The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Work

NG A TRO

gh two pound in that little crick b

not satisfied with this view. If good wheat can be grown by modern methods, and wormy apples prevented by spraying, why shouldn't trout be caught in grandpa's old brook? No reason in the world. In between you and gran

changed that the brook that used to be perennial is now only semi-annual, going dry in time of drought, it will be necessary to build a series of dams to make sure that the water will always be deep eno

The brook ought to supply enough food for all, but I have seen fish so plentiful in well-cared-for streams that it was necessary to feed them. We would take great pans of specially prepared food to the water's edge; as we threw it broadcast on the surface the trout would leap entirely out of the water in their eagerness to get the morsels. We did not fee

h by Hele

This Stream When Gr

fish will eat little fish, trout will eat trout, so will bass, pickerel, and su

it is no more difficult than many of the occupations boys engage in, chicken raising, bee-keeping, and photography, for instance. Visit a fish hatchery if you have one near, get all t

FOR TROU

. A spring is capable of furnishing living room for a large family of trout. You can sell live trout at sixty-five cents to a dollar a pou

ish can be bought from a fish hatchery in the form of eggs, fry, fingerlings, yearlings, or even larger. The government will stock your streams for you free, but it imposes ce

MING A

ar it on their cross-country marches from the Catskills to the Blue Ridge. They call it "The Old Indian Spring." Sometimes they tell hair-raising tales of midnight adventures and hair-breadth escapes, till you wonder that the spring itself never turned red with the spilt blood. From stori

spring for their success. Later generations of pioneers have passed that way and refreshed themselves with its sweet water. As years went by, the spring fell into disuse and gushe

Its only protection was a sort of fence of poles to keep the cattle out. To approach it you had to leap from hillock to hillock, in constant danger of losing your balance and sinking in a deep mud hole. The spring bubbled up clear as crystal in a most unromantic hole in the ground; its overflow simply spread out on the ground b

Nobody knows what contamination is possible to a spring whose sources are mystery. Campe

e out enough cubic feet of soil to make a basin of that capacity. Decide next what to do with the surplus. Your basin is not designed to hold the spring's daily output. If the spring is in a ravine, nothi

ure to want to sit on it and watch the water, for one thing. Then, too, you want a protection against surface

A SWIMM

Every outdoor club ought to have one as a special feature. The same dam that holds back the water for the skating pond may serve in summer to make the swimming hole. I

the margin of streams and they grow tremendously. A frame of poles covered with wild cucumber or morning glory will make a good screen the first season while the permanent trees and shrubs are growing. You don't need to swim all you

it includes even your mother! Do mothers know anything about swimming? Some of them do, already, only they never get a chance to keep in practice; but they like it. It is precisely as natural for girls and mothers to enjoy the water as it is for boys and

ADE SKAT

ir own want of ingenuity to blame, if they live in the Jack Frost belt. Any l

all round the level plot. This board should be

d freeze. When it comes, and the ground is like rock, give the word "all hands to the pumps." Let on enough water to cover the surface, then let it freeze. If

e worn places if you use a hose, or

a pond before dry weather comes on and holding the water at a higher level than it would naturally have. It is perfectly astonishing what a small dam will do, if cleverly placed. Study the work of beavers if you kno

have a natural swimming pool, a skating pond, or a trout brook. Maybe if

OF RECLAIM

this property ran a well-wooded glen, the upper end of which was very wet and swampy. This condition was due to several small springs emerging from the ground at the head of the gl

de is a concrete seat where one can conveniently sit and get a drink. My father and I did all the work except part of the ditch digging. From this basin was laid a one and a quarter-inch iron pipe which carried the water down the glen a distance of about sixty feet to a hydraulic ram. This ram is always running, and is made to go by the constant pressure of the water from the spring basin. The water is forced through a half-inch iron pipe to a large tank in the attic of the house situat

d flowers of many sorts. In the wetter places, ferns and pink and yellow lady slippers were planted, and in the dryer are

Nee

ARD SWIM

ork if they were shown what to do. With the decision made that a swimming pool must be had, a council was held to decide on ways and means. The oldest boy, aged thirteen, stoutly maintained that he could do the entire work himself, while the youngest, aged four, was equally confident that the job was entirely within his capacity. It was finall

g this around the entire margin of the excavation the level was raised about one and one half feet for a distance of eight feet on all sides. Th

l. The end of each piece of timber was also sunk in the earth at the bottom of the pit for about three inches, in order that it might be held firmly against the bank. Rough pine boards, free from cracks and knot holes, were then nailed to the timbers at the top only. These boards were twelve inches wide, and thus formed a border or rim all around the upper portion of

sides and bottom with cement, plastering this material directly upon the earth. The cement was mixed with sand, one part cement and two parts of sand, and was spread on wit

t was allowed to dry for two days; then the water was turned in. The water was supplied from the service pipe of our home near by, and as it is furnished by meter, we h

ork, not counting the bo

, 1 × 12

gh pine, 2 ×

ent at $1.50 p

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ose and fresh water run in. Once a week, however, about a handful of copper sulphate was tied up in a piece of cheese cloth and thrown into the pool, where it was whipped up a

e season even he could make some preliminary moves in that direction. The moral of the story is that if you have some youngsters, a back yard and a city water pipe yo

y T. G