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benches or tables, for potting cuttings or bulbs, sowing seeds, preparing cuttings, niimbcr-
tiillies, painting and naming them, preparing props for plants, hooks for layers, lists for
wall-trees, making biiskets, wattled hurdles, and a great variety of other operations pcr-
fonncd in winter, or severe weather, when little or nothing can be done in the open air.
It may by some be thought too great a refinement to warm such sheds ; but if work is
really expected to be done in them during cold weather, the saving will soon be rendered
obvious.
2201. I n sm all gardens, where there are no hothouses, one small building is generally
devoted to all the purposes for which the office, seed, tool, and fruit rooms, and working-
sheds, arc nsed. It should be fitted up with some degi'ee of attention to the vai-ious
uses for which it is designed, and a fire-place never omitted.
2202. B u ild in g s f o r ra is in g w ater. There arc various contrivances for procuring
water in garden-scenery, where it is not found in springs, rills, or lakes ; and where it is
found, of collecting and retaining it. The principal of tliese are wells, conduit-pipcs or
drains, and reservoirs.
2203. W e lls are vertical excavations in the earth ; always of such a depth as to penetrate
a porous stratum charged -with water, and mostly as much deeper as to form a
reservoir in this stratum or in that beneath it. A well otherwise excavated is a mere
tank for the water which may ooze into it from the surface strata. The form of the
well is gcneraliy circular, and to prevent the crumbling down or falling in of the sides,
this circle is lined with timber, masonry, or zones of metal. The earthy materials being
thus pressed on equally in every point of this circle, are kept in equilibrium. When
the well is not very deep, and in finn ground, this casing is built from the bottom to the
top, after the excavation is finished ; but when the soil is loose, the excavation deep, or
its diameter considerable, it is built on the top in zones, sometimes sepai-ated by horizontal
sections of thin oak boards, which, with proper management, sink down as the
excavation proceeds. There are various other modes, which those who follow this dc-
pai'tmcnt of architecture are sufficiently conversant with. Tlie height to which the
water rises in the well depends on the height of the strata which supply the water ;
occasionally it rises to the sm-face, but generally not witliin a considerable distance. In
this case it is raised by buckets and levers, by buckets and hand-machines placed over
the well, or by buckets raised by horse-machines.
2204. A n A rte s ia n w e ll is a “ cylindrical perforation bored vertically down through
one or more of tho geological strata of the eartli, till it passes into a porous gravel bed
containing water, placed under such incumbent pressure as to make it mount up through
the perforation, cither to the sm-fiice or to a liciglit convenient for the operation of a
pump. In the first case, these wells are called spouting or overflowing. This property
is not directly proportional to the depth, as might at first sight be supposed, but to the
subjacent pressure upon the water. We do not know exactly the period at which the
borer or sound was applied to tlie investigation of subterranean fountains, but we believe
the first ovei-flowing wells were made in the ancient French province of Aitois, whence
the name of Ai'tesian.” (U re ’s D ic tio n a ry o f A rts , &c., p. 57.) These wells have been
long well known on the continent of Europe, but, it is said, they have only been used in
England since the year 1791 ; the first wells of the kind being sunk in someof the small
villages near London. (Sec Jam ieson’s M echanics o f F lu id s , p. 463.)
2205. Th e process o f boring the earth f u r w a te r is now very generally practised where-
ever land springs are deficient. The operation consists in fixing an insti-umcnt called
an auger “ to long iron rods screwed on to each other, which are turned by the action
of men with a cross bm*. The operation is usually begun by digging a well 6 or
8 feet deep, in tlio centre of which the boring instmmcnt is placed. The nature of
this instrument depends upon that of the stratum to be penetrated, and it is changed
accordingly when a stratum of a different degree of hardness is ai-rived at. Hoft clay,
or loose sandy soil, is penetrated by an auger in the form of a hollow cylinder, with a
longitudinal slit (a in fig . 662.), or without a slit. Tliis auger is screwed into the rod,
with a cross handle turned by the men. If the ground is very hard, a chisel (A) is
screwed to the rod, and is turned round in the same manner. But to assist the action
of this tool, an elastic pole (c) is connected by a chain with the borer, and made fast at
one end, while a labourer keeps continually giving to the other end an up and down
motion, which, corresponding to the beating motion of the men below, helps to diminish
their labour. When the ground is thus perforated as far as the chisel and its rod will
go, they must be withdrawn, in order to introduce a cylindrical auger (d ) which has a
valve within opening upwards ; this, passing through the rubbish loosened by the chisel,
brings it up, as it rises up through tlie valve, but cannot return. Sometimes an auger
like that sliown at e is used, consisting of a hollow cone having a spiral cutting edge
winding round it. Tools of other forms are likewise employed to suit particular piu'-
poscs. In order to raise the rod with the auger wlicn required, either to change it or to
take out the loose matter, a standard is made with three poles over the well, to which a
tackle is fixed. The usual length of
each rod is about 7 ft.; and length
upon length are screwed together as the
boring proceeds. The chisel is generally
about 4 in. wide, and the gouge 3^ in.
