MAMMOTH ROOTS OBSTRUCT FLOW OF WATEI 
167 
Mammoth Roots Obstruct Flow of 
Water. 
BY WM. H. CLARK, SUPERINTENDENT AVON 
WATER WORKS, AVON, NEW YORK. 
Early in the fall of 1918 it was no- 
ticed that the water pressure of the 
Avon Water Works was gradually 
diminishing. The system is a gravity 
system and parallels the outlet of 
Conesus Lake, from which the source 
is derived. In the first two miles of 
The root was removed by sawing 
only one bevel piece, about eight by 
ten inches, on the top of the pipe where 
the root entered. A small rope was 
fastened around the head of the root, 
and three men pulled it out. 
This was removed in July, 1919, and 
since that time several other roots have 
been taken out of a vitrified tile con- 
duit on the same line, the largest being 
thirty feet in length. In the fall of 
EXHIBITION OF ROOTS THAT STOPPED AVON WATER SUPPLY. 
the conduit the fall is only about two 
feet to the mile, and it was in this sec- 
tion that the trouble was located. After 
repeated tests it was found that the 
trouble was a willow root, twenty-four 
feet long, in a ten inch water main. It 
was fed from a small root about the 
size of a lead pencil, which came from 
a willow tree, three feet in diameter, 
growing near the line. 
The root entered the conduit through 
a wooden plug, which had been driven 
into the pipe about twenty years ago, 
and it is thought that a very small ten- 
dril of the root was driven in with the 
plug at that time. 
1921 this tile conduit was replaced by 
a twelve inch wood line, and no further 
trouble is anticipated. 
From winds that fiercely blow, 
To those that softness bring: 
From realms of ice and snow, 
To fairyland of spring: — 
This, earth’s awakening ; 
Ourselves it now behooves, 
To do the obvious thing, 
And shun old winter’s grooves. 
— Emma Peirce. 
Our bodies don’t have to die to make 
us realize the unimportance of the mass 
of earthy things that threaten to swamp 
real life. — Reverend Gerald A. Cun- 
ningham, Stamford, Connecticut. 
