THE USE OF SIPHONS 55 



a hydraulic ram. A part of the water reaching the top of the river bank is 

 allowed to run back down the steep bank through a pipe, thus furnishing 

 motive power to run the ram, which sends water up to the house. The wheel 

 and flume cost, when completed, $150, and, considering the small liability of 

 its becoming damaged, it is certainly preferable to keeping in repair several 

 miles of ditch. 



Conveying Water by Siphon. Conveying water over a hill to 

 a point of delivery on the other side lower than the supply point 

 is a simple operation, and one which might be more generally 

 employed than it is. A simple instance is this: selecting a low, 

 moist spot over the hill, a pit was dug, twelve by twenty-tour feet 

 to a depth of twelve feet. When completed, five and a half feet of 

 water gathered in the pond. An inch pipe was laid along the 

 level about four hundred feet and over a gently sloping hill twelve 

 and one-half feet above the plain and then down the slope west- 

 ward about eight hundred feet. At the summit a pump was used 

 temporarily to draw the water upward in the pipe and soon a flow 

 began from the outlet. The pump was removed and the siphon 

 worked to perfection. 



Siphons are very satisfactory where applicable and are some- 

 times made of pipes of considerable diameter where the supply 

 is large. Such devices are vastly cheaper than tunneling. It is 

 even on record that a fruit grower put in quite an expensive 

 pumping plant to force water over a hill to his orchard on the 

 other side and was surprised to find that the water ran when the 

 pump was not in motion. He had not figured that the delivery 

 point was lower than the supply point but so it was. In the case 

 of conveying water from rivers to leveed lands below the stream, 

 the siphon is cheaper than a flood-gate and safer and has the 

 advantage of being portable. 



FARM AND GARDEN RESERVOIRS. 



For the construction of a dam to restrain the water of a creek 

 it is always wisest for the man who has had no experience in 

 such work to secure the advice of an expert. Fortunately such 

 men are very abundant in California as dam building has been a 

 profession of Californians ever since early mining days. The 

 making of water-tight dams on a small scale is not necessarily a 

 very expensive operation, but it is liable to become so if not done 

 properly. An experienced man can give suggestions as to the 



