Ki;si;;;voiRS AXU PONDS. 75 



and very wide or thick at the ground level. The walls 

 shoijd l.)i- so carried up that the slope from the inside 

 will be very gradual, not alni])t, f.>r the reason that if 

 the walls are nearly perpendicular wind waves will 

 destroy them, hence the advantage of making the walls 

 very sloping from the inside. The outer walls may he 

 made more perpendicular, because there is no influence 

 from the outside to injure them. 



Having built the walls by using the earth from the 

 inside of the reservoir, and with everything ready for 

 puddling the earth to hold water, the first thing in order 

 is to plow all of the land over the whole bottom surface 

 of the reservoir four or five inches deep, then with a 

 harrow or drag or other suitable implement, reduce the 

 earth to a very five pulverization, and after this shall 

 have been thoroughly done, the next thing is to puddle. 

 Turn the water into the reservoir and begin to puddle 

 at one edge, puddling carefully along this edge until the 

 earth shall have been reduced to mortar, and continue to 

 work toward the other side until the entire bottom of 

 the pond is completed as far up the embankment as can 

 be worked to good advantage. It may often happen 

 that puddling is out of the question owing to the porous 

 condition of the bottom. If the soil is sandy haul into 

 the basin several loads of any kjnd of clay obtainable 

 and mix this thoroughly with the earth. Fresh manure 

 or even sawdust may often be employed to just as good 

 advantage. Very often it is only necessary to run 

 muddy water into it and allow the sediment to find its 

 way into the loose sand. Of course the more clay that 

 is carried in the muddy water the more effectual will be 

 the puddling. This method has proven successful in a 

 very leaky lake which was excavated in an old creek bot- 

 tom and almost entirely in coarse loose sand. 



In constructing these surface storage basins the di- 

 mensions are best when fifty by one hundred feet, or one 



