FOREST AND STREAM 
183 
these learned disputants are both right. Water should be 
taken from the head of a spring, under ground if possible, 
so that it will be free from vegetable matter, conferva, &c ., 
and should then, after being brought in pipes, be sufficient¬ 
ly aerated by falls in the hatching house. I once went to 
jinvestigate the cause of fungus in a gentleman’s hatching 
fhouse who had followed directions implicitly, and found a 
idead horse on the slope that drained into his house supply! 
II had exchanged letters with him weekly all winter, but as 
he never mentioned the horse, I had tried to account for it 
fin vain, but a glance at the situation revealed the cause, 
•and a small ditch remedied it, but in the interim he had 
lost tw o hundred dollars worth of eggs. As for the mate¬ 
rial in which the water should be brought there is a variety 
of opinions, but all agree that iron pipe with its rust is a 
•deadly poison; some like lead, others earthern. but never 
having had experience with anything but wood I can only 
speak positively of that. I had pine logs bored with an 
inch and a half bit, and the only fault I have ever found 
with them is that the bore is not large enough, for I did 
not then know that a pump log would not run full, neither 
will any other pipe. If you want a two-incli stream brought 
in wooden pipes two hundred or more feet with only a few 
feet pressure, have a three-inch pipe laid. 
A lead pipe being smooth on the inside will carry more 
water than the roughly bored wooden ones. In pipes where 
the surface is as smooth as glass there is friction enough to 
retard the flow on the outside of the stream where it rubs 
the pipe, while in the centre it flows more rapidly. Prac¬ 
tically, we find that two pipes, each one hundred feet long, 
one a two inch bore and the other only an inch, will not dis¬ 
charge streams in proportion to their diameters, but the 
larger one will convey nearly five times as much water as 
the smaller one. This is accounted for by supposing that 
both tubes retard the water by friction at equal distances 
from their inner surfaces, consequently the small pipe 
checks the flow more in proportion than the large one. 
(Curves also check the flow, and if necessary to change the 
^course of the pipe make them as long as possible. 
I would prefer bringing the water a long distance if nec¬ 
essary rather than have the hatching house far from the 
-dwelling; the nearer it is the oftener it will be visited, and 
when fry are to be fed in the troughs it makes a great dif¬ 
ference whether it is only a few steps or several hundred. 
The house should always be kept locked so that a chance 
visitor may not enter it without an attendant, for it is as¬ 
tonishing how people, otherwise orderly, have a desire to 
open and shut off cocks, take up a spoonful of eggs and 
throw them back as if they were gravel, and do other mis¬ 
chief without the slightest idea of any harm. 
The upper end of the supply pipe should be placed in a 
box with screens of perforated zinc to prevent any moss 
gaining aceess to the pipe, or a frog may by accident get in 
and choke the pipe, and by thus cutting off the water do 
great damage. 
The water should be received in the house in a filtering 
box. This should be built of plank and three or four feet 
long, twelve or eighteen inches wide, and as many deep. 
Here you can have screens of different degrees of fineness 
or none at all, as the water may be clear or otherwise. 
These screens have always been made to slide up and down, 
but might be made more effective if they were laid hori¬ 
zontally, and the water allowed to pass upward through 
them. Sediment would then settle in the box and not on 
the screen. 
Two years ago I took out my screens as the water was 
very pure, and now have only a bag hanging over the spout 
to catch moss. The filter is large and sediment has a 
chance to deposit in it before it passes through, as there is a 
partition running the long way which makes the water go 
around the whole length of the box. It has plugs in the 
bottom by which to draw off the water in order to clean it. 
The water flows from this box into a distributing trough 
six inches square, which runs across the building, and to 
which the hatching troughs all head. This trough is pierced 
for wooden cider faucets, which supply the troughs. Some 
use a sliding gate, but both being of wood are objection¬ 
able. I have one brass cock which I like, but the wooden 
ones swell, stick and get dirty. The State house at Cale¬ 
donia uses iron molasses faucets, and they rust, but per¬ 
haps might be coated with something that would prevent 
it. There is a faucet made of pewter that screws a cork up 
and down that might be just the thing. 
