1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



695 



WHAT TO DO, AND HOW TO BE HAPPY WHILE DOING IT. 



Omtinued from Auy. 1. 

 CHAPTER XXXIX. 



For ill thu wildoriioss shall waters break out, and springs in the desert, 

 shall become a pool, and the thirsty land f^prings of water.— Isa. ;i.5: fi, 7. 



And the parched ground 



god's gifts 

 It h;is always liecii an intensely interest- 

 ing subject to me to look about me and see 

 what God lia.s placed within our reach, that 

 we have never yet discovered or developed. 

 It is for this reason that I have always l)een 

 deeply interested in mining for coal and 

 the useful metals; and when the oil excite- 

 ment broke out some years ago, the news of 

 the treasitres to be found by drilling down 

 into Mother Earth naturally thrilled my be- 

 ing with intense interest. In the same way 

 I have been interested in the develop- 

 ments of natural gas. But I believe that 

 natural gas and oil are by no means all that 

 nature has in store for us, lying hidden be- 

 neath the soil of our hills and valleys. In 

 fact, I do not believe it is well for every one 

 to start out in the oil or gas business. 

 " Every man to his trade "is a good rule 

 here as in most other things. 



For some years back I have been studying 

 hard on the problem of water for irrigation 

 during our dry si)ells which occur to a great- 

 er or less extent every season. A little 

 over a year ago I was enthusiastic about 

 saving the rain water that comes so lavishly 

 in the winter and spring. In Chapter VII. 

 I told you about the underground reser- 

 voirs for collecting these waters and holding 

 'them until needed. Well, the principal 

 trouble with these reservoirs during a pro- 

 tracted drought is, that they become empty, 

 and the ground directly over them dries out 

 even wovt^e than where the ground is simply 

 underdrained. I do not believe we can 

 store water profitably for six months by 

 simply making excavations in the ground ; 

 for even a pretty good-sized pond will soak 

 away and evaporate until it is gone, or 

 nearly gone, even without drawing on it for 

 irrigating purposes. Our carp-pond would 

 hold perhaps .'>000 barrels ; but during the 

 recent drought, even though none of the 

 water was used for the purpose mentioned, 

 the water has disappeared until the hsli 

 would like to have perished had we not 

 brought a reinforcement of water in the 

 way I am going to tell you of. Now, anoth- 

 er thing is to be considered in this problem of 

 storing up the waters from the rain and 

 snow until they shall be needed. An im- 

 mense reservoir is required. To water an 



acre of ground properly would re(iuire, say, 

 500 or 1000 barrels of water every tw^o 

 weeks ; and to store this amount for even 

 three months' time would require a cistern 

 or reservoir beyond the reach of even most 

 of our market-gardeners. In favorable lo- 

 calities, very likely the water might be dam- 

 med up l)y a pond ; but few aie so situated 

 as to avail themselves of this. 



The next feasible plan would be to make 

 use of running streams, and this is already 

 being d(me to a great extent, especially in 

 the western parts of this country, and the 

 area thus irrigated is being rapidly en- 

 larged year by year. Not only streams, but 

 rivers, are utilized entirely in this way. 

 No great reservoirs are needed, because the 

 moving water furnishes the supply day by 

 day as fast as it is consumed. Along the 

 Rocky Mountains the melting snows fur- 

 nish unfailing streams. Many of our read- 

 ers are familiar with the method of irriga- 

 tion ; namely, running the water in a fur- 

 row imtil the ground is irrigated, say for 

 four or five feet on each side. At Arling- 

 ton, Mass., I saw friend Rawson tr.rning 

 water between every other row of celery. 

 When the ground was sufficiently wet in 

 one furrow, the water was turned into 

 the next, and so on. Well, compiuatively 

 few of us have unfailing streams that How 

 on a level, higher up than the groiuid to be 

 irrigated, therefore this plan can be utilized 

 only in certain favored locahties. Then 

 again comes the question, '■ What shall the 

 rest of us do V" In many localities, springs 

 on the hillsides, or at the foot of the hill- 

 sides, furnish large amounts of water that 

 are allowed to go to waste year after year, 

 because nobody has yet had sufficient energy 

 and enterprise to recognize them as God's 

 gifts, and make use of them. A neighbor 

 of mine, a few miles away, had for years a 

 spring on a hillside, that :,anuoyed him by 

 spoiling a great part of one of hisbestfields. 

 In accordance with a suggestion from my- 

 self, however, he arranged it with very little 

 labor so as to run between every alternate 

 row of his cabbages. He constructed a 

 little pond which filled up during the day 

 time, and at nightfall the contents of this 

 pond \\as let loose so as to pass down be- 



