4:56 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Decembeb, 
tracts the cost would be increased proportion- 
ately, and for larger tracts the -whole cost per 
acre would be lessened. This system may be 
applied to land under the plow. 
Figure 3 shows a method which we suggest 
as readily applicable to our own circumstances, 
which in general will not admit of the cost of 
either of the previously mentioned methods. 
It is the exact reverse of draining. A series of 
drains are laid exactly as for drainage, but not 
more than a foot beneath the surface. The 
dotted lines show the position of the drains as 
laid in a garden. Water being let into these 
pipes will escape at the joints and irrigate the 
land below the surface. The roots of the 
plants will be supplied by the absorption of the 
water which will find its way to the surface. 
The circulation of the water will aerate the 
soil, and being applied beneath the surface the 
water will not cause the surface to bake, and it 
will always be mellow. The tiles laid should 
be those with collars, and they should be laid 
with equal*care and skill as if for draining; 
but it is obvious that the expense will be much 
less, and the annual cost of interest upon the 
outlay necessary would be less than the cost of 
the annual labor needed to make ditches and 
channels as in the ordinary method of irrigat- 
ing. The whole of the digging may be done 
with the plow. 
Figure 4 shows a method that may be applied 
where water is to be raised from a creek or well 
to irrigate a hill-side, as in the cases of several 
of our correspondents whose letters are before 
us. In such a case a reservoir should be made 
upon the highest spot in the field, and a pipe 
laid either beneath or upon the ground through 
which the water is forced. For small affairs a 
two-horse power may be used to operate a 
rot:iry-pump, which will raise a stream three 
inches in diameter, or a quantity nearly equal 
to 100 gallons, 100 feet high per minute. For 
larger operations steam should be employed. 
One of the best, if not the best and cheapest 
mode of thus using steam is by the pulsometcr, 
a machine which is operated by the steam 
direct, without the intervention of any engine. 
It is shown at figure 5 as it appears when in 
operation. The steam is admitted by a pipe at 
the top to one of the two chambers of which 
the machine consists. A ball valve prevents 
the steam entering the other chamber. In this 
chamber the steam, after having forced the 
water previously contained in it out through 
the discharge-pipe, is condensed, forming a 
vacuum as nearly perfect as may be. As soon 
as the vacuum is formed, the ball-valve at the 
top closes the orifice and shuts off the steam, 
when the water from the suction-pipe rushes 
in and fills the chamber. In the meantime, 
while one chamber is filling a vacuum has been 
forming in the oilier, and the steam, being shut 
oir from that, forces the water contained in the 
full chamber into the discharge-pipe. Thus 
the action is alternate, and similar to a succes- 
sion of pulsations; the steadiness of the flow 
being secured by means of an air-chamber in 
the center of the machine. This machine, so 
cheaply operated and so indestructible in use, 
is excellently adapted for raising water from 
wells and streams for irrigating purposes, and 
for forcing it to any height desired ; the height 
depending only upon the pressure of the steam 
in the supplying boiler. The cost of a machine 
able to raise 110 gallons per minute is only 
$'200, and one able to raise 1,100 gallons per 
minute is $800. This machine is made by C. 
H. Hall & Co., 20 Cortlaudt street, New York. 
The distribution of the water thus raised is 
eii'ected by means of small channels, as shown 
in figure 4, by which the whole surface may be 
saturated. After the saturation the surface is 
allowed to dry, and when sufficiently dry it 
should be cultivated. If the surface is grass, a 
continual current may be allowed to flow dur- 
ing every night. 
Distilling "Water. 
" A Correspondent" asks if there is any sim- 
ple method of distilling water in small quanti- 
ties. A plan we have seen used by amateur 
photographers is represented in the engraving. 
A thin glass jar or a reservoir of tin is support- 
ed upon a tripod six inches long. A glass, 
porcelain, or metal funnel is closely fitted into 
the top of the jar. A cover is fitted over the 
funnel. The point of the funnel should reach 
below the center of the jar, and beneath the 
point a pipe is fitted having a bowl so placed 
as to catch the drip from it. If the whole 
affair i3 of glass, a com- 
mon glass retort having 
the bottom of the. bowl 
cut off and the tube 
passed through a cork 
fitted in the side of the 
jar, makes a very neat 
and handy apparatus. 
The point of the funnel 
is to be closed with a 
cork, and the funnel is 
filled with broken ice. 