Raising the rods and displacing them is
effected every time the auger has to be
withdrawn, which occupies a considerable
time. If the borers meet with rocks,
their labour is much increased, as they
can get through only by repeatedly beating
the tool up and down, to pulverise
the rocks. When the borers arrive at
the spring of water wliich has been
expected, the hole is made smooth by
passing up and down a rod for tliis piu'-
pose, and a pipe made of tin or other
metal is forced down in lengths wliich
are soldered together as they go down.
This keeps the hole open, and prevents
the admixture of water from any of the
small springs in the side. Upon the
whole, the boring is perfoi-med with more facility than could be imagined by those who
never tried it. Borings arc now made to the depth of several hundred feet, which
supply a plentiful stream of water. If the original source from which the water comes
be higher than the surface of the ground where the boring is made, the water will
overflow; but if the soui'ce be at a lower level than the boring, then the water will
not rise to the surface of the ground, and it will be necessary to dig a well to the
depth to which the spring will rise; and this well seiwcs as a reservoir to contain the
water, which must be raised to the surface by a pump.” (E n c y c . o f D om estic Econom y,
p. 542.)
2206. Pum p s are of various kinds; as the lifting pump ; the forcing pump, for veiy
deep wells; the suction pump; and Sicbe’s rotatory pump, for shallow wells which do
not exceed 33 ft. in depth. A good pump for gardens, where the water is not to be
raised above 28 ft. or 30 ft. in depth, is that of Robertson Buchanan (author of a Tre a tise
on H e a tin g by Steam, &c.), because this pump, which also acts by the pressm-c of the
atmosphere, will raise drainings of dunghills, or even water thickened by mud, sand,
or gravel. ShaUlcr’s pump is another of the same kind. Aust’s (of Hoxton) c u rvilin e a r
pump is preferable even to Buchanan’s. The advantages depend on the curvilinear form
of the barrel, which allows, and indeed obliges, the rod, the handle, and tlic lever, on
wliich it works, to be all in one piece. Hence simplicity, cheapness, precision of action,
more water discharged in proportion to the diameter of the baiTcl, and less frequent
repairs. (R e p e rto ry o f A rts , Jan. 1821.) Perkins’s square-baiTciled pump is a powerful
engine (Lo nd on J o u rn a l, &c.) ; bnt for tliis and other contrivances for raising water wc
must refer to works on hydraulics.
2207. Reservoirs f o r w a te r may be either tanks, cisterns, basins, or ponds. Tanks and
cisterns are sometimes old ban-els, well tan-ed or painted, and then sunk in the soil;
occasionally they are framed boxes of timber, the joints filled with oxide of lead and oil,
and the whole pitched over, and then placed where they ai-e to remain either above or ou
a level with the surface.
2208. Ponds, o r large basins ( fig . 663.), arc reservoirs formed in excavations, either in
soils retentive of water, or rendered so by the use of clay. Tliis clay is tempered, or
made compact and tenacious, by working it so as to exclude the larger globules of air
and water, and intimately to unite all its parts with as much moisture as leaves it plastic.
The bottom and sloping sides of the excavation being smoothed and made fii-m, this
tempered clay or puddle is to be spread evenly over it, from margin to margin, about a
i :
663
foot tliick, and well compacted by beating. To preserve it from injury by the pressure
of feet, or other accidents, it should be covered with gravel, in thickness according to the