used in the East. 221 



water is distributed in the kitchen gardens of Constanti- 

 nople, completely secures these objects. 



The well is generally dug in the highest p.irt of the 

 ground ; and the reservoir bcin£j still higher, it is capable of 

 lurnishing the water necessary for feeding the canals which 

 are to distribute it through the garden. From this reser- 

 voir a canal is made, which is afterwards subdivided into 

 gutters cut on the edges of the principal walks: these 

 gutters are again intersected at right angles by others which 

 run between llie beds where the various plants grow. 



In working these beds, care is taken to throw up a little 

 earth on the edges, so as to form a dyke several inches in 

 height, and solid enough to resist the entrance of the water 

 "{vhich is al)ove the beds in point of level : when the reservoirs, 

 the canals, and the gutters are filled with water, the gar- 

 dener with his spade makes an opening in this dyke, or 

 rather removes a small piece of stone or wood which forms 

 a kind of sluice-gate : the water is then precipitated with 

 rapidity from the canal into the bed, and flows over the 

 whole surface. If one watering is sufficient, he shuts up 

 the sluice and passes on to the next bed, and so on, until 

 he waters the whole garden, varying the irrigation accord- 

 ing Lo the nature of the plants. The same process is ap- 

 plicable to fruit-trees also. 



It will not be foreign to my purpose, if I here explain 

 the method of forming the large reservoirs just mentioned. 

 Their construction is simple and ceconomical. It consists 

 of planks dove-tailed together, and fastened at the angles 

 bv iron bands. This caisson, which may be compared to the 

 tubs used ior oianoe trees, is like them insulated from the 

 ground bv four, six, or eight feet, to prevent the wood from 

 rotting by being in contact with the earth. The deals of 

 which it !S coai|)Oscd are tarred on each side, and some- 

 times it is lined with tarpaulin. 



As to the machine which raises the water to the hei^jht 

 of the reservoir, the mechanism is scarcely more compli- 

 cated than that of a common draw-we!l, and indeed it 

 does not differ in an essential degree except in the form 

 and composition of the buckets, which are in the form of 

 funnels or conical bags made of leather, and which empty 

 and fill themselves by turns, thus furnishing abundance of 

 water. 



We use in general wooden buckets, which discharge the 

 water into the reservoir by means of a handle attached to 

 fheni, which gives them a see-saw motion. This -me- 

 chanism, so simple in other respects, is attended with the 

 disadvantage of being goon worn out : the coulinual frictioa 



and 



