196 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 



We should be keerf ul what we say 



Lest we somo friend revile. 

 What if we ain't jes' quite agrerdi 



Don't git so pow'rful stir'd; 

 "Bee brethren," we, like Abraham, 



Should speak the soothin* word. 

 It sorter seems to me, if we'd 



Observe the " golden rule " 

 We sometimes would our neighbor praise, 



And own ourself the fool. 



ocean, from which the island rises gradually to the 

 north at a grade of about twenty feet to the mile; 

 and actual observations, by digging wells, shows that 

 the level at which water is reached is not on a level 



"WELLS ON HILLTOPS, ETC. 



PROF. KOONS GIVES US SOME INSIGHT IN REGARD 

 TO SUBTERRANEAN WATER. 



One remark in your editorial following Prof. 

 Cook's article in Gleanings for Jan. 1.5, on " Bad 

 Well-water," calls up a very important principle in 

 geology. Tour sentence re''erred to a statement of 

 the well-driller. "They said, that, although they 

 could not understand it, yet practical experience 

 seemed to decide that there is just as good a chance 

 of getting water on high ground, or even on a hill, 

 as anywhere else." The majority of men think of 

 the "soil water"— that is, the water in the earth's 

 crust— as standing at a uniform level, and that, 

 going from the top of a hill forty feet high to the 

 adjacent valley, will save just so much digging to 

 secure water. A very large percentage of the wa- 

 ter falling to the earth, in the form of rain or snow, 

 sinks into its surface; the amount being deter- 

 mined by the character of the surface upon which 

 it falls. For example, a sandy soil will absorb much 

 more than a compact clay; and of the water thus 

 absorbed, a part is again returned to the atmos- 

 phere by evaporation, while the remainder is re- 

 tained in the soil, or finds its way to the surface 

 again at lower levels, in the form of springs, wet 

 and swampy places, directly into brooks or rivers, 

 or even into lakes and the sea itself. 



The water thus sinking into the surface, and be- 

 coming what is commonly called " subterranean 

 water," if there were no Interfering conditions, 

 most naturally would find a common level, and the 

 well-digger would be compelled to bore the extra 

 forty feet spoken of above; but there are a num- 

 ber of circumstances that prevent this. For exam- 

 ple, there may be the conditions illustrated in Fig. 

 1, where a; a; is a clay layer sufficiently compact to 



■^Jls, 



^mmmrnmrnm^m 



hold water like a basin, or the layer may be an im- 

 pervious stratum of rock, and hence all that falls 

 upon the hill /i, and is absorbed, finds its way down 

 into this basin, which maybe yards, rods, or even 

 miles across; and then the water appears again m 

 the form of an overflow at the border o; may be in 

 the form of a spring, or simply a wet place or 

 places about the border of the hill. 



A well dug at m would not have to go to the level 

 of the water at Ji, because the water, by the pecul- 

 iar conformation, is held much higher at the for- 

 mer locality than at the latter. 



Another condition, illustrated by Fig. 3, also bears 

 upon the subject. It illustrates well-known condi- 

 tions on the south side of Long Island, m is the 



with the ocean, but, beginning at low tide, the sub- 

 terranean water is reached on a plain o, o, which 

 rises about twelve or twelve and one-half feet to 

 the mile, so that, at the distance of one mile from 

 the ocean, as at h, water is found at about seven 

 and one-half feet below the surface, although the 

 island is twenty feet above low tide. At two miles 

 from the sea, at c, the surface is forty feet above 

 tide, yet water is found at a depth of fifteen feet; 

 and three miles from the ocean - border, at d, 

 where the island is sixty feet high, the water 

 in the wells stands within about twenty-two and 

 one-half feet of the top; and this same law holds 

 good on to the center of the island, six miles from 

 shore. 



Thus it is seen that the water-plane, o, o, has an 

 inclination, yet not so great as the surface of the 

 ground, and may approximately conform to it, as 

 illustrated by Fig. 3. 





In these latter cases, and, indeed, to a certain ex- 

 tent, in Fig. 1, the water is held at a given height 

 by its friction among the grains of sand, pebbles, 

 etc., aided somewhat by capillary attraction also; 

 so that the plane at which the subterranean waters 

 are reached is a little higher at the center of the 

 basin, Fig. 1, than at the borders— the water-plane, 

 even here, imitating the undulations of the earth's 

 surface, yet not rising and falling, see o, o, o. Fig. 3, 

 to the same extent as the surface itself. 



These are but few of the multitudes of conditions, 

 under this complex subject, affecting the depth to 

 which wells must be sunk in order to secure a 

 constant supply of water; and only by a thorough 

 knowledge of the underlying conditions in any 

 given locality is it possible, accurately, to predict 

 the depth to which a well must be sunk. 



B. F. KooNS. 



Connecticut Agricultural School, Jan. 25. 



Many thanks, friend K. I was well aware 

 of the'point you make in ihe fore part of 

 your article, but I had never before seen 

 any thing in regard to water held in sand 

 and gravel by capillary attraction, although 

 I believe something of the kind exists in our 

 low grounds; and by digging down from 

 five to ten feet almost anywhere, we find 

 wet gravel and sand, even during a severe 

 drouth ; and by sinking a cavity, water col- 

 lects in sufficient quantity to water our plants. 

 Now. I have had auimpressionthat this water 

 could still be held in the gravel, even though 

 an underdrain were laid to carry it off. Our 

 best celery ground is over such a gravelly 



