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j 
March, 1906 
spectable pond or lake can be formed. The depth of such 
a pond is immaterial. A foot or less of water is sufficient for 
ice formation. In some respects a shai‘'ow pond has ad- 
vantages over a deeper one. It freezes much more quickly, 
and a thinner ice will support the weight of the skaters. 
Dangers from breaking through and wetting the body are 
also entirely eliminated. When the hollow depression has 
been properly enlarged and deepened in places, the nearby 
brook has its waters deflected from its natural bed so that the 
pond is flooded. This can be accomplished by digging a 
foot-wide ditch from the brook to the pond, or by running 
three-inch earthen water pipes or drainage pipes from some 
high point of the brook to the artificial lake. In doing this 
a point of the brook should be selected where there is a rather 
sharp turn. On the outer side of such a turn the running 
water always deepens the bed and causes a swift current to 
flow. The pipe inlet should rest on a flat stone buried in the 
sandy soil of the brook, and be secured firmly in position by 
two pieces of wood driven into the ground forming an in- 
verted V over the pipe. A pipe of this character is more 
permanent and satisfactory than an open ditch, and it can be 
laid at a cost of not much more than ten dollars per hundred 
feet. The labor itself is simple. All that is required is to 
open the ground and give the pipe sufficient slope toward the 
pond to make the water run freely. A plug of wood should 
be fitted snugly at either end of the pipe. When the pond 
is flooded the water can be shut off, but after a freeze if the 
water under the ice begins to melt away a fresh supply should 
be added sufficient to give support to the sheet of ice. 
The advantages of such an artificial skating pond are nu- 
merous, and it proves far more satisfactory than a deep lake. 
When snow falls on the ice and spoils skating it is an easy 
matter to turn on the water so that it will flood the place and 
melt the snow. This can be done in a day, so that new ice 
will form on the first cold night. During open winter weath- 
er, when the hot sun makes the ice soft and slushy, the pond 
can be flooded each afternoon so that the night’s freezing 
will once more form smooth ice. When we consider how fre- 
quently through the winter our skating ponds are spoiled by 
snowstorms and warm spells, the advantages of an artificial 
lake that can be flooded at will to form new ice are quite 
apparent. 
Without even a running brook within the vicinity one need 
not be deprived of the advantages of an artificial skating 
pond. The ordinary windmill in winter pumps up far more 
water than is needed for household use, and the surplus could 
be stored in an extra tank for the skating pond. The over- 
flow could be carried to the pond by a two-inch pipe, which 
would give about all that would be required. 
There is an endless field for experiment and variation in 
making artificial skating ponds that should appeal to the 
owner of an estate or large country place. On nearly every 
such estate there is some field particularly adapted to this 
purpose. Sometimes the natural drainage of the surround- 
ing hills floods a low field, and it requires merely a little ex- 
pense and labor to keep the waters from soaking into the soil. 
Artificial skating ponds have been made in such natural hol- 
lows by spreading a thin surface of cement over the bottom 
and turning up the edges a few feet to retain the water. 
Mixed with fine screened sand, a barrel of cement costing a 
dollar and a half can be spread over several square yards of 
surface, making the cost of a pond an acre in extent much 
less than $100. The concrete surface requires only a thick- 
ness of half an inch if it is laid on a solid bed of sand and 
cinders. As there is no pressure exerted upon such a bottom, 
the concrete can be made one-tenth the thickness of an ordi- 
nary cement walk. 
We have finally artificial skating ponds which are built 
entirely of cement, with firm bottoms and well-finished sides. 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
185 
Such ponds may cost all the way up to a thousand or two 
thousand dollars, but they are no better in their final results 
than the cheaper ponds made by flooding low hollows with 
water from neighboring brooks or artesian wells. As size 
counts for a good deal it may be said that the cheaper ponds 
are far more satisfactory in adding to the pleasures of winter 
sports. 
The question whether an artificial skating pond can be 
utilized for other purposes in summer has frequently been 
raised, and a satisfactory answer can be given to the query. 
One method is to make the artificial pond out of a cranberry 
bed. For successful cultivation of cranberries it is necessary 
that the bed should be flooded in the fall of the season. 
Usually this is accomplished by cutting ditches through the 
bed and turning the water in them from some neighboring 
brook. After the crop of cranberries has been gathered the 
pond is flooded a few inches deeper so that none of the cran- 
berry plants protrudes above the surface of the ice. Cran- 
berries are profitable crops, and the annual harvest will pay 
for the cost of the labor of digging the ditches and building 
up the sides so the water will not escape. The profits should 
further pay for the cost of improving the pond so that ex- 
cellent skating can be had all winter. In time the two could 
be made to work together so well that the investment in a 
skating pond could be converted into an annual profit in 
money and pleasure. 
Another method is to spread muck from the swamps over 
the surface of the pond, or marl from some neighboring 
marl pit, so as to form a top soil through which water would 
percolate slowly, and in summer cultivate the soil for grow- 
ing coarse feeding plants such as melons, cucumbers, and 
pumpkins. ‘These plants will thrive in such a soil, and by 
adding muck to the soil each season the pond will be im- 
proved and the soil enriched for the summer crops. In the 
low, mucky swamps the water remains standing nearly all 
the year round, and rank vegetation flourishes in them. This 
should serve as an object lesson to the owner of a country 
place anxious to secure a private skating pond that will prove 
of some value in the summer. 
The Breeding of Pheasants and their Value 
on the Country Estate 
Continued from Page 181. 
bodies in cold weather. Most breeders prefer to pinion their 
young pheasants, which consists of clipping the wing off just 
outside of the first joint. If properly done the wound heals 
within a few days, and there is no further danger of losing 
valuable pheasants by clipped wings growing out and re- 
storing to them the powers of flight. 
The young pheasants are left to run together until the 
cocks begin to show quarrelsome natures. Then the most 
frolicsome are taken away from the flock. Usually the cocks 
are separated from the hens in the latter part of September 
or first of October, and the two are not permitted to run 
together again until March, when the hens begin their laying. 
Large park-like inclosures for the pheasants always give 
better results, and the spectacular display the birds make in 
such yards adds greatly to the charm of a country place. 
Where natural-growth trees furnish partial shade the 
scenic effect is enhanced. The birds are then worth all the 
trouble expended upon their breeding and feeding, and one 
never abandons pheasants once he has tried them with suc- 
cess. The inducements are strong then to go on from one 
conquest to another and add to the flock new specimens of 
the world’s rarest varieties, 
