THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



that he may provide himself mainly by 

 his own labor with an effective machine 

 of that kind. When the necessity of 

 present economy is not too pressing 

 however, it will be found generally best 

 to buy the most approved types of 

 modern wind-mills made largely of iron 

 and steel. Such machines are very dur- 

 able and while they may not be able to 

 do more or better work than some 

 types of home-made machines they give 

 better satisfaction all around than any- 

 thing \vhich the farmer might himself 

 make at a cost enough less to prove an 

 incentive to undertake the task. The 

 point sought to be urged is: Get a wind- 

 mill. Get the best one possible; if able, 

 get one made of steel or iron; if not of 

 these then let it be of wood and of the 

 best type. But if you cannot buy one 

 of these don't go without a wind-mill. 

 Make one. 



A FARMER'S FISH POND. 



BY K. HALDEMAN. 



fish pond is situated five and 

 one-half miles northwest of Alda, 

 Hall Co., Neb., in the Platte valley, be- 

 tween the Platte river and the Loup. 

 It is 185 feet long and 00 feet wide, it 

 has at present about four and one-half feet 

 of water, although this can be increased 

 to six feet. It is supplied by a common 

 wind mill which stands about 1125 feet 

 from it. The pond and the mill are con- 

 nected by an underground inch and a 

 half pipe which comes up out of the 

 ground just outside of the pond. This 

 pipe has a waste joint where it is con- 

 nected with the pumps, to keep it from 

 freezing in the winter. We stocked our 

 pond with German carp, which we re- 

 ceived from the state fish commission at 

 North Bend, Neb. Besides these \\e 

 have a few catfish and some suckers. 

 There are countless small fish which 

 were hatched last summer. We feed 

 our fish bran, bread and corn. We 

 have used our pond as a reservoir, as well 

 as a fish pond, irrigating a garden and a 

 small truck patch, by means of a rubber 

 hose, for two seasons. Although it was 

 not necessary to irrigate, we have had 

 belter success with our garden by irri- 

 gatiug some through the dry weather 

 han before we made the pond. Our 



pond also makes a nice skating rink in 

 the winter as well as a good place to get 

 ice to put up for summer use. Our pond 

 was made with a common road scraper. 

 It took two men six days to make it. 

 One man can use a scraper by himself, 

 although it is better to have one man 

 extra to load. In making our pond we 

 first commenced at one corner and made 

 a bank all around the embryo pond as 

 high as the dirt from the first scraping 

 would make it. The first scraping does 

 not need to be plowed. We then plowed 

 it as deep as we could with common 

 plow. We then took the second scrap- 

 ing out, putting it entirely around the 

 pond the same as before and keeping the 

 bank as nearly level as possible, each 

 scraping raising the bank about six 

 inches, although this depends on the 

 size of the pond. Each succeeding 

 scraping is disposed of the same as the 

 first and second, although the deeper 

 you get the harder it is to plow and 

 scrape, as the soil here is a kind of clay, 

 after the black soil is taken off the top, 

 which bakes in the sun and gets sticky 

 and hard. 



This clay, although hard to handle, 

 is very good for a pond for it will hold 

 water until it evaporates after it gets 

 packed solid. When starting, the bank 

 should be fifteen or twenty feet wide, 

 this will, by constant tramping and 

 rolling down of dirt, spread out to twenty 

 or thirty feet, and if the back is to be 

 more than four or five feet above the 

 surface will need to be wider than this. 

 Our pond is three feet deep below the 

 surface, while the dirt taken out makes 

 a bank about three and one-half feet 

 high, making the pond about six and a 

 half feet dee]) from the top of the bank. 

 The more driving over the bank the 

 better, as this tramps it and keeps it 

 packed as it is added to. After the pond 

 is done it will have to be puddled, which 

 is done by letting five or six inches of 

 water into it and then tramping with 

 horses or harrowing and tramping it to 

 make it solid in the bottom. 



Our pond cost us six days work with 

 a team and two men to make the pond. 

 Three men one day to lay the pipe and 

 twelve and one-half cents a foot for l'jr> 

 feet of one and one-half inch pipe. Of 

 course besides this the wind-mill is to be 



