346 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



and form, not very diflerent from the Baldwin. The 

 flavor is also most excellent, and a tree of this va- 

 riety deserves a place in the smallest collection. 

 Season, October to winter." 



Dr. Workman exhibited magnificent specimens 

 of St. Michael (White Doyenne.) pears, grown 

 on quince stocks — " under which mode of culture 

 this fine old variety retains its ancient reputation." 



More than three thousand visitors attended the 

 exhibition. The hall was most tastefully decora- 

 ted by the ladies of Worcester. 



Water in Level Countries. — Dear Sir : A 

 constant supply of running water, whether for 

 the ornamental gardener or farmer, is a desidera- 

 tum to be sought by every possible means. Its 

 beauty in the hands of the one, and its utility in 

 the hands of the other, are qualities too obvious 

 to require comment. Tiie great point to be at- 

 tained, is a reservoir, at a sufficient elevation to 

 supply the premises, so that the kitchen, the bath, 

 the fountain, the garden, or the pasture, may be 

 furnished with a living stream. In many locali- 

 ties. Nature has made her own arrangements for 

 this supply. Where the mountain or hill-side 

 sends forth its gushing jet d'eau, she has required 

 of man only such simple apparatus as the first 

 impression would suggest for conducting it to the 

 point desired; but she has left him to seek out 

 many inventions whereby to give this indispensa- 

 ble elem^ent an upward current, where she has 

 failed to furnish a dowmvard. 



Primitive hydraulics as far as w^e are informed 

 by the records of the olden time, furnished only 

 the pitcher and the watering trough, or such like 

 apparatus. The bucket and windlass succeeded, 

 and we have them yet, as well as other more 

 complicated labor-saving machines. Where there 

 are springs or running brooks, too low for a foun- 

 tain head, the Water Ram, described in the Hor- 

 ticulturist for August, 1847, is doubtless the 

 simplest, cheapest, and best machine yet invented, 

 by which a running stream may be made to per- 

 form the labor of raising itself to the desired ele- 

 vation. But I am writing for the West, an im- 

 mense ambit of level country, whose gentle eleva- 

 tions and broad fertile prairies furnish thousands 

 of eligible sites, and hundreds of thousands of 

 acres of valuable land, without any constant sup- 

 ply of running water from spring or brook. I do 

 not mean to say we have not fine springs and 

 running brooks. We have, and none better; but 

 not as in a country of hills and mountains ; for 

 we have not their numerous elevations to catch 

 from every passing cloud, and concentrate through 

 their numberless veins, the material for their 

 supply. 



Our main dependence is, and must be, upon 

 wells and cisterns ; and although a cistern may 

 be located in the top of a carriage house, or other 

 out-building, yet such an arrangement, besides 

 furnishing, necessarily, a very limited supply, is 

 but an indifferent substitute for a running stream. 



Nor can it ever come into general use, particn* 

 larly, where a sufficiency for irrigation and 

 " Stock Water" (as we out west here, call the 

 supply of the pasture,) is needed. As wells and 

 cisterns below the common level are to furnish us 

 water, the question which now interests us is, 

 How is it to be brought to the required elevation? 

 True, we have many a blooming Rachel, and 

 not a few Jacobs, who would -willingly assist 

 them in drawing water for their flocks ; but we 

 would gladly relieve them of that burden, trust- 

 ing that they will be at no loss in drawing sym- 

 pathy from other fountains than the well, and by 

 other means than the rope and bucket. 



The common suction pump, if the required 

 elevation is not beyond the atmospheric pressure, 

 and the forcing pump, if it is, are apparently the 

 best adapted to the end in view, of anything now 

 in use; but what power shall be applied? From 

 what is said above, you are perhaps looking for 

 an answer to this query. No such thing. It is 

 easy to ask questions, but to answer them truly 

 and intelligibly, is a different aifair. However, 

 since I am asking questions, I may as well push 

 my inquiries a little further, hoping that you, or 

 some of your intelligent eorres])ondcnt8 may be 

 able to throw some light upon the subject. How 

 far can electro-magnetism be applied to the pro- 

 pulsion of machinery? Could not a very simple 

 apparatus be constructed, to be propelled by that 

 motive powder, that would supply the place of the 

 steam engine, in driving a small forcing pump, 

 which would require but little attention, save at 

 least one man's labor, and give a small but regu- 

 lar and constant supply of w^ater? 



I am aware that this inquiry brings us upon 

 troublesome grouud ; but it is the business of the 

 intelligent cultivator to remove stumps, stones, 

 and other obstructions, which have long encum- 

 bered the surface of our good mother earth, and 

 he must now and then tug at those which science 

 has dug up and left in the road, before he can 

 plough a straight furrow. 



Admitting that a rotary motion can be pro- 

 duced by electro-magnetism, the next question 

 is, what will it cost? If we run a parallel 

 between this and steam, the inquiry, it is said, 

 involves the question of chemical equivalents. I 

 am not sure that it does. Prof. Liebig states 

 the proposition thus: The oxidation of zine, is 

 but another name for burning it (for example) 

 under a steam boiler. Then, w-hich will produce 

 the greatest motive power, the price of a given 

 quantity of zinc or coal? If this be the only true 

 stating of the question, it is an end of the mat- 

 ter, and my suggestions about applying this power 

 to a forcing pump are not worth the time it will take 

 to read them; for, according to the same author, 

 six pounds weight of zinc, in combining wijh oxy- 

 gen, will develop no more heat than one pound of 

 coal. Is there no way of getting by the steam 

 engine, that is, in the cost of the motive power? 



Few men, I presume, living at a distance from 



