n6 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



GOATS PUDDLING THE EARTHWORK OF A DAM IN NEW MEXICO. 



INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY IN DAM BUILDING. 



IN building irrigation canals and dams the engineer 

 is often obliged to resort to the adoption of meth- 

 ods and means which seem totally foreign to the 

 exact science of engineering. They apparently have 

 no connection whatever with such abstruse matters 

 as triangulation, cross sections or tensile strength, 

 and it would scarcely be supposed that they could 

 be considered as factors in an important engineering 

 feat. Even the goat, loud smelling and of voracious 

 appetite, fills a place in the industrial economy of 

 dam building. It may be true that the goat is of 

 humble origin, fit only to gorge itself on the Monday 

 washing or empty tomato cans, but viewed in the 

 light or the results accomplished, it is worthy of a 

 higher place in public esteem. 



Gen. E. F. Hobart, of Santa Fe, relates that while 

 building a dam on the Rio de Santa Fe, to store 

 water to supply the city and for irrigation purposes, 

 over a hundred goats were used to puddle the earth- 

 work. The foundation of the dam rested on bed 

 rock, upon which had been built ribs of concrete and 

 in these ribs was inserted triple sheet piling extend- 

 ing upward into the puddle. The entire upper half 

 of the dam is puddled; the earth being spread in 



thin layers, then sprinkled and goats driven back 

 and forth. The face of the dam was afterward cov- 

 ered with three feet of broken quarry rip-rap. 



Mr. John Howell, a civil engineer of New York, 

 afterward wrote that when the goats were first em- 

 ployed, several hundred were busy at once, usually 

 between the hours of twelve and one and five and 

 six. It was subsequently found that the goats did not 

 interfere with the teams, and it would be more con- 

 venient and economical to use a smaller number of 

 goats and keep them at work all day. As a result of 

 this experience they found that 115 goats could do 

 well the puddling for thirty wheel-scrapers, averag- 

 ing about fourteen cubic feet per load on about 500 

 feet haul. As goats in the arid region are a dry 

 hill-side animal, it was feared that such a radical 

 change in their habits as keeping their feet muddy 

 would give them foot disease, but their natural 

 hardiness seems capable of carrying them through. 

 When first put at work they tired easily and were 

 able to work but a part of a day. A few days of feed 

 upon peas and refuse hay, however, brought back 

 their accustomed good spirits. 



