HESERVOIHS AXD PONDS. 67 



the ground is again plowed and a trench dug along the 

 center of each proposed embankment. When this much 

 is done water should be applied. The abundant use of 

 water is of prime importance in all works of this nature. 

 Allow water to run into the trench until full, then begin 

 to form the base of the embankments. As the contents 

 of the scrapers, carts or wagons are dumped on the fill, 

 have them thoroughly sprinkled, using, if no sprinkling 

 cart is handy, a large barrel or plank box with a piece of 

 perforated pipe for a sprinkler, controlled by a flap valve 

 faced with leather. 



As the fill rises more water is turned into the trench, 

 so that the whole base presents the appearance of two 

 low, wide embankments, with a canal full of water be- 

 tween them. By building with water in the center prac- 

 tically the same results are secured as with a core of 

 puddle clay, concrete, or masonry, without the serious dis- 

 advantage of a joint on each side of such a core, which 

 often proves fatal to the structure. By the other way 

 there are no distinct joints, since the water in the trench 

 percolates quite a distance on each side, and then these 

 half embankments are watered by sprinkler, and packed 

 by the passage of teams into a mass nearly as compact as 

 that done under water. Another suggestion to those 

 inexperienced in such work may be made in relation to 

 the sorting of the materials. In nearly every case in 

 practice the contents of the bank of the pit differ, run- 

 ning from fine to coarse and from porous to impervious, 

 and successful practice requires the placing of that 

 which is the best adapted to retain water next to the 

 edge of the water, or on the inner half, while the rocks, 

 larger gravel and heavy substances in general are ranged 

 from the outside toward the center on the outer half. It 

 is the rule of practical builders of earthen embankments 

 to make the width of the base line three times the bight, 

 and this kind of construction, if properly put up, will 