The floor of the house’ should be well supported so that 
there is not the least spring to it, or the troughs can be 
supported on piles or piers of stone set in the ground and 
then only a walk will be required between the troughs; a 
floor is preferable, however, as tools may drop and be lost 
without one. If the troughs can be placed two or three feet 
above the floor they will be more convenient, and if there 
is plenty of fall from the supply reservoir to the house 
this can be easily done; it would also be advisable to let the 
water flow into a box or cask before entering the filter, and 
have little falls between the filter and the troughs. Flan¬ 
nel bags might be arranged to filter the water by hanging 
them on the cock at the head of each trough. 
The flow of spring water will usually keep a house com¬ 
fortable in winter without a stove, still one may be found 
necessary at times. * 
Our house stands over the large stream that supplies the 
ponds and is quite warm unless the wind blows through 
the old loose siding, in which case icicles hang wherever 
there is a drip, but we are hoping for a new one before 
long. 
The troughs, trays, boxes, and all the inventions for 
hatching will be considered in another chapter. 
Fred Mather. 
--— 
—The following act was introduced into the New York 
Legislature by Mr. McQueen, of Schenectady county, and 
referred to Committee on Ways and Means, March 17, 1874: 
An act to authorize the construction of fishways in the 
Hudson and Mohawk rivers. 
The people of the State of New York, represented in 
Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:— 
Sec. 1. That during the present year, one thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-four, it shall be the duty of the Com¬ 
missioners of Fisheries for the State of New York to have 
constructed by contract with the lowest and best bidder or 
bidders, after due public notice, “Brewer’s Improved 
Schute and Fishway” in the Troy dam in the Hudson river, 
and also one of the said improved schutes and fishways in 
the first dam in the Mohawk river below Schenectady, 
known as the aqueduct dam, or dam above the aqueduct; 
for which purpose the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, or 
so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropri¬ 
ated out of any money or moneys in the treasury not other¬ 
wise appropriated, which the treasurer shall pay on the 
draft of the said Commissioners from time to time as the 
work progresse and is completed. 
Sec. 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 
—A bill is before the Massachusetts Legislature,and report¬ 
ed favorably, to limit the close season for trout, land-lock¬ 
ed-salmon, or lake trout, between the 20th of August and 
the 20th of March in each year. 
—The State Fish Commissioners propose to establish a 
fish hatching and breeding conservatory near Montpelier. 
This movement necessitates the appointment of another 
Fish Commissioner. 
—The first shad taken this year in the Delaware near 
Chester sold for five dollars. 
—Congress has again appropriated $15,000 for the use of 
Professor Baird, in the propagation of fish, in continuation 
of his most efficient exertions in that line. 
—We have just had a practical illustration of the success 
attending fish-culture, in a box of fine trout sent us from 
the Richland Trout Farm, at Richland, Oswego County, 
New York. No wonder this farm is becoming a favorite 
resort for sportsmen, when to the interest of watching the 
adolescent development of salmo fontinalis is added the 
gastronomic pleasures of a table abundantly supplied with 
them. 
—An Albany correspondent says:—“Mr. Geo. AY. Daw¬ 
son, of the Albany Journal , is attempting to start an indivi¬ 
dual culturists’ association; ten gentlemen to put in $500 
each and stock the streams and lakes in the North Woods 
with trout. He has been very successful so far. All the 
sportsmen here are very bitter against Seth Green for favor¬ 
ing the stocking of these lakes with pickerel, as they say it 
will strip them entirely of what few trout there are left. 
They talk very earnestly on the subject. There is no fish¬ 
ing club here. One boat club, the ‘Mutual’ and one social, 
any case water plants in the middle of the day in the hot 
sun. A few plants require much water, and of these we 
shall speak in their order and place. Ladies, be careful not 
to be too generous with water; although a valuable element 
in the raising of choice flowers, it is nevertheless a very ac¬ 
tive appliance of destruction when injudiciously used. 
