January, 1906 AMERICAN 
road scraper, a portion of it 
being utilized to raise the 
side of the pond above the 
surface of the land. By the 
time the excavation is com- 
pleted the earth will be 
packed fairly firm by the 
tramping of the horses; 
sufficient water should then 
be turned on to admit of 
puddling the surface of the 
clay, which should be care- 
fully and evenly tamped 
down on sides and bottom. 
Such a pond will give ex- 
cellent temporary results and 
may stand the winter with 
protection, and by re- 
puddling the sides and bot- 
tom each season may be 
rendered fairly permanent. 
It will be necessary, how- 
ever, to cement the edges of 
the pond or fill in stone 
along the edges to protect 
them, as the washing of the 
water against them will 
destroy the clay and cause 
leakage. 
Such a pond has the ad- 
vantage of lending itself to 
natural effects, as various 
water-loving plants may be 
planted along the margin, 
adding greatly to the scenic 
effect and interest. The bam- 
boos are especially adapted to this form of planting and make 
an admirable background for the water garden, while 
Japanese iris, sagittarias, and the like, may be employed in 
the foreground with good effect. 
On a gravelly soil clay may be used as a coat, puddling and 
tamping it down as on the natural clay foundation; this makes 
a cheap pond, but one which must be repuddled each year. 
Cement may be used instead of clay, using a low grade, seven- 
to-one mixture—that is, one part of cement to seven of sand 
and gravel, the proportion of the latter being three of gravel 
and four of clean, sharp sand, making it one or one and a 
half inches thick on the sides and three inches on the bottom 
and finishing with a high grade one-to-three coat over all. 
Any fissures caused by frost, shrinking of the soil, or similar 
causes, may be repaired by giving a thin coat of the one-to- 
three grade and rendered practically as good as new. 
In all such ponds of cheap construction where leakage is 
liable to occur, it is best to grow the plants in tubs or wooden 
boxes of earth, instead of planting them in the earth directly 
in the pond, as in case of accident to the walls they may 
be easily removed and the repair effected with the least 
possible delay. Moreover, the roots of the plants are not dis- 
turbed as would be the case were they planted directly in the 
pond. Boxes, zinc or wooden tubs, three feet in diameter, 
will give sufficient room for a single plant. 
For a permanent bed, solid walls of stone, brick or con- 
crete are necessary, an eight-inch wall of brick answering 
every requirement. ‘This should be laid with a low grade 
cement, one-to-six or seven, and finished with the one-and- 
three grade, giving an inch coat over the sides and on the 
bottom, which has been laid three inches deep, with the lower 
grade of cement well tamped down. The wall should ex- 
tend a few inches above the surface of the ground to form a 
curb, and the pond be two feet deep when completed. 
To construct a twelve-foot pond of this description will 
HOMES 
Ponds of Lilies Invariably Harmonize with the Natural Scenery 
in which They May Be Placed 
AND GARDENS 45 
require one thousand of 
brick, two barrels of cement 
and two loads of clean sharp 
sand. A competent mason, 
with helper, should con- 
struct such a pond in from 
one to one half 
days, the excavation having 
previously been made, and 
and a 
the cost should not exceed 
twenty dollars, or from one 
dollar and fifty cents to one 
dollar and sixty-six cents per 
foot of diameter. 
timate may be made a basis 
for estimating the cost of 
ponds of different diameter 
of this construction. 
Some saving of expense 
may be achieved by laying a 
four-inch wall of brick and 
filling in back of it with four 
inches of concrete. Cement 
blocks would make an ex- 
cellent wall and require less 
cement and lime to laythem, 
thus effecting a saving in 
cement and labor, two im- 
portant items in the con- 
struction of a pond. 
Stone may be employed 
to excellent advantage and 
at considerable less expense 
than either brick or cement 
blocks. For a twelve-foot 
pond two feet deep, inside 
measure, with a twelve-inch wall, three perches of stone, two 
barrels of Portland cement, one-half barrel of lime for point- 
ing up, and two large loads of sand are required and about 
one and one-half day’s labor of mason and helper to build. 
Such a pond will be found perfectly satisfactory and may 
be built for fifteen dollars, or one dollar and twenty-five 
cents a foot. In certain localities the price would be 
considerably less, the price of labor being lower. The sea- 
son of the year in which the work is undertaken is also an im- 
portant factor, as most masons and cement workers will 
undertake a job of this kind at much lower figures during 
‘‘off seasons”’ than after active building operations are well 
under way in the spring. 
Suitable provisions for drainage must be made by sinking 
a drainage pipe at the lowest point in the pond. Gas pipe 
is more satisfactory than tile for this purpose, as tile is seldom 
perfectly round and it is most difficult to fit a plug water- 
tight to it, but an ordinary wooden plug may be driven into 
a gas pipe with sufficient force to seal it hermetically. The 
impact would be quite likely to break the tile. 
The pipe should extend down into the gravel, or, where 
no substrata of gravel exists, a deep hole, three feet at least, 
should be dug and filled with gravel and the pipe embedded 
in this, its top flush with the floor of the pond. If a large 
tin (a powder tin with the bottom removed will answer) is 
placed over the drainage pipe before filling in the earth in the 
pond, it will prevent the soil settling around the pipe and 
causing trouble when the plug is removed. 
As soon as the cement has set, a foot of marsh earth mixed 
with old, well rotted cow manure should be placed in the 
pond and leveled off evenly; over this place an inch of clean 
white sand (lake sand is best) ; this prevents the dark soil 
rising to the surface and helps to preserve the purity of the 
water. A few fish added to the water will greatly further 
this result. 
This es- 
