WATER WORRIES. 115 



And this went on for four days longer. We were 

 forced to put our chrysanthemums, our dahhas, our 

 roses on short commons; then to withhold water from 

 them altogether. What little there was in the tank 

 must be husbanded for the begonias, fuchsias, and 

 so forth under the glass. Three or four trees of early 

 apples were not plumping out their fruit as they ought 

 to do. A row of young fruit trees, planted tem- 

 porarily on the slope of the orchard until we should be 

 able to clear permanent abiding places for them, began 

 to show leaves of a yellowish hue. The state of affairs 

 was serious. One thing was, however, sure. We 

 must provide water at all costs to the greenhouses. 

 Which would it be better to do — haul water day by 

 day from the lake in barrels, or pump by hand? To 

 haul from the lake would have kept men and horses 

 busy all day and every day. It was not to be thought 

 of, except as a means for the salvation of fruit trees, 

 chrysanthemums, dahlias, roses. We used the pump. 

 Four of us wrought at it for two hours one morning, 

 and we nearly filled the tank. 



Two days later water from the stream began to 

 come again ; but even then we were not done with 

 trouble. Our windmill, after being repaired, ran only 

 a short time before it broke again, and until the rains 

 came, some three weeks later, the stream continued to 

 act intermittently. 



The winter of 1907-8 was comparatively mild. That 

 of 1908-9 set in with sharp frosts before the snow 

 came, which was three days earlier than in the year 

 preceding — namely, December 22. On the night of 

 January 4-5 the temperature dropped between twenty 

 and thirty degrees, and when we awoke in the 



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