1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



701 



In the middle of the cellar a s((uaie hole is 

 cut in the rock, perhaps a foot deeper than 

 the stone cellar floor. Into this cavity a 

 stream of soft wnter hows, which I should 

 think capable of hlling a two-iiieh pipe. The 

 cool water passes around their milk-cans, 

 forming a sort of sprinji-iiouse, and then it 

 comes out into the dooryard, where it fills a 

 tish-pond cut in the rock, perhaps '20 or 30 ft. 

 across. Several >ears ago this little pond 

 was filled with most beautiful speckled trout. 

 The water is constantly moving and con- 

 stantly overrtowing, and tliis gives the sur- 

 face a mirror-like brightness that is most 

 fascinating to passers-bj-. Aftei- leaving 

 this reservoir the water pours in a series of 

 waterfalls down a rocky gorge. As we start- 

 ed along with Meg and the buggy I ejacu- 

 lated,'' O children I here is a hydraulic ram.'' 



" Why, where is a hydraulic ram, pa V and 

 what is it V Where do you see it V " 



I was obliged to say that 1 didn't see it at 

 all ; and then came the question, " Why, pa, 

 how can you say, ■■ Here is a hydraulic ram," 

 w^hen you confess you don't see it. and have 

 not seen it?" 



I told them that, although I had scarcely 

 ever seen one in my life, I knew the click- 

 ing sound, or the series of thumps, or, per- 

 haps more correctly, pulsations, we heard, 

 were caused by a hydraulic ram; and in a 

 moment more there it was bv the roadside. 



hydraulic: RAM, FOR ELEVATING WATER. 



There it stood, all by itself, but yet hard 

 at work, and it was to me a thing of life and 

 beauty. It made the water fiy and spatter; 

 but in doing so it pushed perhaps a fourth of 

 the whole stream away up to the top of a 

 hill, and poured it into a tank over the 

 fence, for the stock to drink. Besides this, 

 it sent it up into a great bank barn on the 

 hillside; and, in fact, it pushed it up hill 

 and down, wherever it was wanted, over 

 that hilly farm. At one time I felt (|uite 

 sanguine about carrying my spring water by 

 a hydraulic ram ; but when I told the manu- 



facturers that I could not get more than a 

 foot, or at most two feet, fall on my prem- 

 ises, they kindly informed me that it would 

 not be best to try to use one. The address 

 of the maker is Allen (iawthrop, Jr., Wil- 

 mington, Del. But perhaps many of you, 

 my friends, can make use of this ingenious 

 little machine. I was surprised and pleased 

 to learn that they are now manufactured for 

 the very low sum of only $11.00. 



Well, there is something else that we 

 kept track of during our visit, besides the 

 springs, and it was windmills. They are 

 now dotting the landscape here and there 

 through almost all of Ohio, and I feel like 

 thanking God whenever I see one. 1 will 

 tell you why. Mrs. Root is a nice cook— at 

 least so, they say in our home, and she is 

 rather particular about her materials for 

 cooking. I have told you before how she 

 complained when the boys carelessly gave 

 the cow spinach that had gone to seed— S(» 

 much so that it was bitter. At another 

 time one of the small boys gave her a lot of 

 onions. P]verybody who tasted of the milk 

 after that knew it, I tell you. Well, ever 

 since this dry weather the water in Cham- 

 pion Brook dried up so it stood only in stag- 

 nant pools, and Mrs. Root complained again 

 of the milk. She finally insisted that Henr\ 

 should give the cow a pailful of clean water 

 from that new spring we were rejoicing 

 over so much, as often as the cow would 

 drink it. lie did so, and the milk was all 

 right. Futhermore, Bossy showed her pref- 

 erence by coming up to the fence near the 

 spring, and making a fuss every time she 

 wanted fresh water. Well, the windmills 

 scattered over the land indicate nice pure 

 water for the cows ; and pure water for the 

 cows means a smaller liability of typhoid 

 fevers and such like diseases that often take 

 away our loved ones during the dry weath- 

 er of August. I told Connie and Caddie to 

 watch the windmills and see what particu- 

 lar ones ran with the lightest breeze. They 

 soon learned to call them by name, and we 

 noticed certain makes that were almost al- 

 w;iys pumping. By the time we got home 

 we had decided i)retty much what kind of a 

 mill we wanted. Then a lot of letters were 

 dispatched to makers of windmills. I 

 wonder, my friend, if you are as ignorant of 

 the real cost of a good windmill as I was. 

 When one manufacturer named 5?30.00 as 

 the price of a windmill, all complete, except 

 the tower, 1 thought he must have made a 

 mistake ; but when others offered them at 

 prices var\iiig from $3.s.(K) to JoO.OO, 1 felt 



