How to obtain tt. 65 
outlet screen goes without saying. It should be the duty of some 
one to attend to it as often as may be required. The amount of 
attention needful varies very much indeed in different cases. I 
have screens working which are not touched oftener than once in 
three or four weeks, and I have others that require attention every 
day and sometimes twice daily. There are exceptional times that 
come perhaps once a year, when a screen requires special attention 
for a few days, as, for instance, during a slight rise in the water in 
autumn when the leaves are falling. As I have already pointed 
out, a good deal depends upon the position of a screen, and much 
also upon the way in which it is guarded. I have seen one that 
was almost hopelessly unworkable work quite easily after steps 
had been taken for preventing the floating matter from coming on 
to it, and this can often be done in a very simple manner. A few 
bundles of sticks or of thorns placed in the water so as to form a 
semicircle just above the screen have done excellent service many 
atime. A wooden hack placed two or three feet in front of it 
will answer the same purpose. I have seen wire netting used, but 
it has the objection of being bad to clean. From a wooden hack, 
or an iron one either, rubbish can easily be raked, but not so 
easily from wire netting. Should it be the most convenient device 
at hand, it should be stretched upon movable frames that can be 
lifted bodily and well shaken, or the netting beaten with sticks or 
switches to clear it of the mass of material that is at times sure to 
collect upon it. Bundles of thorns, hedge clippings in fact, 
do very well, and if plenty of them are used they are most 
efficacious. 
The working of a screen may also be materially helped by 
planting a bed of reeds (Arundo phragmitis) or of bullrushes 
(Typha latifolia) in front of it. These will do excellent service 
in keeping it clear, by preventing the bulk of the floating matter 
from reaching it at all, and by working a few bundles of sticks at 
the back of a reed bed a screen may be made to give very little 
trouble indeed. ‘‘ Where there is a will there is a way,” but the 
disgraceful manner in which many of the outlet screens I have 
seen have been worked would lead one to suppose that it was a 
very difficult way. On newly-made fish ponds, however, it should 
not be so. 
F 
