I860.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
45 
processes would give him. Should he leave his 
grain, his fruits, or flowers to take their own 
course, he would soon return to savage life, gath¬ 
ering nuts and digging roots for subsistence, and 
clothing himself with untanned skins. To secure 
his ends he must often do violence to nature. He 
must drive the plow-share through her bosom, 
amputate her luxuriant over-growth, feed her 
stinted grains into obesity, and torture her flowers 
into monstrosities before they can supply his 
wants or satisfy his tastes. Nature’s liberality is 
profuse but undirected ; the power confided to 
her by the Creator is immeasurable but as un¬ 
tamed as the free lightning. She is to work for 
man, and it is for his science to discover her ca¬ 
pabilities and turn them to his own account, and 
not to blindly follow her lead. She is an indis¬ 
pensable though at times an unwilling servant, 
often a reliable adviser, but not the infallible teach¬ 
er that many suppose. Art. 
For the American. Agriculturist. 
County Fairs and Humbugs. 
“ Well John, how did the Fair go off!” asked 
a friend, of a young man who had just returned 
from the - Co. Agricultural Exhibition. 
“ Humbug, like all the rest of them,” was the re¬ 
ply. John had attended several exhibitions of 
the kind during the Fall, and as he is one of a 
class whom we have often heard pronounce the 
same unfavorable opinion, it is wortli while to 
learn how he formed it. Let us follow John as 
be spends the day and his money. Before enter¬ 
ing the grounds of the exhibition he is attracted 
bv the sound of music from a tent, and reads 
from the bill posted at the entrance, a flaming 
description of a fat woman, a remarkable giant, 
and a wonderful dwarf; admission 10 cents. He 
concludes to invest, but speedily comes out, ex¬ 
claiming, “sold.” Next he inspects the six-legged 
calf, the chicken with two heads, and sundry 
oilier monstrosities, with but little more satis¬ 
faction. He then enters the enclosure of the ex¬ 
hibition, as he would a menagerie, to see the 
show—to find something extraordinary to won¬ 
der at. Passing thus up and down through the 
tents, and among the stalls of the cattle, only to 
“ see sights,” he finds comparatively little of in¬ 
terest. Here and there he pauses to look va¬ 
cantly at a monstrous pumpkin, or an unusually 
fat ox, but is not at all attracted by new varieties 
of fruit, economical labor-saving machines, or im¬ 
proved breeds of stock. The horses hold his 
attention a little more fixedly, but unless there is 
a track and a race, he soon thinks all stupid, and 
wanders away to where a crowd is gathered 
around a soappedler, an auctioneer of “notions,” 
or a sharper with a lottery table. Having amused 
himself awhile with these at a cost he can ill af¬ 
ford, he leaves, a humbugged man—humbugged 
by himself—and votes the whole fair a failure 
and a swindle. 
And yet the managers of exhibitions are not 
altogether free from blame in the matter. They 
too often connive at, if they do not encourage, 
the presence of these side attractions, and even 
in some instances allow them a place within their 
own enclosure, to “draw” and amuse the un¬ 
thinking crowd. The purpose of exhibitions is 
not amusement but improvement; if committees 
will keep this steadily in mind, they may be sure 
of the ultimate success of County Exhibitions. 
Spectator. 
“Well, Robert, how much did your pig weigh 1” 
“ It didn’t weigh as much as I expected, and I 
always thought it wouldn’t.” 
Filtering Cisterns Again. 
ANOTHER MODIFICATION PROPOSED AND DISCUSSED. 
Pure and palatable water is one of the most 
important requisites in every household. Water 
distilled in the form of vapor, and descending as 
rain, is the purest and best adapted to common 
use. Living, as we do, where there is little dust, 
and having a close neat cistern supplied from a 
high well painted metallic roof, we use for 
drinking and all household purposes the unfiltered 
rain water just as it is collected. Instead of be¬ 
ing insipid or disagreeable, it is pleasant to the 
taste,—much more so to those accustomed to it, 
than the best spring or well water. But where 
much dust flies, or where the roofs are of wood, 
moss covered, and subject to be soiled with fall¬ 
ing leaves and other matters, it is desirable to 
have the water filtered. So also, there is very 
little spring, well, or river water, which would not 
be improved by filtering, at least for household use. 
