18S6 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CItLTUHE. 



659 



will show you just where tlhit spring water 

 comes from ; nay, furtlier : I will take you 

 along the surface of the ground over its path 

 from where Ave are now, to its fountain- 

 head/' 



Of course, I wanted to know how he could 

 follow the mountain stream where it was far 

 under ground, through the hills. Said I, 

 " Are you going to take a hazel-bush -or 

 peach-tree crotch, and make it bend down 

 when you go over the subterranean rivulet?" 



I wish you coukl have seen the old gentle- 

 man as he stopped and turned around and 

 looked me full in the face, to give emphasis 

 to his remarks. 



" Mr. Root, unprincipled men who have, by 

 accident, found the same law that I have dis- 

 covered, have for ages made this innocent 

 crotched stick an excuse for swindling the 

 community. It is a big humbug and a swin- 

 dle. The crotched stick does not help them 

 a particle, but they use it only for an excuse 

 to get money, and to blind the people. See." 



We were going up through the forest, in a 

 little sink of ground, where water comes 

 down from the hills during very wet weather. 



''Our underground brook is beneath our 

 feet." 



" But how do you know?" I asked. 

 '• I know by the lay of the land, and I have 

 proved it over and over again by digging 

 down until I found the stream; but I can 

 convince you in a few moments, A\iLhout 

 digging down." 



We were now in the dense woods, far up 

 in the hills, and the ground was becoming 

 so damp that occasionally a drop of water 

 hung on the under side of the shelving rocks. 

 By and by it dripped from one stone to an- 

 other ; further on, and it trickled ; and still 

 further it was a little rivulet ; further still, 

 and we found a level sunken spot on the 

 summit of the hill. Beautiful ferns and 

 mosses grew here ; and at one spot the water 

 stood like a tiny lake. 



^' There," said my guide, " is the fountain- 

 liead of our spring. Put in tiles here, take 

 away the water, and you have a few acres of 

 beautiful ground, until you have exliausted 

 the vegetable mold and decayed leaves on 

 the surface of the ground, but— r«/r spriuy is 

 gone.'''' 



I was glad to tell friend Cole, just about at 

 this point, that 1 could tell him scmiething 

 also. Hundreds of loads of moss, or sphag- 

 num, were at our feet, and yet he had never 

 made any use of it for his "New Agricul- 

 ture." Now then : Instead of using tile- 

 drains to let this water off from this swamp 



I have described, or from thousands of oth- 

 er just such swamps, father Cole would let 

 the water be where it is, simply dropping it 

 below the surface in trenches lilled with 

 stone, shingling over these trenches, and 

 having all the benefit of the rich soil you 

 would get by tile drainage, or the still fur- 

 ther benefit of letting the plants extend their 

 roots down into the water. AVith the tile 

 drainage you run the water with all possible 

 speed down the hill into the river, and it is 

 lost. With the " New Agriculture " you 

 drop it down a foot or more and keep it to 

 serve you during severe droughts when they 

 come, and to water all the ground below it, 

 clear down to the lowermost valleys. Do 

 you see the magnitude of his undertaking ? 



Let me depart from the subject of agricul- 

 ture a little to tell you something else that 

 may be done. The town of Wellsville, at 

 the foot of these hills, has a printing-otlice, 

 the presses of which are run by a water- 

 motor. This water-motor is not much lai'g- 

 er than a good-sized water-ni('?o». 



" Friend Cole," said I, " how high up is 

 the fountain-head that supplies this water- 

 motor ? " 



" One hundred and ninety-six feet." 



Indeed, with 196 feet fall it is no wonder 

 that that little motor, fed by a quarter-inch 

 pipe, runs the printing-office. Now, father 

 Cole's idea is, plenty of water falls on these 

 hilltops (providing, of course, we husband 

 the melting snov/s of winter as well as the 

 summer rains) not only to perfectly irrigate 

 all the cultivated land, but to run water- 

 motors enough to siepersede steam. Over 

 father Cole's mantlepiece hangs a life-sized 

 picture of Horace Greeley. Well, I took 

 friend Cole to task a little, because of his 

 extravagant claims (superseding steam, for 

 instance, as above). 



" Why, Mr. Hoot," said he, " there are 

 possibilities growing out of this ' New Agri- 

 culture,' so wonderful that I did not dare to 

 put them in my book." 



One of these possibilities has something 

 to do with the picture of our good friend 

 Horace (Jreeley. Mr. Greeley visited Cali- 

 fornia, as you may remember, and one espe- 

 cial hobby of his was that of irrigating the 

 Great American Desert, l^erhaps many of 

 you are aware that it is now actually being 

 done, and that Ameiica won't have any 

 " American Desert " at all after a while, if 

 we keep on. Well, Horace (ireeley visited 

 and looked upon the great mammoth red- 

 wood-trees of California. Not very far away 

 from these great trees he noticed a river 