A few inches of water is placed in the jar, and 
a spirit-lamp beneath it causes the water to 
boil. The steam arising is condensed upon the 
sides of the funnel and pours down into the 
bowl of the pipe beneath it and passes out into 
the receptacle placed to catch it. Unless the 
glass jar is of a kind to stand the direct appli- 
cation of heat it must be set in an iron pan 
containing sand. This simple contrivance may 
bo made of tin if rough usage is likely to hap- 
pen, and will answer any purpose in which the 
distillation of small quantities is desired. 
WATER-STILL. 
A Key for an Ox-Bow. 
A key that can not slip out from the slot in 
the bow is here shown. It is made somewhat 
like a common key, having a projecting flange 
upon one side of the shaft and a round or oval 
flatted head upon the end. The flange, being 
KEY FOR AN OX-BOW. 
passed through the narrow slot, turns and lies 
flat upon the yokejso that it is imppssibie for it 
to be worked or jarred out. A small chain 
fastens it to the yoke, by which it is always 
kept in its place and at hand when wanted, 
which is not the least recommendation of this 
plan for an ox-bow key. 
Winter Care op Sheep.— Winter is a criti- 
cal lime with sheep. The greatest danger is in 
too much care and coddling. If well fed with 
good clover hay and with plenty of water to 
drink, an open shed with an uncovered dry 
yard attached is better than any stable or tight 
close shed. Warmth is more injurious than 
cold, and sheep may safely be trusted to exer- 
cise their instincts in seeking shelter. It is 
well to divide the flock, and if it numbers aa 
many as 50, to make 'three divisions: rams, 
wethers, and ram lambs in one flock, ewes in 
lamb in another, and tender ewes and ewe lambs * 
in another. As changes may be seen desirable 
they should be made and the feed should be 
apportioned according to the necessities of each 
flock. As soon as a sheep appears to be ailing 
it should bo removed from the flock, and if any 
cough or lung disease is perceived, a table- 
spoonful of turpentine should be administered 
as a remedy against the lung worm. Salt should 
bo given in abundance, and oats, rye, or buck- 
wheat, or wheat bran, but not much corn, 
especially to sheep that are in poor condition. 
Mr. Area and tlie English Laborers. 
After a visit of two weeks in Canada, Mr. 
Joseph Arch, the president of the English 
Laborers' Union, arrived in New York, where 
we had the pleasure of an interview with him 
aud Mr. Arthur Clayden, who accompanies him. 
We found Mr. Arch a true representative of his 
class, a simple-minded but withal shrewd, cau- 
tious man, who feels his way carefully before 
committing himself. lie has no private ends 
to serve, and his whole soul is evidently given 
to the purpose with which he is identified. 
This is solely the advancement of the English 
agricultural laborer and the improvement of 
his condition. There are many insurmountable 
difficulties in the way of achieving these results 
without extensive emigration. The wages of 
the English laborer are at zero, and that zero is 
simply one degree above starvation. He has 
no hope beyond his weekly pittance, and no re- 
source when health fails or old age renders him 
incapable but the parish poorhouse or the dole 
of the pauper. His promised land is America. 
Mr. Arch's visit hither is to survey the prospect 
that awaits his fellow-laborers on their emigra- 
tion across the Atlantic. Their circumstances 
are peculiar. They will be enforced exiles 
from their native land, which, notwithstanding 
its failure to sustain them otherwise than in 
poverty, they still look upon with affection as 
their home. They are poor in everything but 
habits of industry aud a wealth of will and 
ability to labor. They have no money, and 
the great majority of them can not pay their 
passage hither. Land speculators and those 
who hope to make money out of this movement 
have therefore nothing to hope from it. Those 
who are most closely interested in this matter, 
then, are those farmers who desire to have 
skilled and trustworthy laborers for their farms. 
That they may know on what condition such 
laborers may be procured, we relate the sub- 
stance of our conversation with Mr. Arch in re- 
gard to this feature of his plans. The laborers are 
mostly men with families. The whole family will 
emigrate together. They will desire the accom- 
modation of dwelling houses suitable for their 
modest wants, in which their family relations 
can exist as heretofore, undisturbed, and more 
conveniently if possible. Boarding in the 
house of their employer is undesirable and dis- 
agreeable to the English people, who are very 
much attached to the privacy of a home. Those 
who desire to employ these laborers must be 
prepaied to make application for them through 
