68 CBANBERBY CULTURE. 



where it is needed, and also to protect the dam from the 

 rippling water, which otherwise would undermine and 

 wash it down. 



The dimensions given for the dam may seem large, but 

 if you attempt to construct one upon the muck, or make 

 the width of the dam less than the required depth of the 

 water, or the protecting walls narrower than the bank 

 of sand, thinking, thereby, to save expense, you may be 

 sadly disappointed. 



" A thing worth doing at all is worth doing well," is 

 an old saying, and it is particularly applicable to the 

 building of dams ; for the water will be sure to attack 

 the embankment in the weakest place, and a small leak 

 will drain a great pond. 



A dam was once constructed in the manner described, 

 excepting that the turf walls were about half &$ thick as 

 the embankment of sand. The result was, upon raising 

 the water, the sand settled down, and forced the walls 

 asunder, threatening to u let all the mighty waters out," 

 which, no doubt, would have been the consequence, had 

 not one of the proprietors adopted the expedient of driv- 

 ing down large stakes on each side of the dam, and con- 

 necting^them with stout wires, thus sustaining the walls, 

 and preventing them from separating further. 



A dam near Tom's River, N". J., built at a cost of 

 $6,000, to flood a meadow containing three hundred 

 acres, broke recently, because of a weakness under the 

 floodgates. The massive gates and a portion of the dam 

 were carried away, which, in connection with having the 

 water drained off in midwinter, has damaged the owner 

 to the amount of about $2,000, besides doing considerable 

 injury to land and mill owners located on the stream 

 below. 



Floodgates are necessary in all dams of any considera- 

 ble size, in order to regulate the depth of water in the 

 pond ; but for savannas or heath ponds, where the sup- 



