a 

 quill on the round, muddy pond, three yards across, for the small pipe ; are 



