extend its water system. On investigation, however, it was found that onetenth of the daily supply was lost. This timely discovery has enabled the Capital City to postpone an expenditure of $5,000,000 for another twenty years.

Under the circumstances it looks as if New York City with its waste, estimated from nearly half to nearly threequarters of its potential supply, was really under no necessity of building the Ashokan reservoir, for many years to come, at least.

By introducing meters, New York City is beginning to save some of this waste. The mean daily loss from the carelessness or indifference of householders, the meters show, amounted to 15,728,000 gallons. At the rate of ten cents a hundred cubic feet this means a saving in money of about $1,825,000 annually.

The waste by householders, however, is but a mere drop in the bucket. Underground leakage is the chief cause. Recent tests in New York with an instrument called the pitometer show this. The pitometer measures how much water is actually running at any given time. through the mains, by measuring the velocity of the flow.

Greater New York's total water supply, estimated at one billion gallons daily, comes from twenty-five originally different systems. In 1890, New York City had a population of one and a half millions. Since then Long Island and Staten Island boroughs including Brooklyn-have been added. Greater New York has thus inherited the various water plants of these formerly independent municipalities. Parts of the system are very old indeed, and the causes of the escape of the water vary from abandoned service pipes and dead ends to fractured mains and imperfect connections.

This condition of water waste and water leakage can be found almost everywhere. Boston's waste is placed at fifty per cent, Washington's before 1910 was placed at about ten per cent. Of Chicago, it is stated that T. C. Phillips, Engineer of Water Surveys, reported in 1908, that "the total loss of water in the districts surveyed amounts to from seventy to eighty per cent of the total supply." Today the western and southwestern areas of Chicago,-scattered out over the prairies, are deficient in water supply. In many of the apartment buildings,even those comparatively close to Lake Michigan the source of the city's supply not a drop is available during a large portion of the day, in summer time, on the third and higher floors. The Stockyards section is largely without protection from fire through this lack. About a year ago, Fire Chief Horan and a number of his men lost their lives while fighting a conflagration in the Stockyards district. Want of water with which to fight the flames was given as the principal reason for this unnecessary sacrifice.

Los Angeles, the pride of southern California, has recently completed one of the most remarkable water systems in the world. Across the Mojave desert the precious fluid is brought through flumes, siphons, and tunneled mountains, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, from the Owens river in the Sierras, twelve thousand feet above sea level. "A long look for water," as they say in the desert. This system can deliver from two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions gallons daily. Its cost is close to twenty-five millions. And yet, will Los Angeles be as negligent as New York, Boston, and Chicago have been, or will she follow the example of that vigilant and justly famous little city, Kalamazoo, Michigan?

THE "PUCKERLESS"
PERSIMMON

THE popularity of the oriental persim

mon is not nearly so great as it deserves to be, and a delicious, nutritious, easily grown and readily profit

able fruit is almost un-
known in the American
markets. The chief
reason is that one
thinks of a persimmon
as a small, squashy
fruit of many seeds
and disagreeable
pucker; Americans.
have not learned to
prepare the fruit as
do the Japanese, re-
moving the tannin
and leaving it al-
most as firm and
hard as apples. So
far, the few experi-

ments made have

none excepting the one described has proved entirely successful. If the fruit comes in contact with the fumes of alcohol, it will appear to be all right when the package is opened, but will, in a few days, turn black and be utterly ruined. The casks used are made from Cryptomeria wood, which closely resembles cypress, and is quite soft and tasteless. If, upon first opening a cask, the fruit is found not quite cured, the head is replaced as quickly as possible, two small holes are made and blown through, to remove the outer air from the top layer of fruit, and the holes tightly plugged.

not demonstrated that the native American "wild" persimmon can be produced with entire success.

The method followed in Japan and

China for removing the tannin and making hard and firm the ripe persimmon is, scientifically, somewhat crude, but eminently practical and effective. The ripe fruit is merely packed in casks. which have contained sake, the Japanese wine, the head of the cask being immediately put in place and the package made air-tight. If the sake previously contained in the casks was of pure quality, not adulterated with alcohol, the fruit, in five, eight, or fifteen days, according as the weather may be quite warm or less so, may be removed from the cask in a firm, sound condition, and may be handled and shipped in about the same manner as apples. The flavor is fine, and the astringency has entirely disappeared. Many other processing

A practical test of the mixture has been made in a vault in the United States

treasury, at Washington.

This vault had been rendered useless by seepage, which it had been found impossible to stop. A lining of concrete, to which ten per cent of oil was added in the mixing, has made the vault perfectly water-tight. Other practical tests in other places have

AN OUTDOOR SALESROOM

den is covered with a pergola and provided with electric lights for use in the

that is engaged in the business of selling records for phonographs, has shown how waste land may be turned into an asset. The back court of its place of business has been planted as a garden, and set out with rare and beautiful plants about a fountain. Comfortable benches have been provided for patrons, and Navajo rugs are placed on the seats and about the grounds when the weather is fair. Curios such as In

dian metates of

than in the show rooms of the store, for quite a number of customers, in charge of a couple of salesinen, can be waited on at a time, and the beautiful surroundings tempt the patron to linger and listen to the records and order more than he first intended to purchase. As the public is made welcome, whether buying or not, many office workers in the neighborhood drop in during the lunch hour, and a large proportion of them The garden quickly

stone and odd bronzes from the Orient are scattered about, and the whole gar

become customers. paid for its first cost.