CLEANINGS IN BEL CULTURE. 



Oct. 



letters were read and answered, and work 

 out of the way. 1 knew it was late to start, 

 but I like to do things when the spirit moves 

 me, ajid so Huber and 1 pushed ahead, even 

 though the sun was settling a good deal fast- 

 er than 1 wanted to see it settle that after- 

 noon. By the time we reached friend 

 White's there was only about an hour of 

 daylight left. My friend looked somewhat 

 older than when I last visited him, but there 

 was the same animation, especially when I 

 began to talk about carp. As we passed 

 througli the gate, and his wife came out to 

 welcome us. he introduced me with a re- 

 mark something like this : " Wife, here is 

 Mr. Root, come all the way from Medina 

 just to see me a little while ; but for the life 

 of me I can not think what should bring 

 him to see such a poor worm of the dust as 

 I am." 



Then he went into the house, got a couple 

 of large slices of bread, and oft we went for 

 the carp-ponds. When we first made prepa- 

 rations for the trip ii was so near noon we 

 expected to get back in time for supper; 

 but after we got into the buggy, Huber vol- 

 unteered the information that mamma gave 

 him a bag of bread and butter, and we had 

 just lunched from this bag of bread and but- 

 ter, with appetites sharpened by the keen 

 air of the September evening. By the time 

 we got to the bottom of the bag, however, 

 Huber and 1 both felt sorry that mamma 

 hadn't taken a larger paper bag ; and when 

 friend White came out with his beautiful 

 large slices, I don't know just what Huber 

 thought, but I felt very much like wanting 

 a sample of the nice bread that Mrs. White 

 knows how to make. Time was too pre- 

 cious, however, even if I did know how 

 gladly all the refreshments of the household 

 would have been placed at our disposal had 

 1 said the word. There was only an hour 

 before us, and I expected to make that hour 

 count. We passed through the barnyard, 

 and out near the summit of some great 

 hills. I wondered at the time why friend 

 W. didn't take us directly down into the 

 valley. To my great surprise, the first pond 

 was over near the summit of the hills. It 

 was arranged so as to take the water from a 

 gully that had washed between the crests of 

 the hills. In fact, this gully received the 

 water from, may be, fifty or a hundred acres 

 of upland. As this pond was a type of a se- 

 ries of other ponds that extend clear to the 

 foot of tlie hills, I will try to make a some- 

 what rough diagram here. 



Let the dotted line in the diagram repre- 



sent the course of the waste water. At A it 

 comes down between the hills on either side. 



Hill. Hill 



Pig. 1. 



\ POND I 



DIAGRAM OF J. W. AVHITE'S CARP-POND. 



At B a piece of four-inch tile is placed in 

 such a way as to turn the water into the 

 pond. If more water comes down into the 

 gully than can pass througli the four-inch 

 tile, it follows the course of the dotted line 

 in a ditch dug along in the hillside. This 

 latter ditch is perhaps two feet deep, the 

 sides being slanted like a letter V ; and this 

 ditch is only for the purpose of conveying 

 away any surplus water that may come 

 down during an unusually heavy rain. At 

 C is the outlet, made of six-inch tile. Now, 

 the sides of the pond wliere tliey were not 

 formed by the bank of the hill, on either 

 side are built up very rudely and cheaply. 

 The clay and gravel are simply piled to a 

 sharp point. In fact, the dam at many 

 places is hardly wide enough along the top 

 to walk on. I at once commenced to re- 

 monstrate, and asked if such frail struc- 

 tures wouldn't be washed away by heavy 

 rains. His reply was characteristic : 



'' Why, Mr. Root, hoAv can the pond wash 

 away, or even overflow, when no more wa- 

 ter can get in than luns through the four- 

 inch tile, and the outlet is a six-inch tile V "' 



I may not have got the size of the tile just 

 right; but the point is, that the outlet is a 

 size larger than the inlet. In order to catch 

 every bit of rain, a little mud dam is made 

 across the waste-water cliannel, just below 



