58 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



Cement can be used in the form of a mortar made of six 

 parts sharp clean sand to one part Portland cement. ' Apply two 

 coats, and then brush over with a whitewash of clear cement and 

 water. It is not necessary to make walls of brick or stone on 

 which to cement. Cemented directly on the earth, even if it be 

 sand or gravel, answers perfectly. As we have no earth-freezing 

 such work is safe. If there should be cracks, give a coat of clear 

 cement and water and it will close them up. 



The use of clay puddle is also very satisfactory. The follow- 

 ing is the plan of construction followed by Mr. Edward Berwick, 

 of Carmel valley, Monterey county, in building a reservoir which 

 has stood thirty years of constant use: 



My reservoir is eighty feet in diameter and made on land with a slope 

 of say one in forty. I drove a peg in for a center, took a forty-foot line and 

 marked a circle. I dug a trench eighteen inches in width, say three feet 

 deep where the land level was lowest and five feet where it was highest, so 

 that the ditch bottom was level. I filled the ditch with puddled clay, well 

 tamped, then excavated a width of perhaps ten feet, just inside the clay 

 ring, to the level required for the reservoir bottom. I lined this ten feet of 

 floor with clay, being careful to unite the clay of the ditch ring with this 

 floor. Then began clearing out the middle of the reservoir and banking up 

 on this ten-foot floor, and also on outside, at the same time adding clay to 

 the ditch ring as the embankment grew. 



When the required excavation was made, cleared up well to the edge of 

 the ten-foot wide floor, I put in the clay for the rest of the bottom, uniting it, 

 of course, with the ten feet already laid, but now covered with the inner em- 

 bankment. A three-inch discharge pipe was laid at the bottom, with neces- 

 sary fittings. 



The reservoir is nearly seven feet deep when filled, and forms an excel- 

 lent bathing tank for the family in addition to its irrigation service. 



This is a very thorough style of construction. It would be 

 cheaper to excavate as described in the previous list of sugges- 

 tions and then trust to a clay layer evenly spread over the bottom 

 and sloping sides, but the use of the puddle trench and flat floor 

 is surer to hold water. The puddle trench is carried to the top 

 of the bank; clay layering on the sloping bank will crack as the 

 water is drawn down and is apt to be leaky. Mr. Berwick has 

 scraped out a very rich deposit of mud and decayed leaves and 

 water weed once since he built the reservoir, thus obtaining a con- 

 siderable amount of fertilizer, and after scraping, the bottom was 

 given a new floor of clay. He has also raised the sides of the 



