134 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:4— April, 1918 



House 



m 



o 



3 O 



3 O 



> 



f>ASTORfe.' 



H ' &>4 WW 



In the low swale by the streamside — not in the bed of the stream — 

 is the place to make the pond, and preferably near the house for 

 convenience in giving it the necessary attention. Considerable 

 labor is required for the making of a pond, but fortunately this 

 work needs to be done but once. Fortunately, also, in these days 

 of labor shortage, the best time for doing it is the dry season follow- 

 ing harvest, the 

 slack time on the 

 farm. A few days 

 work with men 

 and teams using 

 plow and scraper 

 will do it. Of 

 course, the boy 

 will have to be 

 helped with this 

 heavy work; but 

 any farmer should 

 be willing to give 

 his boy this start. 

 The home fish- 

 pond is managed 

 like the home 

 poultry-yard ; 

 hence, it must be 

 so built as to be always under control. An outlet from the bottom 

 of it must be provided, so that it may be entirely drained when 

 necessary ; and the intake from the stream must be so constructed 

 that the pond will not receive the silt and floating trash from 

 floods. The accompanying plan suggests a suitable arrangement. 

 If I were giving a boy specific instructions for making a pond, I 

 would say that the necessary order of procedure is the following: 

 i. First, construct the pond basin. Scrape out on the side 

 next the stream sufficient earth to make overflow of flood waters 

 impossible, else silt will fill the basin up again. Scrape the rich 

 black muck out over the edges to level up the bordering lowlands 

 making of them all dry and productive soil. Deepen the center 

 well below danger of freezing. Leave the banks gently sloping. 

 If the bottom is too soft to drive a team across, hitch a cable to the 

 scraper and use a few pulleys. A gasoline engine and a hoist with 



A Farm Fish-pond. Dotted lines indicate contours of 

 the slope going down from the house. D is a cup- 

 shaped elevation of the pond bottom for retaining a 

 little water into which live fish may be dipped 

 when draining off the pond. B is a clump of birch 

 trees, planted here for the sake of their reflection. 

 W is willows on the embankment furnishing a little 

 shade. L is a bed of water lilies. 



