1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
A17 
If the ground is hard, a short pointed iron bar 
may be used to make the holes for the stakes. 
The stakes should be loaded in a cart, driven 
along the place where the fence is to be erected, 
and one dropped about every eight feet. The 
net should be neatly rolled, and may be unrolled 
on the ground, and hooked on to the stakes as 
it is unrolled, and altogether the fence may be 
erected very rapidly by using method in doing 
it. It is very much to be hoped that this sys¬ 
tem will be undertaken as widely as may be 
practicable where the climate admits of it. 
Cement Pipes and Tiles. 
We have received several communications on 
the subject of cement pipes for conveying water, 
and cement tiles for draining laud. The diffi¬ 
culties which seem to have occurred with our 
correspondents in the use of cement pipes are 
supposed excessive cost, leakage where they 
Should be tight, and imperviousness to water 
where they are desired to be porous; besides a 
general want of information as to the use of the 
cement and how to construct the tile. Cement 
pipe, when it is properly constructed, has some 
advantage's for conveying water over any other 
kind of pipe. In cost it should be cheaper 
than any other pipe. If one barrel of cement 
is sufficient for 600 feet of 14-inch pipe strong 
enough to resist a pressure of 20 lbs. to the square 
inch, equal to a column of water of more than 
100 feet head, and the cost of making the pipe 
comparatively inconsiderable, it must be by far 
the cheapest pipe that can be used. If it is 
properly constructed, with a view to the special 
purpose required, it may be made either water¬ 
tight or porous, this depending on the propor¬ 
tion of sand used in the mixture. In laying 
pipe for conveying water on the plan here de¬ 
scribed, the excavation should be made deep 
enough to preserve the pipes from frost, as in¬ 
deed should be done for any pipe. Three or 
four feet would be sufficient, except under ex¬ 
ceptional circumstances when frost would pene¬ 
trate deeper than any practicable depth at which 
pipe might be laid. The constant passage of 
a current of spring-water through the pipes 
would almost always prevent freezing, even 
when the surrounding ground might be frozen. 
The ditch should be scooped out at the bot¬ 
tom with a drain-scoop, so as to make a semi¬ 
circular bed for the pipe, in which it may be 
laid evenly and without waste of material. On 
this greatly depends the economy of the plan. 
The bed or trough should be made large enough 
to allow for a thickness of material sufficient to 
resist the pressure of the water; where there is 
but a few feet head one inch of well-spread and 
properly mixed material will be sufficient; 
where the head of water is greater, the thick¬ 
ness may be increased at 
about the rate of a quarter 
of an inch for every twenty 
feet of increase. in the 
head. "When the ditch has 
been dug free from sudden 
curves, and of an even 
grade, or so slightly or 
suddenly uneven as not to 
present any difficulties in 
laying the pipe, the trough 
or bed in the bottom of 
the ditch should be cover¬ 
ed with the cement, by 
me'ans of a trowel, to a 
thickness as near as may 
be to that required. A core 
(shown in fig. 1), which 
is a smooth rod of wood 
6 or 8 feet in length, and 
of the exact thickness to 
match the desired caliber of the pipe, and made 
with a very small taper from front to rear, is 
laid and bedded down in the cement; the core 
is then covered with it, commencing at the 
rear end, and compactly plastering it over to 
the proper thickness until the core is covered 
except a few inches at the 
front. The cement should 
have been properly pre¬ 
pared by mixture of one 
barrel of Rosendale ce¬ 
ment, or any other of 
equal quality, with three 
barrels of fine, clean, sharp 
sand. The strength and 
tightness of the pipe de¬ 
pend in a great measure 
on the quality of the sand, 
and also on the use of a 
proper quantity of water. 
Only sufficient water 
should be used to render 
the cement plastic; if it 
is flooded with water the 
pipe will be porous. The 
cement and sand Should 
be carefully and evenly 
mixed together in a barn 
or out-house, and taken in a dry state to 
the place where it is to be used, and mixed 
with water only in small quantities as it is re¬ 
quired ; as it rapidly “sets” or becomes stiff. 
Two persons are required to do the work expe¬ 
ditiously, one to mix the 
cement for the pipe-layer, 
and to hand it to him as 
he needs it, and to cover 
the pipe carefully when 
the core is ready to be 
drawn ahead, with soil 
free from stones to a depth 
of a few inches. This soil 
is to be tamped down care¬ 
fully, evenly, and solidly. 
When a foot or two of that 
first laid is thus covered 
and tamped, the core is 
drawn ahead to a corresponding distance, but no 
more, and the cement laid around it, thus adding 
a foot or two to the length of the pipe. Care 
must be taken to make a compact and tight 
joint, or the pipe will leak. It is well to add a 
little thickness to the pipe at the joints to secure 
perfection in them. While the pipe-layer is 
doing this, the assistant is busy covering up an 
equal length with earth in the manner before 
described, and thus proceeding foot by foot two 
ordinarily smart hands will lay one foot per 
minute with case—or at least two such have 
done so. A pipe thus laid is practically ever¬ 
lasting ; it is stone, it can not decay, in course 
of time it becomes harder and stronger, it adds 
no impurity to the water, and neither worms 
nor rust corrupt it, as in wood or iron pipes. 
Its advantages when thus laid, over earthen 
pipes or tiles laid in short lengths cemented 
together, is that the pipe is one homogeneous 
whole, as though it were a leaden one; while 
these jointed pipes can not be made tight at the 
joints, and in course of time leak, and in addi¬ 
tion are perishable and fail. 
Figure 1 show's the process described above, 
the form of the ditch, the shape of the com¬ 
pleted pipe, and the form of the core. The bed 
for the reception of the pipe at the bottom of 
the ditch should be round and not square, as it 
is accidentally made in the engraving, and only 
large enough to receive the pipe without any 
waste of cement. 
Cement drain-tiles may be made in the above 
manner by laying the cement in shorter or 
longer sections, with joints between, or they may 
be made in molds, which would be preferable, 
although more labor is required. 
Figure 2 shows the process of making the 
tiles and collars ; a is the core which molds the 
interior of the tile, b is the mold itself, c the 
finished tile, d the core for molding the in¬ 
side of the caps or collars, e the mold in which 
they are shaped, and / the finished cap. The 
preparation of the cement is similar to that pre¬ 
viously described, excepting that a much larger 
proportion of sand may be used, and much 
coarser sand,or, indeed, coarse sifted coal-ashes, 
will answer in the place of sand. As there 
is no pressure of water to provide against, and 
us the more porous they are the better, the 