We have already described several plans for 
simple box or barrel filters, and also two forms of 
filtering cisterns. One of these is that shown in 
fig. 1, in which the water is received from the 
roof through the pipe a, into the cistern R. It 
filters through several layers of sand and char¬ 
coal, (s, s, c, c,) and passes by a pipe into C, and is 
pumped up through p. Another form proposed as 
an improvement, is that shown in fig. 2, in which 
the water passes from, R, up through the filter, 
into C. The advantage claimed for this is, that 
the sediment which in fig. 1 collects upon the top 
of the filter, would in fig. 2 settle down, leaving 
the bottom of the filter always clean and effec¬ 
tive—it being understood that beneath the lower 
layer of sand there is a perforated board covered 
with a piece of flannel to support the sand. 
(This is not shown in the engraving.) 
We now have still another modification pro¬ 
posed by Mr. C. Briggs, of Kings county, N. Y., 
which, after a trial of it, he considers an im¬ 
provement upon either of the foregoing. The 
lower section of the cisterns is shown in fig. 3. 
The water is received from the roof into R, as in 
fig. 1. At the bottom of this, in the center, is 
placed a box F. This box is filled with several 
alternate layers of sand and charcoal, (.?, c, s, c,J) 
Fig. 3. 
the bottom layer being coarse sand, or fine 
gravel. Between each layer is placed a sheet ot 
eotton-flannel. The top of the filter is covered 
with a plate of galvanized iron to keep the sand 
in place. This iron-plate is punctured with small 
holes to admit the water. A water-tight partition 
is made from one side of the filtering box to the 
wall of the cistern, leaving the open chamber 0. 
The lower side of the box next to 0 is left open, 
the gravel being kept in place hy a piece of the 
cotton flannel which lines the box on all 
sides, passing round under the bed .of gravel. 
The filtered water passes through the open pipe 
shown leading from 0 into C. 
The advantage claimed for this arrangement 
(fig. 3)-is, that any sediment remaining in the fil¬ 
tered water settles to the bottom of O. This plan 
does not, on examination, appear to be an im¬ 
provement upon fig. 2; for in the first place 
there should not he any sediment in 0 if the watei 
has been well filtered in passing through the box 
F; and second, this arrangement lias the same oh 
jection as fig. 1, viz : the sediment from the un¬ 
filtered water would collect upon the top of F, 
and after a time choke it, and require drawinj 
off. Of the three kinds here described, -w 
should therefore prefer that of fig. 2. 
Fig. 
We will, however, propose in fig. 4 still another 
arrangement combining the advantages of fy. 2 
and fig. 3. Construct the filter similarly to fig. 
3, but put a layer of gravel or coarse sand a} the 
top, and finer sand for the bottom layer. Let the 
bottom be made of punctured galvanized iron, or 
with a perforated board, placed a few inches from 
the lower side. Let the right side, next to 0, be 
closed, and cut away part of the lower left side 
so as to admit the water freely. Let the tight 
partition extend from the cistern over to the left 
side of the filtering box. The water will then 
pass in at the left, and up through the filtering 
materials, and thence over into O, and through 
the open pipe into C. The sediment in the un¬ 
filtered water in R, will fall back from the bottom 
of the filter, leaving it always clean and effective. 
If any sediment chance to wash through the fil 
ter, it will then settle into the bottom of O, as de¬ 
scribed in fig. 3. The advantages of fig. 4 over 
fig. 2 are, however, hardly enough to pay for fhe 
extra labor and expense of the construction. 
Other plans will doubtless suggest themselves 
to different persons, but whatever form may be 