Having carried you through the first requisites of raising 
your plants, and transplanting the same to your city or 
country garden, you can now raise them to blossoming and 
final development as well as ourself, if you are only watch¬ 
ful and give aue need to our formula. The Forest and 
Stream, upon the whole subject of gardening, flowers, 
bulbs, the ornamental and unique, will, we trust, be found 
a reliable, safe, and true teacher of this delightful art. We 
would make it an authority upon all these subjects second 
to none, and always “full to the brim” with just such sub¬ 
jects that shall interest our lady readers as well as gentle¬ 
men. In our next we shall speak of forms of gardens for 
our cities, and particular effects, of arrangements of flowers, 
in a manner both popular and practical. 
Olllpod Quill. 
-- 
The Destruction of our Forests. —A few facts will 
impress our readers with the necessity of prompt action in 
their own behalf in reference to the economical use of their 
pine forests far more than columns of theory, probabilities 
and guess work as to the amount of pine timber now stand¬ 
ing. Thirty years ago in the valley of the Genesee, New 
York, village merchants were in the habit of receiving pine 
lumber from customers at the rate of $5 per thousand feet, 
and giving therefor “store pay” as value received. To-day, 
in some portions of the Genesee valley, there are a few 
acres of pine yet standing, and single trees are worth from 
fift^to one hundred dollars as they stand. The present de¬ 
velopment of the west is as rapid, proportionately, as that 
of the east has been during the past thirty years. Owners 
of pine land in the west have been anxious to realize the 
greatest immediate profit from their valuable acres rather 
than adopt measures whereby a reasonable return would 
result from labor and investment, and at the same time 
fully utilize the timber cut.— Wisconsin Lumberman, 
the ‘Albany.’” 
—The Great Falls and the Little Falls of the Potomac 
are becoming shell favorite resorts for anglers that it is 
proposed to place an excursion horse boat on the liver to 
run between the Falls and Georgetown at least three times 
a week. Messrs. Garrett & Maus keep the Orumelin House 
at the Falls, which is a good hotel. We shall notify our 
readers as soon as the bass fishing begins. 
Woodbind, Wmvn nnd (garden. 
HOT BEDS—AND PLANTING OF FLOW¬ 
ER SEEDS. 
-♦-- 
“It comes the herald of hosts, 
Of blooms that will not fail, 
When summer from some southern coast 
Shall call the nightingale. ” 
I N our last paper upon flower planting in the spring we 
spoke of the first operation—the forcing, or hot bed. 
We showed our friends how to make a large or small bed, 
and all the necessary work required until the coming up of 
their seed. We left their seed hot bed well supplied with 
small seed plants, some of which are just developing the 
second leaf, and some of them the third and fourth leaf, 
all green, and very thrifty. Now is the time to give the 
plants particular care. They require light, heat, and air. 
You can keep your plants in the bed and increase their size, 
and by giving air and water you can grow them thrifty 
and stocky, good strong plants always being desirable for 
the future garden. Many seed often having shown the 
cotoledons, or seed leaves, need transplanting either in pots 
or into the earth. Plants, potted maybe kept under the 
frame until quite large, and if well watered will, when set 
in the garden, make the most rapid growth. Potted plants 
thus treated do not require so much heat as at first starting, 
a Very gentle heat being amply sufficient to carry them for¬ 
ward with good results. When the plants are getting large, 
if intended for outdoor culture, and if you would have a 
fine show of flowers, you will accustom your plants to bear 
as much of the open air as you can, say half of every good 
fair day, by partially raising your glass ^and letting in the 
air until towards night, when you will secure them from 
cold in the usual manner by covering up your glasses. The 
object of the florist should be to produce as strong and 
vigorous plants for the garden as is possible, and to give 
them air by this hardening process before throwing them 
into open ground. 
You now in regular course of garden flower culture come 
to the transplanting operation, or the making up of your 
ornamental flower ground. Having arranged your future 
ground by fixing upon the size and form of your garden 
plat, you will look at the removal of your plants from the 
bed to the garden as an operation requiring only care to be 
attended with success. You should always give the plants 
to be removed a gentle watering, and with a trowel take 
up the same with care and place them where .they are to 
stand for future growth. Remove a very generous share of 
the earth m which your plants have grown if you would 
have them go along and not stop their growth. I always 
try to have my plants handled §o carefully that they do not 
know that they have been moved at all. Never water after 
transplanting. Plants like men can be drowned* and to 
shower many of our tender plants with cold water imme¬ 
diately after planting is often the surest way to kill them. 
