68 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Febedabt, 



reservoirs and conveyed to the farms by gravitation. Tlius, 

 pumpinfT would be rendered unnecessary, and an abundant supply 

 niav be had at small cost. 



The distribution will be most conveniently made upon each field 

 hv using hose or other surface pipes, jetting- the water upon the 

 land from convenient points, and it may be thrown in the shape 

 of rain by any common labourer (with a little instruction.) In 

 this way,' a labourer with a boy as his assistant may effectually 

 water ten acres in a day, at a cost of about 3*. for wages: and, 

 adding 2,v. for the cost of the fetching and removal of the surface 

 pipes by a horse and cart, with a sum to cover the interest of the 

 outlayed money, chargeable to each application, the whole will 

 amount to ■'is., being at the rate of 6(1. per acre; and, adding 6il. 

 per acre for pumping, the full cost will be 1*. per acre. 



This to a practical farmer will at once appear an insignificant 

 charge for a soaking shower of rain in a dry period; and, if it is 

 in summer weather, when there is heat, the growth of whatever 

 plants are in the ground will be greatly promoted; and, what is 

 verv important, the permanent injury, by stoppage of growth for 

 a period, which takes place by excessive and continued drought, 

 will be avoided; so that, when the natural moisture returns, the 

 plants will proceed in their growth in a healthy condition, and the 

 certainty of an early and abundant crop will be the result. In 

 the flat countries, where water cannot be made available from re- 

 servoirs in the upper country, the whole water required may be 

 jjumped by the steam-engine usually employed for thrasliing the 

 grain, and at an extremely small cost; and since it has been else- 

 whei'e demonstrated that manure may be most efficiently applied 

 in the liijuid form, the watering ]iipes and apparatus can be used 

 with great advantage in distributing tlie manure, by which they 

 would perform the double office of supplying abundance of water 

 in dry seasons, and of distributing the manure at all seasons, when 

 proper to apply it. 



In the application of liquid manure, much dilution is found to 

 be absolutely necessary: and the farmer should always be provided 

 with an abundant supjily of water, wherewith to mi.\ his liquid 

 manure from the farm, or to dissohe and mix with such artificial 

 manures as he may find it profitable to employ; in this way, the 

 most minute shade of nourishing matter may be given at such 

 times as the plants may require. It has been ascertaiired by the 

 analysis of drainage water, that a considerable portion of the dung 

 put upon land passes off with the superab uudant rain water. I, 

 therefore, projiose that, upon every farm, there should be a pond 

 or reser\'oir to catch and stt)re uj) the drainage water of the wet 

 season, that it may be thrown upon the land in dry periods — thus 

 saving, as far as it is possible, tlie enriching matter, which would 

 otherwise be lost. This points to the lowest part of the farm as 

 the most proper site for the homestead or farm-buildings, that the 

 steam-engine may be contiguous, at the same time, to the farm- 

 stead and to the reservoir. Such position for the farmstead would 

 be most suitable in another important point of view. The system re- 

 cently called high farming would seem to be imperatively called for 

 in the present condition of the agriculturists of this country, when 

 a greater jiroportion of rearing and feeding of cattle must be car- 

 ried out on every farm, so that a larger amount of manure may be 

 produced, with a more profitable application of the food raised. 

 To this end the liquid manure and distril)ution by pipes will greatly 

 contribute; whilst having the farmstead in a low position will 

 assist in the carting home of the increased green crops for house- 

 feeding, being chiefly down hill, and will be, to a certain e.\tent, 

 advantageous for the carrying home of grain crops as well. The 

 farmstead will generally thus be in a more sheltered position, 

 which in all respects will be advantageous, except with the single 

 exception of drying of grain in the stack, which process can be 

 placed under the nujre immediate control of the farmer by cheap 

 and efficient artificial means. 



All over the Lothians, and the other more advanced districts in 

 Scotland, the steam-engine is a common appendage to every farm- 

 stead of any extent, for the purpose of thrashing the grain, cut- 

 ting the straw and roots, and bruising grain, &c.; and as such 

 engines are employed but a i ery small portion of time, a forcing 

 pump may be attached for tlie jiurpose of pumping water and 

 liquid manure. The ajqilication of the common liquid manure of 

 a farm has hitherto been an uphill work, and must always be so 

 when a manure cart is employed as the means of con\'eyance and 

 <listribution; and the farmers who have taken the trouble to ascer- 

 tain the cost of carrying out their liquid manure by cart must have 

 long ago found that it is very great, and that in most instances (to 

 use a Scotch phrase), ''The cost will o'ergang the profit." The 

 application is generally limited to grass lands, where much injury 



is frequently done, by so much carting as is necessary. AVhen the 

 liquid is applied in dry periods the grass is frequently injured by 

 the strength and acrimony of the fluid: to dilute it with water 

 sufficiently would add very much to the expense of the conveyance 

 and distribution by cart; but when pipes and a steam-engine are 

 employed, a large amount of dilution adds very little to the neces- 

 sary expense. 



The permanent pipes should be placed two, or two and a half 

 feet under the surface, so as to remove them from the influence of 

 severe frost, and from any interference with the deepest working 

 of the land, and it will be sufficient that there be only one or two 

 points of communication with these pipes in each field, as remov- 

 able pipes, laid upon the surface, are found sufficient to convey the 

 liquid to the points from which the water or liquid manure has to 

 be jetted. These pipes, which are made with slip-joints, can be 

 removed from field to field, so that one, or at most two sets of re- 

 movable pipes will suffice for a moderate-sized farm. I have thus 

 endeavoured to lay before my readers an outline of my plan for an 

 artificial supply of moisture to the soil. 



PARKERS WATER WHEEL. 



This important impi-ovement is now extensively in use in nearly 

 every State in the Union. By the most careful scientific tests, 

 ami by observations in many instances in which it has been sub- 

 stituted for overshot and high-breast or pitch-back wheels, it 

 has been fully proved to be more effective in point of economy of 

 water than gi'avity wheels; while its simplicity, its not being im- 

 peded by backwater, or obstructed by ice, its convenience of 

 arrangement for inspection and management, the smallness of the 

 space it occupies, its great durability, its not being liable to get 

 out of order, and its cheapness, especially for great powers, are 

 important advantages not possessed in an equal degree by any 

 other motor. 



The above figures represent one of these wheels recently estab- 

 lished in the Agawam Canal Company's Cotton >Iill, at West 

 Springfield, Mass.; fig. 1, being an elevation or vertical section 

 through the axis of the wheel; fig. '2, an elevation across the shaft, 

 representing a section of the penstock and di'aft tubes, and a 

 profile of the helical inlet The parts of the drawing have their 

 true proportions according to the scale. 



yjjThe fall of water operating the wheel is 31 feet; its full power 

 is estimated at 250-horse power, with an expenditure of (j396 cubic 

 feet of water per minute. The wheel consists of a pair of reaction 

 wheels or rims w, of a modified and improved form, arranged on a 

 horizontal shaft, and a double helical sluice o, which conducts the 

 water into the wheels with a lively annular motion in the direction 

 in which the wheel moves. The wheel, with its helical sluice, is 

 placed within the penstock, or reservoir supplying it, and is 

 entirely surrounded with water, the extremities of the shaft only 

 protruding from the sides; its axis is 20 feet high from the surface 

 of the tail water. The water passes from the wheels or rims into 

 two air-tight chambers or cases c, called " draft boxes," from 

 which it passes into two air-tight iron tubes <l, called "draft 

 tubes," which terminate and discharge the water beneath the sur- 

 face of the lower level. The air being entirely excluded from 



