August, 1911 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
123 
Fire Fighting and Telephoning 
Both Need Team Work, Modern Tools 
and an Ever Ready Plant, Everywhere 
saved in the soil, growing plants have ex¬ 
hausted it. You must, after all, lose the 
battle, or irrigate. 
Now, to the average mind that word irri¬ 
gate means vast reservoirs costing millions 
of Uncle Sam's money, and miles of pipes 
and sluices and ditches and flood-gates— 
an undertaking of the titanic West. But 
it need not suggest these things. It means 
simply applying water to your plants in 
such quantity that it will be of some real 
use—the ordinary watering is frequently 
worse than useless; for unless enough 
water is applied to soak down into the soil, 
the results are a crusted, packed surface, 
and roots tempted up to the hot top soil. 
With their inexplicable instinct, they will 
turn toward food or moisture as surely as 
a sunflower follows the sun. 
The principle of irrigating involves only 
three factors, and they may be of very 
simple solution. First, an adequate sup¬ 
ply of water; second, a suitable means of 
transporting it; and lastly, some method 
of applying it properly. 
Probably many of the readers of this 
magazine have city water, with enough 
force from their three-quarter-inch pipes 
to run a good stream through an inch hose. 
For them the problem is a very simple one 
—unless some day when perhaps a few 
dollars’ worth of extra hose is left by the 
department store's wagon, there comes a 
short notice from headquarters stating that 
there is enough water left to last thirteen 
days more, and will every one please be 
careful. 
There are, however, many houses in 
which the water supply comes through a 
small pipe from a well or spring, and while 
the supply is constant, the amount of water 
on hand at any one time is very limited. 
In such instances some method of storing 
up the water until a suitable quantity for 
irrigating is on hand, becomes necessary. 
Either an open tank, elevated at least sev¬ 
eral feet above the spot to be irrigated, or 
a compressed air tank will answer the pur¬ 
pose. Or if the water is in a large cistern, 
or deep well, a good pump will save the 
necessity of a storage tank, the water being 
applied to the soil directly from the supply 
pipe. It may be operated either by hand, 
or a gasoline engine or electric motor—the 
system, of course, depending upon the 
amount of water required and other cir¬ 
cumstances. 
The cost of the various items men¬ 
tioned above is, of course, of interest to 
the persons investigating an irrigation 
system. A metal or wood tank will cost 
from $15 up, according to size. A cheap 
and practical substitute may be had by 
uniting several barrels or hogsheads, 
which can be bought, without heads, for 
from 35 cents to $1.50 apiece. Short 
pieces of iron or lead pipe inserted a few 
inches from the bottom are used to con¬ 
nect them. The iron pipes are made tight 
by means of washers and lock-nuts, and 
the lead pipes by being driven through 
into the barrels half an inch or so, and 
then reamed out and hammered down 
tight. In this way a tank of considerable 
Twenty men with twenty buckets can put out a 
small fire if each man works by himself. 
If twenty men form a line and pass the buckets 
from hand to hand, they can put out a larger fire. 
But the same twenty men on the brakes of a 
“hand tub” can force a continuous stream of 
water through a pipe so fast that the bucket 
brigade seems futile by comparison. 
The modern firefighter has gone away beyond 
the “hand tub.” Mechanics build a steam fire 
engine, miners dig coal to feed it, workmen build 
reservoirs and lay pipes so that each nozzleman 
and engineer is worth a score of the old- 
fashioned firefighters. 
The big tasks of today require not only team 
work but also modern tools and a vast system 
of supply and distribution. 
The Bell telephone system is an example of 
co-operation between 75,000 stockholders, 
120,000 employees and six million subscribers. 
But to team work is added an up-to-date plant. 
Years of time and hundreds of millions of money 
have been put into the tools of the trade ; into the 
building of a nation-wide network of lines; into 
the training of men and the working out of meth¬ 
ods. The result is the Bell system of today—a 
union of men, money and machinery, to provide 
universal telephone service for ninety million 
people. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
One Policy One System Universal Service 
Dexter Brothers’ 
English Shingle Stains 
Bring out the grain of the wood and prolong its life. 
50 per cent, cheaper and far more artistic than paint. 
The best possible finish for shingles, half timbering, 
clapboards, and all outside woodwork. 
Made of finest English ground colors, linseed oil and 
special Dexter preserving oils. 
Write for booklet and stained miniature shingles. 
Rexter Brothers Co.. 115 Broad St, Boston, Mass. 
BRANCHES: 
1133 Broadway. New York. 218 Race 8t., Philadelphia. Pa. 
At so Makers of PETR IF A X CEMENT CO A TING 
AGENTS-F. H. McDonald, Grand Rapids; H. 
M. Hooker Co., Chicago; E. B. Totten, St. Louis; 
F. T. Crowe & Co., Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma, 
Wash., and Portland, Ore.; Sherman Kimball, San 
Francisco; Hoffschlager «fc Co., Honolulu • and 
DEALERS. 
Stain Paint 
Stain brings out 
the grain, gives 
a soft, velvety 
appearance. 
Paint hides the 
grain,spoils the 
natural surface 
of the wood. 
In writing to advertisers please mention House and Garden. 