Therefore we prefer always to transplant at evening to any 
other time. If after transplanting some of the more ten¬ 
der kinds you notice next day an inclination to wilt, you 
can shade them for an hour or two from the hot sun with a 
paper on frames, or the like, but generally one or two 
sprinklings at evenings will be all you require. Never in 
Quintal ^jlistorg. 
OUR PETRELS. 
O F the three species of petrels, stormy,or Mother Carey’s 
chicken, ( P-rocellaria pelagica;) Leache’s, ( Thalassi - 
droma leachii;) and AYilsons, {T. Wilsoni';) found on our 
coast, only one of them can be said to be a native, Leaclie’s 
is a common summer visitor and breeds. Its most southern 
breeding places I believe are the islands in and around 
Casco Bay on the coast of Maine, although formerly it was 
found much further south. It is quite common here and 
continues to increase northward, being found abundantly 
in and around Grand Manan in the Bay of Fundy. The 
other two species are not often seen on the coast before the 
last of August or first of September, when all three are 
found associating together. On the 16th of last July I 
made my first collecting trip to what is called “Junk of 
Pork Island,” about three miles north-east of Peake’s 
Island, in Casco Bay. The island has an area of half an 
acre at low water, and in the centre, is an almost perpen¬ 
dicular piece of rock about forty feet in diameter and 
nearly twenty-five feet high. On this rock were found 
breeding Leache’s petrel, Wilson’s tern, {Sterna hirundo;) 
arctic tern, {Sterna macroura;) and the spotted sandpiper, 
{Tringoides macularius.) In the earth which covered this 
rock for about a foot in depth, were found over a dozen 
nests and eggs of this petrel; this being probably the 
second brood, the nests having no doubt been robbed be¬ 
fore, The nest is made in a hole excavated by these birds, 
which is usually from two to three feet in length and about 
six inches in depth. The nest is placed at the end, slightly 
raised above the level of the hole and consists of only a few 
grasses, sticks and some feathers very loosely put together. 
On this is laid the single egg which is white, dotted at the 
larger end with a few reddish spots, sometimes forming a 
circle. The ground color of the egg is however almost 
always stained by the eartli in which the nest is placed. 
The females, but rarely both male and female, were found 
on the nests before the eggs were hatched, but after the 
young have appeared they are usually off in search of 
food and feed the young at night. They evince no great 
desire to escape when their homes are invaded. AYhen 
freed on the ground they are compelled to run to the edge 
of a cliff or descent where they can throw themselves off, 
for it is impossible for them to take wing from a level. 
Their movements are very graceful when on the wing and 
they seem literally to walk on the water as they fly about, 
just touching the tops of the waves with their feet, and 
when rising from the water it is necessary for them to get 
On the crest of a wave in order to take wing. They pick 
up all the greasy and oily substances they can find, which 
constitute the greater part of their food. I have spoken of 
the gracefulness of their motions, but what can exceed the 
beautiful motions of the terns, with their forked tails and 
pointed wings ! Now darting down after some luckless 
fish; now chasing each other, or hovering over some com¬ 
panion or friend who has been shot, little thinking what 
their sympathy will cost them. 
The petrels are the cause of a great deal of superstition 
among seamen, and it would be hard to get a true sailor to 
kill one. AYhen met with, far out at sea, they are consider¬ 
ed sure precursors of a storm, and it is believed that when 
a man is lost at sea his soul immediately enters one of these 
birds and then roams over the broad ocean before it can 
reach the “Fiddlers’ Green” or “Sailors’ Paradise,” as in 
Yirgil, MSneas speaks of the souls of the unburied dead 
wandering aimlessly about the shores of the Styx, vainly 
endeavoring to induce Charon to ferry them over. A sea 
Captain once told me that he believed this as his religion. 
